EXCLUSIVEMy 94-year-old father left his £1million fortune to a woman 39 years his junior who I never met and didn't even tell me he'd died.' As Jill 勝利，勝つs a 目印 事例／患者, she 明らかにする／漏らすs the horror of when your family 落ちるs 犠牲者 to a 'predatory marriage'

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The first Jill Langley knew about her 94-year-old father Robert marrying for a second time was when a handwritten 公式文書，認める （機の）カム through the letterbox one morning in 早期に March 2020.

She hadn't spoken to her dad, a retired butcher and 実業家 with an 広い地所 in Norfolk 価値（がある） £1 million, for two years, に引き続いて the death of her mother, Eileen.

At that point, the newly 未亡人d Robert Harrington, a difficult man who 設立する his grief hard to 扱う, had 攻撃するd out 怒って at Jill, his only child, in a 一連の 苦しめるing phone calls and letters. Not wanting to inflame the 状況／情勢, she had 孤立した from him and the pair had broken 接触する. にもかかわらず this, the news of his nuptials （機の）カム as a shock.

'I opened the 公式文書，認める and it said: 'Just to let you know you [sic] dad married again last year ― Chelsea' and that was it,' says Jill, 70, a former antiques 売買業者 from Denver, Norfolk.

'At first my husband Mitchell and I thought it was some sort of いたずら. But then alarm bells started to （犯罪の）一味. I knew what Dad was like. He was always bragging about his money so if this was real, I knew すぐに someone had 的d him for it. What 肉親，親類d of woman marries a man in his 90s if it's not about money?'

Jill Langley, 70, 設立する out?her 94-year-old father Robert was marrying?for a second time?when a handwritten 公式文書，認める （機の）カム through the letterbox one morning in 早期に March 2020

Jill's 恐れるs were to 証明する 訂正する. Not long after receiving the 公式文書，認める, her father died ― another 抱擁する shock to her, of which more later ― and すぐに after that, Jill discovered he had made a new will after the marriage.

Shockingly, he had left everything he owned to his mysterious new wife, whom Jill had never met and who was 39 years his junior.

Believing her father was the 犠牲者 of what's 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語d a 'predatory marriage', where a 豊富な 未亡人 or widower is 的d 純粋に for their money, Jill now sought the 判決 of the 法律. Earlier this month, at Central London 郡 法廷，裁判所, a 裁判官 支配するd that '重要な impropriety' had taken place in the 令状ing of Mr Harrington's new will. His new wife 'Chelsea', whose real 指名する is Guixang Qin, was said to have had 'undue 影響（力）' on her nonagenarian husband.

'We heard she had 孤立した at least £300,000 of my dad's money over the months she'd known him, いつかs just cash 撤退s of a few hundred 続けざまに猛撃するs but other times she was transferring up to £40,000 a time into h er bank,' says Jill, 株ing the 詳細（に述べる）s of her ordeal for the first time. 'She even withdrew money on the day he died.'

The 法廷，裁判所 felt Mr Harrington did not have the mental capacity to understand the 複雑さs of a new will, which he had made only a month before his death.

Indeed, it 現れるd at that point Mr Harrington believed he was a retired Army major who had been estranged from Jill for 30 years. While he was never 診断するd with any mental incapacity, the 法廷，裁判所 heard he may have 苦しむd it after a 一打／打撃 in the months 主要な up to his death.

Predatory marriage is a growing scam. Thanks to rising house prices and more 価値のある 広い地所s, it's thought to 影響する／感情 hundreds, かもしれない thousands, of families every year in the UK.

'Predatory marriages are 悪意のある because they are so simplistic and cunning,' says Andrew Bishop, of Rothley 法律 solicitors, who helped Jill with her 事例／患者 and is （選挙などの）運動をするing for a change in the 法律 to make them a 犯罪の offence.

'The Wills 行為／法令／行動する 1837 means that in nearly all circumstances any new marriage すぐに 取り消すs a previous will, in which maybe the 死んだ wished to leave money to children.

'The 保護（する）／緊急輸入制限ing around marriage is 極小の. No one really wants to question people's personal 手はず／準備 if they say they're 'in love', even if they've only known them for two weeks.

'What that means is if the 広い地所 is 価値（がある） いっそう少なく than £322,000 [the 量 the spouse receives automatically from the 死んだ partner's 広い地所 if they have died intestate] it all comes straight to the new spouse and people can't challenge it. What is unusual about Jill's 事例／患者 is that the 広い地所 was 価値（がある） far more, so the 被告 ['Chelsea'] took the step of not only marrying Mr Harrington, but getting him to change his will so that she would 相続する £1 million.'

