The daughter who won an inheritance battle against a “stepmother” more than a decade her junior said she hopes the case can serve as a warning to others.
Wealthy pensioner Robert Harrington died aged 94 in May 2020, just 11 months after marrying former solicitor Guixiang Qin, 54, who had moved to his home in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, from China.
Mrs Qin inherited her billionaire husband’s fortune according to his last will, written just two months before his death, triggering a court fight with his disinherited daughter, Jill Langley.
Mrs Langley, 70, of Downham Market, claimed her father’s widow had lured him into a “predatory” marriage and “threw him into the cheapest possible grave” once she “had all his money”.
Earlier this year, following a trial at Central London County Court, the will was declared invalid. The trial judge, Robert McAllister, found that Ms Qin had exerted undue influence and control over Mr Harrington, who was deemed “mentally unfit” when his final will was drawn up.
And today, Ms Qin, who was accused of dumping her millionaire husband into a mass grave after inheriting his fortune, was stripped of the right to manage his estate and branded “unfit” by a judge.
Jill Langley, 70, found out her 94-year-old father was getting married for the second time when she received a handwritten note in the mailbox one morning in early March 2020.
Chinese lawyer Guixiang Qin, 54, married Robert Harrington, 94, just 11 months before his death. She inherited everything from him according to a will written two months before his death.
Robert Harrington, 94, was in poor physical shape, was unable to pose for a photo on his wedding day and could not even pronounce his new bride’s name, a court was told.
Ms Langley, Mr Harrington’s only daughter, discovered her father’s death when she saw a small cross at the local crematorium while attending the funeral of another relative.
Speaking to MailOnline in April, Ms Langley said: ‘It was never about money, it was about principles.
‘My mother and I spent years working with my father in his butchery business and I didn’t want to see a stranger taking all of his assets.
“I hope this case will be a milestone and a warning to others. There would have been no way this 54-year-old woman would have been interested in marrying my father when he was 93 if he didn’t have any money.”
Chinese-born Ms Qin said she met the “lovely” retired butcher after seeing an advert in a local newspaper he placed in late 2018 “offering free food and drink at Christmas” and the unlikely pair fell in love.
But his death sparked a bitter court battle over his final will, written just two months before he died, disinheriting his daughter, Mrs Langley, and leaving everything to his new wife.
Mr Harrington’s daughter, Jill Langley, successfully argued that Ms Qin had exerted undue influence and control over her father and his finances, and his final will was revoked.
Ms Langley said that after her mother Eileen’s death in January 2018, relations with her father became sporadic, partly due to his delusional mental state.
Shortly after the funeral, she received a letter bomb that read: “This letter will be the last contact I try to make.”
She recalled: “I wasn’t getting enough blood to the brain and he accused me of stealing his photo album, which actually referred to a collage of photographs in a frame that I had put up in my mother’s nursing home and brought back after her death as a memento.”
‘I only learned of my father’s wedding with Qin from the civil registry through a scribbled note; the builder was summoned as a witness.
‘We tried to contact him, but the phone was never answered and there were all kinds of security cameras and gates on the property, and no one answered when we called.
‘I heard about his death by chance. I was at King’s Lynn Crematorium for another funeral and visited my mother’s grave. On the way to it, I saw a small wooden cross with my father’s name on it.
Mrs Langley believed her father, Robert Harrington (pictured in 1984), was the victim of a “predatory marriage”, in which a wealthy widow or widower is targeted solely for their money.
“That happened two months later and it was devastating. Qin told the court that she had left me a phone message to tell me about the funeral, but we never received it.
“I don’t think she intended to tell me anything until the probate process was in place.”
Now, after a new hearing, another judge has ordered Ms Qin removed as joint administrator of Mr Harrington’s estate in favour of their daughter.
James McKean, representing Ms Langley, urged the High Court judge in London to “override” Ms Qin as the court had found she was not “a fit and proper person to act as personal representative of the estate”.
And after a brief hearing during which Ms. Qin represented herself, Judge Julia Clark ruled against the widow, saying the will had been “obtained through undue influence and also that Mr. Harrington lacked capacity to make it.”
He added that the facts found at trial “would clearly lead to the conclusion that Ms. Qin… is not a fit person to be a trustee.”
Robert Harrington’s former home in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, where the 94-year-old is said to have lived a reclusive life following the death of his previous wife, Eileen, in 2018.
Mrs. Qin protested and told the judge she was trying to appeal against the original ruling, claiming: “My husband wanted me to have his estate.”
When Master Clark pointed out that the will had already been declared invalid, Ms. Qin replied: “I disagree, I have appealed the case.”
In dismissing Ms Qin’s case, Master Clark said: ‘It would be wrong in principle to postpone this matter in the event of an appeal or in the event of any appeal ultimately being successful.
“I’m overlooking you, that’s my decision.”
During the trial earlier this year, the court heard that Mr Harrington was already displaying “strange behaviour” before he met Ms Qin, including “fortifying” his home in North Farm, Gayton Road, King’s Lynn, with CCTV cameras.
The couple enjoyed a whirlwind romance: they first met in January 2019, moved in together in February and Mr Harrington proposed the following month.
Jill Langley with her mother Eileen, with whom she shared a close bond. She was diagnosed with dementia and passed away in 2018
The first time Ms Langley learned of her remarriage was when she received a message from Ms Qin in March 2020 that read: “Just to let you know that Dad got remarried last year.”
The court heard Mr Harrington was in poor physical shape, was unable to stand for a photo on his wedding day and could not even pronounce his bride’s name.
The last time Ms Langley saw her father was at the funeral of her mother, Eileen (his wife of 66 years), in January 2018, when she recalled him looking “very frail and vulnerable” and “disorientated”.
Ms Langley would have benefited under the terms of a previous will from 2012, which named her as her father’s heir, before it was rewritten in 2020, leaving her nothing.
Because Mr. Harrington’s 2020 will was revoked, he was deemed to have died intestate and his estate would be divided under the rules of intestate succession.
The ruling meant Ms Langley would get around £200,000 of an estate now valued at £680,000, although she claimed it would have been worth around £1m if it were not for the thousands paid to Ms Qin before her father died.
Ms Qin would still automatically receive around £475,000 as his surviving spouse, although she faces legal bills estimated at £139,000.
James McKean, representing Ms Langley, asked Ms Qin: “Once you had all her money, you dumped it in the cheapest grave possible. That’s true, isn’t it? You didn’t even bother to keep the grave in good condition.”
Ms Qin denied the allegations, saying she only received around £100,000 and telling the court she and Mr Harrington had embarked on a “loving relationship” and he “wanted to look after her”.
Although “significant amounts of money” were transferred from her husband’s accounts, she insisted the payments were legitimate under the circumstances of a romantic relationship.
In his ruling overturning the will, Recorder McAllister said: ‘There was clearly an element of control by her over the deceased and his finances which increased over time.
‘The numerous enquiries about probate services demonstrate, in my view, that there was shopping on all sides, something of which Ms Qin was aware, according to her own testimony, and in which, in my view, she was involved.
“This not only reinforces questions about capacity building, but tends to suggest a guiding hand, which I believe to be that of Ms. Qin.”