Spencers' alimony and acrimony

Details of the divorce settlement offered by Earl Spencer to his estranged wife emerged yesterday as papers lodged in court described him as an "intolerant and angry" bully. Steve Boggan examines the claim and counterclaim and hears the response from England.

Earl Spencer has offered his estranged wife a pounds 292,682 settlement, a house worth pounds 244,000, a car, a monthly tax-free income of pounds 2,439 and full maintenance for their four children.

They were the precise details put before the High Court in Cape Town yesterday as the couple's preliminary divorce hearing rumbled into its fourth acrimonious day. The offer was being regarded in England as insufficient for a man with a personal wealth of pounds 6m and a family fortune of pounds 100m.

Details of the offer were given by Shelly-Ann Claircourt, one of the earl's lawyers, who described it as the largest ever made in South Africa. But it is by no means the biggest ever made in England, where Lady Spencer is applying to have the case heard.

"This offer made to Victoria [Lockwood] represents an unprecedented amount for a woman or wife in this country, particularly considering the brevity of this marriage," she said. The couple were married in 1989 and split five years later after Lady Spencer underwent five months of treatment for alcoholism and eating disorders.

It was during her treatment that she claims Earl Spencer had affairs with 12 women. He denies the allegation.

Miss Claircourt said the earl had given an undertaking that Lady Spencer's requirements could be reassessed by an English court should she ever decide to move home from Cape Town, where both parties live at present.

She, however, is pursuing a claim for pounds 3.75m. In support of that, Lady Spencer has submitted a sworn statement to the court in which she describes her husband as a domineering bully who ordered her not to attend the funeral of his sister, Diana, Princess of Wales, so he could attend with his latest partner, the model Josie Borain. The papers say he became "intolerable and angry and he increasingly criticised, undermined, bullied and belittled me until eventually I lost all confidence and became very scared of him". She claims she is broke, surviving on an overdraft of pounds 5,000.

Nicholas Mostyn, a British barrister specialising in family law, told the court that the earl's alleged extra-marital affairs would have no bearing on a settlement if the case were heard in England. "It takes three to commit adultery," he added. "... it is a symptom of a broken marriage."

In defence of Earl Spencer, David Horton-Fawkes, a childhood friend and now manager of the earl's British interests, said in a statement that Lady Spencer had been given kind and loving support from the earl, and had written to thank him for it.

"I know that Charles would never treat the mother of his four children in a mean or malicious manner," he said.