Daughter, 70, left out of her 94-year-old father’s £1m will tells court his new bride 39 years his junior was only after ‘one thing

A daughter who was left out of her father’s £1million will says his new wife who was 39 years his junior was after ‘one thing – his estate’.

Jill Langley says her father Robert Harrington was lured into a ‘predatory marriage’ by his 54-year-old carer Guixiang Qin and lacked full ‘testamentary capacity’ to cut his only child out of his will.

The 94-year-old, of Kings Lynn in Norfolk, died in May 2020 – just 11 months after marrying Mrs Qin and two months after changing his will to leave his entire fortune estimated to be around £1million to his new bride.

Mrs Langley, whose mother Eileen died in January 2018, says her parents both ‘idolised’ her and shared a ‘close and loving relationship’ with before their deaths and accused Mrs Qin of exerting undue influence on her ailing father in order to pocket his fortune.

Mrs Langley claimed that her father was unable to pronounce his bride’s name and in such poor physical shape in his advanced years that he was ‘unable to even stand for a photo on his wedding day’. 

Mrs Qin denies she was merely a carer and insists that Mr Harrington proposed after they embarked on ‘a loving and sexual relationship,’ leaving her everything because he ‘wanted to look after her’.

Speaking at Central London County Court, Mrs Langley told the judge, Recorder Robert McAllister: ‘What would a 54-year-old woman see in a man of 93 who could have died the day after their marriage? There’s only one thing and that was his estate.’

But lawyers for Ms Qin cross-examining her claimed Mr Harrington and his daughter were already effectively estranged by the time Mrs Qin came on the scene having suffered a ‘total breakdown in relations’.

Mrs Langley was challenged about her relationship with her eccentric and volatile father in his later years, who the court heard had installed TV surveillance cameras and ‘fortifications’ in his home at North Farm, Gayton Road, Kings Lynn, to the point where it was ‘almost like Fort Knox’.

Ms Qin’s barrister, Richard Buston quizzed her about her relationship with Mr Harrington, focusing on his behaviour following the death of Mrs Langley’s mother and his wife of 66 years in January 2018 – after which she said her father became increasingly quick-tempered.

Mrs Langley, who had helped her father build up and run his thriving butcher’s business, said she received an ‘awful letter’ soon after her mother’s funeral in which he bizarrely accused her of stealing a family photo album.

Soon afterwards things fell completely silent between her and Mr Harrington, she told the court, adding: ‘within a couple of weeks everything went dead. It was as if he didn’t exist. Everything was locked up and you couldn’t get in and out’.

‘So you are saying that he cut you out?’ asked Mr Buston.

‘I don’t think he cut me out but I think he was very lonely and vulnerable. He was getting these paranoid delusions.’

Lawyers for Mrs Langley claim her father’s last will favouring Mrs Qin stemmed from ‘undue influence’, that he lacked full testamentary capacity and could not ‘know and approve’ his last will due to his pronounced mental frailty and great age.

But Mrs Qin has brushed aside claims that this was a ‘predatory marriage’, insisting through her lawyers that theirs was a ‘loving’ relationship, that Mr Harrington was deeply fond of her and had made clear that he wanted to look after her.

Mr Buston, claimed Mr Harrington and his daughter were effectively estranged by the time Mrs Qin came on the scene having suffered a ‘total breakdown in relations’.

But Mrs Langley said she had done her utmost to help both her parents in their final years, visiting regularly to clean and cook for them although it became increasingly hard to care for her mother due to her advanced dementia.

She had also previously given up her job to step in and help her parents run the family butchers’ business, doing so for 20 years and boosting its coffers through her ‘hard work and innovation’.

She had always understood that she would ultimately inherit everything – not least because of the commitment she made to the business, said Mrs Langley.

‘He made a constant promise that it would be mine one day,’ she told the court, adding that her father had resented her leaving home to marry as he ‘wanted me at home’.

But Mrs Qin’s barrister highlighted a letter penned by Mr Harrington before his death in which he allegedly told his daughter: ‘We are totally finished and your family will get nothing from my will. I married last year and my new wife loves me and I love her. We are looking after each other’.

Mrs Langley said she never received this letter.

Mr Buston also suggested that Mrs Langley could have no way of knowing what went on between her father and his new bride despite her accusing Mrs Qin of setting up a ‘predatory marriage’.

‘You didn’t have contact with your father during the period that she knew and married your father so you cannot say anything.’

‘Yes I can,’ insisted Mrs Langley, explaining that in his declining years her father would approach ‘strangers in the street’ and tell them how much cash he had.

‘He would tell people what he had and how much money he had,’ she said, explaining that her father was ‘open to abuse’.

Mr Buston replied: ‘The bottom line is that you are a little bit aggrieved that you will not stand to inherit anything if this last will stands.’

‘I’m not aggrieved,’ insisted Mrs Langley. ‘I have done what I thought is right, I worked all these years for mum and dad loyally and lovingly and not for monetary gain, but for love and on the understanding that it would all be mine one day.

‘What would a 54-year-old woman see in a man of 93 who could have died the day after their marriage?

‘There’s only one thing and that was his estate.’

The trial continues.