Breaking: Duke of Marlborough Charged With Strangulation
The Duke of Marlborough faces intentional strangulation charges in a shocking case involving three alleged offences from 2022–2024, police confirm.
The Duke of Marlborough, formerly known as Jamie Blandford, has been charged with intentional strangulation.
Thames Valley Police reported that Charles James Spencer-Churchill, a relative of Sir Winston Churchill and Diana, Princess of Wales, has been charged with three offenses between November 2022 and May 2024.
The 70-year-old man has been summoned to appear at Oxford Magistrates' Court on Thursday following his arrest on May 13 last year.
The three charges of intentional strangulation, not resulting in death, allegedly occurred against the same man in Woodstock, Oxfordshire.
Spencer-Churchill, known to his family as Jamie, is the 12th Duke of Marlborough and a member of one of Britain's most aristocratic families. He has a long history of drug addiction.
Spencer-Churchill, a relative of wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill – a first cousin, three times removed – and also distantly related to Diana through the Spencer clan, inherited his dukedom in 2014 upon the death of his father, the 11th Duke of Marlborough.
Previously, the twice-married Spencer-Churchill was the Marquess of Blandford, also known as Jamie Blandford. His ancestral family home is the 300-year-old Blenheim Palace in Woodstock – the birthplace of Winston Churchill.
The Duke does not own the 18th-century Baroque palace and has no role in the operation of the residence and sprawling estate, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a popular tourist attraction with parkland designed by "Capability" Brown.
In 1994, the late Duke took legal action to ensure that his son and heir could not take control of the family seat. Blenheim is owned and managed by the Blenheim Palace Heritage Foundation. A spokesperson for the Foundation said: “The Blenheim Palace Heritage Foundation is aware that legal action has been initiated against the Duke of Marlborough. The Foundation cannot comment on these allegations, which relate to the Duke's personal conduct and private life, and which are part of ongoing criminal proceedings.
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“The Foundation is not owned or managed by the Duke of Marlborough, but is run by independent entities run by a board of trustees.”
King Charles hosted a reception for European leaders at Blenheim Palace in July 2024, and Queen Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, joined Spencer-Churchill for the unveiling of a statue of Winston Churchill in Blenheim's grounds in 2015.
The palace also witnessed the theft of a £4.75 million gold toilet in 2019, when a gang of thieves broke into the palace during a major burglary and stole a fully functioning 18-carat gold toilet.
Representatives for the Duke have been contacted for comment.
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