For Jill, who has two grown-up sons, the 法廷，裁判所 事例／患者 was 'never about the money' but about 司法（官） for herself and her family.

'It's 窃盗 by the 支援する door and not only is it happening to me but to others, so I felt I had to contest it 純粋に because I know 権利 from wrong,' she says.

'I could have 簡単に thrown the will in the 貯蔵所 and forgotten about it. But a stranger had walked into Dad's life when he was 攻撃を受けやすい and took everything my family had worked for over the years. I couldn't let her get away with that.'

Jill believed her father was the 犠牲者 of a いわゆる predatory marriage, where a 豊富な 未亡人 or widower is 的d 純粋に for their money

Born in the 1950s in Billericay, Jill says her childhood in Essex living with her parents and grandparents was a happy one and she was の近くに to both her mother and father.

'We didn't really have much money, but Dad had a 動きやすい butcher's shop and Mum would go out working with him,' she says. 'I had my own pony and, 存在 an only child, I got on ever so 井戸／弁護士席 with my mum and dad.

'Then Mum's 糖尿病 got worse, and she couldn't do as much, so Dad （機の）カム to rely on me more and more. I went to work for him in the butchery 商売／仕事 and managed shops for him, which were very successful. Within a year I'd more than quadrupled the takings.'

The family moved to Norwich when Jill was 23 and as the arrival of supermarkets put an end to the butchery, the family opened new 投機・賭けるs, first a nightclub and later a leather jacket 商売／仕事. Yet, as the years passed, and Jill took on more and more for the family 商売／仕事, she began to see how controlling her father was.

'We did really 井戸／弁護士席. I sold at lots of markets and was organising fashion shows all the time,' says Jill. 'I worked really hard ― as hard as any son. I could be digging out snow at 3am when we had a winter market on.

'Most of the time the 商売／仕事s 栄えるd because of my ideas but I didn't do it for the money, I did it for love. In fact, one Christmas, I remember we took £10,000 in takings. But still Dad didn't give me a penny, not even in 給料.

'At the time I remember thinking: 'This is a bit much', but I 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う Dad's thinking was that if he controlled the money, he could 支配（する）／統制する me and Mum 同様に. If he didn't get his own wa y, he'd 飛行機で行く off the 扱う.'

Jill moved away from her parents' house when she married Mitchell, now 83 and a retired 農業者. They had two sons ― Ben and Simon ― but her 関係 with her parents was still の近くに.

'I didn't need to work, but I wasn't the sort of person to sit around so I'd spend half my time helping Mitchell on the farm and half my time helping Mum and Dad,' she says. 'They'd come and babysit for us and they'd come to us for Christmas dinner and we'd pop in and see them. We were in and out of their lives all the time.'

Around 2012, however, Jill's mum was 診断するd with dementia and relations with her father began to feel 緊張するd.

'When Mum was really ill we went over there to 申し込む／申し出 help, but Dad 辞退するd. I remember 説 to him: 'The trouble with you Dad is that it's always your way or no way at all'.'

When Eileen died in 2018, things really began to sour between father and daughter.

'Mum's death 攻撃する，衝突する Dad hard,' 収容する／認めるs Jill. 'He had already been having 'delusions' that people were trying to steal from him and had had a 7ft 塀で囲む built around his house so it was like Fort Knox.

'After Mum's death he was （犯罪の）一味ing me and 令状ing to me telling me to apologise for stealing some horses ― which wasn't true.

'He also 非難するd me for Mum's death ― he 非難するd everyone but himself for everything ― so I thought it best not to 答える／応じる because he was 明確に very angry and it was so upsetting.'

すぐに after receiving the 公式文書，認める with news of the marriage, the world went into lockdown so Jill and Mitchell were unable to visit Robert to get to the 底（に届く） of it.

She has since discovered that the couple were married in June 2019 and believes her father's new wife sent her the 公式文書，認める to war n her off trying to 相続する any fortune.

'I'm 絶対 sure she was trying to send me a message that they were now married so everything was going to her,' says Jill.

Jill with her mother Eileen, with whom she 株d a の近くに 社債. She was 診断するd with dementia and died in 2018?

But it wasn't just the wedding Jill was to discover after the event. A much greater shock was in 蓄える／店 four months later when she visited her mother's 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な at a 共同墓地 in Kings Lynn in July 2020.

'As I was wandering along, I saw a cheap 木造の cross covered in 少しのd and it had my father's 指名する on it,' says Jill.

