Chinese translator accused of luring a millionaire into a 'predatory marriage' ... trends now

A Chinese translator accused of luring a millionaire into a 'predatory marriage' before he died has lost £200,000 in inheritance to his daughter after a High Court battle. 

Wealthy pensioner Robert Harrington passed away aged 94 in May 2020, just 11 months after marrying his carer Guixiang Qin, 54, who had moved from China and had also previously worked as a trained lawyer. 

Mrs Qin, was taken to court by Mr Harrington's daughter Jill Langley, 70, after she was made executor of her husband's estate in his final will, which was written two months before he died. 

Mrs Langley, who was disinherited by her father in the process, claimed Mrs Qin had lured him into a 'predatory marriage' and 'dumped him in the cheapest possible grave' once she 'had got all his money'.

Now after a trial, the will has been declared invalid, with a judge finding that Mrs Qin exerted 'undue influence' and 'control' over Mr Harrington and his finances after rewriting his will with her 'guiding hand'. 

A High Court judge has also ruled that Mrs Langley will now get about £200,000 out of her father's estate now valued at £680,000.   

Recorder Robert McAllister's sitting at Central London County Court found Mr Harrington was mentally unfit at the time he made his last will and that Mrs Qin had been the 'guiding hand' behind it.

Mr Harrington wrongly believed he was a retired army major and that he had been estranged from his daughter for 30 years - and it would not have taken much for Mrs Qin to build on his delusions in order to write a new will, said the judge.

Mrs Langley would have benefitted under the terms of a previous 2012 will which named her as her father's ultimate heir, before it was rewritten in 2020. 

Mrs Langley's barrister James McKean told the court that Mr Harrington was already displaying 'strange behaviour' when he moved into his final home at North Farm, Gayton Road, Kings Lynn, in 2015, after 'fortifying' it with numerous CCTV cameras.

Medical evidence suggested he was 'most likely suffering from a paranoid delusional disorder' in his final years, Mr McKean added, and he had even begun to believe he was a retired army major.

The last time Mrs Langley saw her father was at the funeral of her mother, Eileen - her father's wife of 66 years - in January 2018 when she recalled him looking 'very frail and vulnerable' and 'rambling'.

Soon after the funeral, she received a bombshell letter, stating: 'this letter will be the last contact I ever attempt to make.'

The first Mrs Langley knew of his new marriage was when she received a note from Mrs Qin in March 2020, reading: 'just to let you know that Dad married again last year'.

Mr Harrington was in poor physical shape given his advanced years and 'unable to even stand for a photo on his wedding day' and was not even able to pronounce his bride's name, Mrs Langley claimed.

During the trial, her barrister Mr McKean suggested Mrs Qin had received payments totalling up to £350,000 from Mr Harrington and buried him in a pauper's grave because she only wanted his money.

'Once you had got all his money you dumped him in the cheapest possible grave - that's right isn't it?' he put to her, adding, 'You haven't even bothered to maintain the grave properly.'

Mrs Qin denied the claims, saying she received about £100,000 from him and telling the judge she and Mr Harrington had embarked on 'a loving and sexual relationship' and that he 'wanted to look after her'.

Summarising her evidence, the judge said: 'She wasn't physically attracted to him when she first saw him, but she thought he was rather adorable and that he acted and spoke like a gentleman and he was a

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