My dad gave his £1m fortune to ‘predator’ wife 39 years younger than him that I’d never met – but I took her on and WON

THE daughter of a millionaire has told how she took his “predator” wife to court over an inheritance row – and WON.

Jill Langley only learnt her dad Robert Harrington, 94, had married a mysterious woman when a hand written note arrived from ‘Chelsea’.

4

4

It would trigger a monster legal battle to wrestle back a £1 million estate which her ex-butcher dad handed to his new missus.

Speaking to MailOnline, Jill, 70, said: “He was always bragging about his money so if this was real, I knew immediately someone had targeted him for it.

“What kind of woman marries a man in his 90s if it’s not about money?”

Jill – who helped her dad build his business – hadn’t spoken to Robert for two years after he “lashed out” following the death of her mum Eileen.

In July 2020, four months after receiving the note, Jill visited Eileen’s grave in King’s Lynn, Norfolk.

But as she was walking through the cemetery, she stumbled across a “cheap wooden cross covered in weeds”.

To Jill’s horror, it had her dad’s name on it.

Robert had died just ten months after marrying Chelsea in June 2019, a mysterious new wife 39 years his junior who Jill had never met.

Jill then discovered he had left everything his new wife, real name Guixang Qin, 54, and her son.

It transpired the will had been written just weeks before Robert died of sepsis and when Jill rushed round to her parents’ large four bed home, it was locked up and no one was in.

The former antiques dealer sought legal advice, believing Mrs Qin had targeted her dad in a “predatory marriage” and his new will was not made in good faith.

The case eventually wound up in Central London County Court which heard the true nature of the couple’s marriage.

Mrs Qin said she met the “adorable” retired butcher after spotting a local newspaper advert he placed in late 2018 “offering free food and drink at Christmas”.

The pair met for the first time in January 2019, moving in together in February with Robert proposing the following month.

At the trial, Mrs Qin accepted that their relationship developed “extremely quickly” but denied that she was motivated because “she saw an opportunity to make money”.

During the trial, Jill’s barrister James McKean suggested Mrs Qin had received payments totalling up to £350,000 from Robert and buried him in a pauper’s grave because she only wanted his money.

During the trial, Mrs Qin wore a red cheque coat and “dangly earrings” Jill believes were bought with her mum’s pension.

Jill said of the cash: “We heard she had withdrawn at least £300,000 of my dad’s money over the months she’d known him, sometimes just cash withdrawals of a few hundred pounds.

“But other times she was transferring up to £40,000 a time into her bank.”

Mrs Qin denied this and said she received about £100,000 from Robert, telling the judge the pair had embarked on “a loving and sexual relationship” and that he “wanted to look after her”.

Recorder McAllister said the figures might suggest “there was an element of salary/payment for care” adding this was “potentially reinforced by the reference to ‘care’ on some payments”.

Mrs Qin denied being a carer and insisted the payments were legitimate in the circumstances of a romantic relationship.

But the romance claims were slammed by Mr McKean, who added: “You haven’t even bothered to maintain the grave properly.”

Closing the trial last week, a judge ruled that “significant impropriety” had taken place in the writing of Robert’s new will.

Mrs Qin also had “undue influence” on her nonagenarian husband who lacked the mental capacity to understand what the new will entailed.

As Robert’s will was overturned, he is now deemed to have died without one, meaning his estate will get divided up under intestacy rules.

As a surviving spouse, Mrs Qin automatically receives around £475,000 but as she lost the case, faces lawyers’ bills of around £139,000.

She also faces eviction.

Jill, who has two grown-up sons, will get around £200,000.

She insists the four year court case was “never about the money” but about justice for herself and her family.

She branded the attempted inheritance heist “theft by the back door” and wishes she stood up to her dad who “abused both me and mum financially and emotionally”.

Fabian Hamilton MP, who was involved with the consultation, said: “This case demonstrates the devastating effects that a predatory marriage can have.”

4

4

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk