Dordogne murder suspect back in France

Friday 24th July


The front page of the local regional daily, Sud Ouest carries a large photo of Neil Andrew Ludlam being escorted by a Gendarme in Perigueux, the Prefecture (county town) of the Dordogne. He has been named as the main suspect of the murder of his fellow British compatriot, Peter Fuller whose body was found at the latter’s house at Plaisance near Issigeac on June 27th.

The picture caption reads: “Le meurtrier presume mis en examen” the presumed murderer put under investigation.

Ludlam, aged 30, is reported to have come before a judge in Perigeux yesterday and is being held in detention while the case is being further investigated. Ludlam had been staying with Peter Fuller and fled his house shortly after his death. He drove to Bordeaux airport in one of Fuller’s cars, boarded a plane for England but was intercepted by the British police at Luton airport. After being held in detention Westminster Magistrates, according to Sud Ouest, have given “the green light” for his extradition to France.

Fuller had been found by his ex-wife in a pool of blood having been hit over the head several times with what the French police described as a “blunt instrument”. A retired oil industry executive, Peter Fuller had recently built an 18 hole golf course here in the Dordogne and the so called blunt instrument could have been a golf club or rather a five or seven iron!

There have been rumours that Ludlam had been working for Fuller and that there had been a violent row fuelled by alcohol. The police are trying to find clues to what the Sud Ouest describes as “certaines zones d’ombre”. Not least of these is the fact that Andrew Ludlam was found with a large sum of cash on his person when he was arrested at Luton airport.