The Duke of Marlborough has appeared before a magistrates court and signalled his intention to plead not guilty to multiple charges of intentional strangulation involving his estranged wife.
Charles James Spencer-Churchill, 70, is accused of three separate incidents involving Edla Marlborough, 57, alleged to have taken place between November 2022 and January 2024. Prosecutors told High Wycombe magistrates court that the incidents followed arguments and included physical assaults in which the duke is said to have placed his hands around his wife's neck.
The first allegation relates to November 2022, when the court was told Spencer-Churchill struck Edla Marlborough several times during a dispute in their garden before strangling her. Further charges stem from incidents in April 2023 and January 2024, including claims that she was assaulted in a laundry room and later pushed onto a bed and strangled.
Appearing in the dock on Monday, the duke confirmed his name and date of birth and gave his address as Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. He indicated not guilty pleas to all three charges and was granted conditional bail ahead of a further hearing at Oxford crown court on 5 February, when formal pleas will be entered.
Spencer-Churchill, who inherited the title in 2014, married Edla in 2002 and the couple separated last year. Blenheim Palace, the family's ancestral home and birthplace of Winston Churchill, is owned by a charitable foundation and not by the duke personally.