Handyman’s claim over lover’s £10m is thrown out by judge
‘Thoroughly dishonest’
A HANDYMAN who had an affair with a wealthy divorcee yesterday had his claim to her £10million fortune rejected. Former RAF serviceman Jason Patrick insisted Daphne McKinley – the 61-year- old ex-wife of Formula One racing legend Guy Edwards – had promised to share her riches after they fell in love and became engaged.
The 46-year- old started off doing odd jobs and living above the garage of Miss McKinley’s mansion in 2003.
The pair became ‘good friends and companions with the occasional intimacy or sex’ but the relationship started to break down in 2008. Mr Patrick first went to court to claim a £3.5million share of the property developer’s fortune in 2014. He argued he deserved a cut after helping create her lucrative portfolio.
A High Court judge rejected his arguments but he was granted permission to appeal.
Court of Appeal judges yesterday sent him packing again, describing him as a ‘thoroughly dishonest witness’.
They ruled that he was simply Miss McKinley’s employee and good friend with whom she occasionally had sex.
At first living in a flat above the garage at Miss McKinley’s country home near Henley-on-Thames, it was not long before Mr Patrick was invited to move in to her spare room. He told the High Court in 2014 they had a ‘whirlwind romance’ and that she was the first to raise the subject of marriage, ‘proposing to him on several occasions’. He claimed they eventually exchanged Irish Claddagh rings after he proposed to her on holiday. Miss McKinley, whose 26- year- old son Sean died in a motor racing accident in 2013, previously agreed she had a ‘dalliance’ with the Yorkshireman but said his claim they became engaged was nonsense.
She made clear from the start that ‘theirs was a relationship of employer-employee good friends and companions who became – with the occasional intimacy or sex’, the High Court heard. But Mr Patrick said she promised him a share of her mansion, which was sold for £6.75million in 2008.
He also claimed stakes in an investment property in London, worth £695,000, and her £2million villa in Cap d’Ail in the south of France.
He said he had worked hard on the properties and that she owed much of her success as a property developer to him.
Lord Justice David Richards yesterday said Miss McKinley was successful in her own right and never had any interest in a committed Mr £9.5million Miss Patrick. McKinley, in relationship cash who and received assets with after her divorce, was understood to have been determined to never marry again. Dismissing Mr Patrick’s case in 2014, Judge Nigel Gerald said his claim to have lived with Miss McKinley as man and wife was a lie. Challenging the decision before the Court of Appeal, Mr Patrick claimed he had been denied a fair hearing. Rejecting his complaints, Lord Justice Davis defended the previous judge, saying: ‘Over and again, he found Patrick to be a thoroughly dishonest witness.’