As an only child, Jill Langley had every reason to believe she would inherit her elderly, widowed father’s £1mn fortune. But she had to go to court to secure even a slice of his money in a case involving a carer, a new marriage and a fresh will.
Robert Harrington, from Norfolk, died in May 2020, aged 94, having married his carer, Guixiang Qin, a woman 39 years his junior, the year before. According to court documents, in a will made two months before his death, Harrington left everything to Qin and nothing to Langley, the beneficiary of the previous will.
Langley challenged the new will and, in June 2024, a judge found in her favour, ruling that Qin had exerted “undue influence” over a “vulnerable elderly man” who had lacked the capacity to make a will.