Edward ‘Fast Edie’ Davenport secured a victory at court after police tried to shut his sex parties down
(Picture: Heathcliff O’Malley/Shutterstock)
Playboy Edward Davenport has managed to stop police from shutting down his £15 million London mansion known for notorious sex parties.
The Met Police had issued’Fast Edie’, as he’s known, with a closure notice after dozens of complaints over several years from neighbours about noise, drug taking and parking issues.
There were also two allegations of rape at 32 Portland Place, in Marylebone, City of London Magistrates’ Court heard.
One is currently under investigation, while the other was dropped due to a lack of evidence.
Meanwhile the house been linked to two murders, including that of bouncer Tudor Simionov, killed when he tried to stop gatecrashers from attending a party in 2019.
Three men were jailed for the 33-year-old’s murder the following year.
A second incident, that happened in Lewisham but involved guests believed to have attended one of Davenport’s parties, is being investigated.
Police have been dispatched to the address 63 times over the last few years, magistrates were told.
Davenport and fellow revellers dressed up for Halloween (Picture: Instagram/ @lord_edward_davenport)
Davenport, now 58, gained notoriety for hosting lavish sex parties at a number 33 Portland Place, a 24 bedroom property he owned across the road.
He was jailed for nearly eight years for a £4.5m ‘advance fee’ fraud in 2011 and served just three years before falling ill and undergoing two kidney transplants.
He was forced to sell number 33 for £27m in 2015 to settle a court order to pay the Serious Fraud Office £14m.
But he owns the freehold at number 32 where it’s alleged he continued to host all-night parties, including a 300-guest sex do called Passing Fancies in 2022.
Latest London news
Neighbours claim they have suffered years of extremely loud music, revellers taking drugs and vomiting in the street.
Davenport flew back from Thailand to successfully challenge the closure order at City of London Magistrates’ Court.
He told magistrates he entertained friends at the property,which has seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms and large reception areas, but denied hosting all night parties.
He said: ‘I have got quite a high social profile, I like going out and people would come back to the property with me.’
Davenport posting on Instagram (Picture: Instagram/Edward Davenport)
Davenport said he hosts art shows every month with around 100 people but said the gatherings would not go on beyond midnight.
He also denied any drug-taking at the mansion.
‘I am very anti-drugs, I don’t drink, I have had two kidney transplant,’ he said.
‘Nobody would be smoking marijuana in my house.
‘I smell marijuana on the street corner occasionally but definitely not in my house. I am so very, very anti-marijuana.’
Davenport claimed security staff at his parties are all SIA (Security Industry Authority) registered.
PC Hannah Fordham, a Neighbourhood officer with the Met Police, earlier described the suspected Lewisham murder.
She said: ‘A group of three tourists attended the location for a party, they then were followed from the party to their AirBnB, the people got out of the car, there were two females and one male.
‘He tried to protect them as these two people tried to rob them.
‘As a result off him trying to protect them, he was bottled in the neck which resulted in death.’
PC Fordham also referred to the two alleged rapes.
One complaint, relating to an incident in a lavatory at the property, was withdrawn due to lack of evidence, while the other remains under investigation.
‘The most recent one happened in July, this was an allegation of rape, this is currently under investigation still, the allegation states that it happened within the bathroom of 32 Portland Place,’ she said.
Davenport in 2011 (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)
‘The allegation details that the female victim met someone at the party at 32 Portland Place, he then offered her cocaine.
‘She took the cocaine, he then offered her into one of the bathrooms, she then blacked out.
‘The next day, she then noticed she had ripped underwear.’
But Davenport insisted that nothing illegal happens at his house.
‘I don’t take drugs, I don’t let anybody in my house take drugs. I have seen people smoking marijuana, they are not from my house.
‘I am absolutely certain there is no illegal activity (at the parties).’
He said he would have spoken to neighbours if they had approached him.
‘I absolutely would have done, I would go out of my way to appease them and accommodate them,’ he told the court.
Mark Warwick, KC, representing Davenport, said in his closing speech that the closure order was ‘unnecessary’.
He said: ‘It is quite wrong that this gentleman should find he can’t use his main house, particularly when its main house in London and has been for years.
‘You heard the witnesses, you are best positioned judge for whether there is a culture difference between a partygoer like my client and the witnesses who’ve given evidence for the applicants in relation to this.’
Delivering the verdict, magistrate Mr Gowlett said: ‘We’re here today to hear an application for a closure order of 32 Portland Place in London, we heard evidence on behalf of the applicants.
‘Witnesses describe seeing evidence of drug use, parking issues and excessive noise.
‘We also heard about 63 computer aided dispatch calls to the police, and a number of serious alleged crimes.
‘Having listened carefully to all the evidence and arguments, we do not find the case for closure has been proved on balance of probability, and therefore refuse the order that is sought.’
Mr Warwick had asked for the court to reimburse Davenport £124,000 spent on disputing the closure order.
A lawyer representing the Met Police objected and said it was ‘the worst case I’ve come across in 16 years of doing it.
‘There has been a rape in the address, a potential death connected to the address and they’ve requested £124,000.’
Mr Gowlett decided against granting a costs order.
Davenport has been throwing parties since the 1980s and founded the raucous Gatecrashers Ball when he was 20.
The former public schoolboy and self-styled lord was handed his first prison sentence at Southwark Crown Court in 1990 when he got nine months for VAT fraud.
The closure order would have stopped anyone who wasn’t living at the property from entering it.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.