Disinherited daughter in court fight over millionaire dad’s ‘predatory marriage’
THE disinherited only daughter of a millionaire butcher is fighting in court over her 94-year-old dad’s will, claiming he was lured into marriage by his carer.
Robert Harrington died in May 2020 – just 11 months after marrying Guixiang Qin, 54. Mr Harrington, who lived an isolated life had buried his first wife of 66 years, Eileen, in January 2018.
In March 2020, two months before his death, he made a new will, leaving everything to bride and cutting out his only child, Jill Langley, 70. She is seeking to overturn the will claiming her father was duped into a “predatory marriage”.
She accused Ms Qin of exerting undue influence on her dad to pocket his estimated £1million fortune. In court, Ms Langley’s lawyer James McKean claimed the widower was too mentally frail to understand what was going on. On top of not even being able to pronounce his bride’s name, ailing Mr Harrington, of Kings Lynn, Norfolk, was “unable to even stand for a photo on his wedding day,” his daughter told the court.
Lawyers for Ms Qin refute the claims. She denies she was merely a carer and said Mr Harrington proposed after they embarked on “a loving and sexual relationship,” leaving her everything because he “wanted to look after her”.
Mr McKean told Central London County Court that the widower ended up in an “ill-main- tained grave” separate to where he had wished to lie next to Eileen.
Giving evidence, Ms Langley said: “There was never any doubt I would be the sole recipient of my parents’ inheritance.”
She claims her dad had been displaying “strange behaviour” when he moved to Kings Lynn in 2015, after “fortifying” his home with CCTV, her barrister added. Medical evidence suggested he was “most likely suffering from a paranoid delusional disorder”, he claimed.
The last time Ms Langley saw her dad was at her mum’s funeral in 2018 when she recalled him looking “frail, vulnerable and rambling”.
She said the first she knew of his marriage was when she got a note from Ms Qin in March 2020, reading: “Just to let you know Dad married again last year.”
Ms Qin’s barrister Richard Buston said: “The claimant did not speak with the deceased for years before his death.” The trial continues.