Robert Harrington was dead. Indeed, he had died only ten months after marrying 'Chelsea'.

'I couldn't believe it. Dad had died on May 26, 2020 at the age of 94 but no one ― not even his new 'wife' ― had told me, not a letter, not a phone call, nothing.

'I felt 完全に numbed by it. It was such a shock. He had always ーするつもりであるd to be buried with my mum in the 二塁打 陰謀（を企てる）, but instead he had been 捨てるd in a 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な by himself. It was obvious no one had been to …に出席する it.

'Later, that woman would say she was too 'emotional' to tidy it up, but the house where she was living was only five minutes away. It was very upsetting.'

In a 明言する／公表する of some panic, Jill raced to her parents' former home ― a large four-bedroom house with several 歓迎会 rooms, two garages and one third of an acre of land ― to find it locked up with no 調印する of life.

She phoned the police who advised her to 令状 to Robert's 'new wife' for answers, but all she got in 返答 was a letter 説 if she 手配中の，お尋ね者 a copy of the will, she should 接触する the solicitors.

Months later, Jill finally got 持つ／拘留する of it to see that everything ― her father's entire 広い地所 価値（がある） more than £1 million ― had been left to Qin and her son. The will had been made only weeks before Robert's death from sepsis.

'I knew straight away that my dad had not made this will in good 約束. He was in his 90s, he was unwell after his 一打／打撃 and he couldn't do things like go の上に the internet and Google to find out who people really were. Besides, there's no way he would have given that money away.'

Jill decided to contest the will and was horrified by what she discovered. 'The day I saw Qin in 法廷，裁判所 she was sitting there with these long dangly earrings and nice red check coat and I turned to my son and said: 'Mum's 年金 has paid for those.'

'Nothing about what she said made any sense at all. At one point she said her 'son' was a solicitor, but then he was a student in Ireland 熟考する／考慮するing 工学. She said she'd met my father when he'd placed an advert in one of the 地元の papers asking people to come for a 解放する／自由な Christmas lunch at his house. But there was no 証拠 of that advert and it didn't sound like Dad at all.

'One of the excuses she gave for 身を引くing so much of his money was to 支払う／賃金 for her 'lavish wedding' but they married at a 登録（する） office in June 2019 with two 証言，証人／目撃するs that weren't even friends ― it was the man who had built the 塀で囲む around Dad's house and his wife.

'Several times I gasped at what I was 審理，公聴会 and had to leave the courtroom to get some 空気／公表する. The whole thing has taken me to some very dark places.

'I wish I could have stood up to him more when he was alive and I really feel if I'd been a man, things would have been different. But he 乱用d both me and Mum financially and emotionally.

'If I'd lost, the 事例／患者 would have cost me £150,000 in costs. But we won on every count ― that my father didn't have the mental capacity, that he was unable to read the will and understand it and that she had a guiding 手渡す and undue 影響（力） on him given his vulnerability.

'It's been an incredibly stressful four years and it does feel like a victory, but it's going to be a rocky road ahead to retrieve any money.'

Indeed, Qin still has the money and also now 借りがあるs 法廷，裁判所 costs. 'She may have to be 立ち退かせるd but she's still する権利を与えるd to a 株 of the 広い地所 so we have to try to get Jill 任命するd as 行政官／管理者 of the will,' says Jill's other solicitor Caoimhe Turner.

'And the fact is, at some point, even when Jill has the money 支援する, she will 結局最後にはーなる having to 令状 a cheque to Qin because Qin is 合法的に する権利を与えるd to some of that money. The 法律 is a 完全にする mess.'

A 法律 （売買）手数料，委託（する）／委員会／権限 協議 on predatory marriage の近くにd in December last year and it's hoped that, as a result, the 法律 may be 改革（する）d to 妨げる this 肉親，親類d of 乱用 happening in the 未来.

'This 事例／患者 論証するs the 破滅的な 影響s that a predatory marriage can have,' says MP Fabian Hamilton, who has been 伴う／関わるd with the 協議.

'As part of our （選挙などの）運動をする, we believe the 法律 needs to be 改革（する）d so that marriage no longer 取り消すs a will and therefore 除去するs any incentive to use marriage for 財政上の 伸び（る）.'

Jill agrees. 'My mum and I ― and all my family ― helped my dad build up his fortune and that was all my family's hard work 存在 taken from them. Most people don't have the strength, the money or the time to go through this. So I hope my 事例／患者 始める，決めるs a precedent.'