19 February 2024 , 13:51
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A lawyer who married a millionaire widower has denied “dumping her husband in the cheapest possible grave” and taking all his money, as she is sued by his daughter who was cut out of his will.
Guixiang Qin married wealthy retired butcher Robert Harrington in June 2019 when she was 54 and he aged 93 - 11 months before his death at the age of 94. Mrs Qin had met "generous, cute and humorous" Mr Harrington after he put an advert in a newspaper, offering free Christmas dinner in return for the company, she told a judge.
Mrs Qin, a trained lawyer from China, moved into his home in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, the month after they met in January 2019 and soon afterwards the couple wed. Mr Harrington died in May 2020, having changed his will two months earlier to cut out his only child, Jill Langley, 70, and leave his estate, estimated at around £1million, to his new bride. Mrs Langley is now suing her stepmother.
Mrs Qin told Central London County Court she originally came to the UK to study for a law MBA and had no need for cash. She met Mr Harrington in January 2019 after responding to a newspaper advert he had posted offering “free food and drink over Christmas” in return for the company, she told Recorder Robert McAllister.
Jill Langley is suing her stepmother (Champion News)She ended up making contact with him in the new year, she said, and soon after he took her on an outing to the seaside. “We had fish and chips and I paid for it,” she said, commenting: “For me, he was just a very gentle person - a gentleman”. Mrs Langley’s barrister, James McKean, said the courtship seemed a “whirlwind romance”, adding: “So this relationship developed extremely fast?” She agreed it was.
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“What did you see in him when you met him?” asked Mr McKean, adding: “He told you at that first meeting that he had three cars didn't he?” suggesting that Mr Harrington had “bragged” to her about his cars and “told you that he was a millionaire”. “No,” she countered. “He didn't tell me that.”
The barrister highlighted bank statements, which he claimed showed that between October 2018 to May 2020, Mr Harrington had been virtually cleaned out by Mrs Qin.
“From October 2018 to May 2020, you took nearly every penny he had didn't you?” he put to her. “No, and in October 2018 I didn't even go to his home,” said Mrs Qin. “I had not met him yet.” Mr McKean claimed the grave bought for Mr Harrington was shoddy and has been poorly maintained since his death, while Mrs Qin told the court that she paid £640 for the gravestone.
Mr Harrington’s daughter, Mrs Langley, is also claiming that her stepmother ignored her dad’s wish that he should be buried alongside his late wife of 66 years, who died in 2018. But Mrs Qin said Mr Harrington was interred separately from his first wife because: “He said he loved me and would rather be buried near me”.
Mr McKean accused her of “taking advantage of him to enter into a predatory marriage”, adding that she later “pressured or persuaded your husband to make that will”. Mrs Qin denied the claims against her, saying: “Robert loved me very much and I loved him too”.
Mrs Qin, speaking through a translator, told the court she “never asked for his money” and loved her husband for his sense of humour and passion for singing and dancing around the home. Labelling the wealthy ex-butcher “adorable” she said she told Mr Harrington she didn't need his cash, although she would notice that he had paid money into her account.
“So many times he told me that he would give me money, but I didn't ask for it, I told him that I didn't need it," she told the judge. “I knew he was a special and great person and also that (he) was very generous to everyone, and also he was very cute and humorous and when at leisure he would sing and watch TV.”
Mrs Langley’s barrister challenged Mrs Qin about her claims that she only met her future husband in January 2019, suggesting they had met in 2018 or 2017, when she allegedly took on work as a paid carer for Mr Harrington’s then-wife, Eileen.
She told the court that after seeing Mr Harrington’s newspaper advert “inviting people over for lunch” in late 2018 they had initially chatted over the phone before she met him face-to-face in early 2019. The pair were chatting on the phone around Christmas 2018 when she realised how lonely he was and decided to meet up with him, the court heard.
Mrs Langley’s barrister suggested that, between 2018 and 2020, over £350,000 was transferred from Mr Harrington’s account to Mrs Qin’s, which she flatly denied. She told the judge: “At the start, he didn't pay me and I didn't ask him for money. After a few months, he just gave me money because he didn't allow me to work.”
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Mrs Qin denies all the allegations regarding the will and told the court, “his mind was all clear”, and that four solicitors were involved in the process of making the will in May 2020. The judge has now reserved his decision in the case, to be given at a later date.