Five sisters who claim they were ‘cut from their grandfather’s £500k will by their bullying uncle after their father died’ are locked in bitter court battle

• Sisters suing uncle Terry Ward in battle after being cut out of grandfather’s will
• After their father died they said it had been promised they’d be ‘looked after’

Five sisters who claim they were cut from their grandfather’s will by their ‘bullying’ uncle after their father died are now locked in a ‘diabolical’ £500,000 inheritance battle.

Carol Gowing, Angela St Marseille, Amanda Higginbotham, Christine Ward and Janet Pett were heartbroken when their father Fred Ward Jr died from cancer in 2015, leaving his ‘girls’ fatherless.

The sisters say they were promised they would be ‘looked after’ by his family at the funeral.

Prior to Mr Ward’s death, their grandfather Frederick Snr had made a will in 2011 dividing his half-a-million pound estate equally between oldest son Fred Jr, his brother Terry Ward and sister Susan Wiltshire.

But after Fred Snr died in 2020, a furious family row broke out at the reading of his will as it emerged he had rewritten it, cutting out his late son Fred Jr’s side of the family.

Five sisters who claim they were cut from their grandfather’s will by their ‘bullying’ uncle Terry Ward (pictured) after their father died are now locked in a ‘diabolical’ £500,000 inheritance battle

Sisters (left to right, from top) Amanda Higginbotham, Janet Pett, Christine Ward, Carol Gowing and Angela St Marseille were heartbroken when their father Fred Ward Jr died from cancer in 2015, leaving his ‘girls’ fatherless

Fred Jr had ‘historically’ not got along with his brother Terry, say the girls, and they subsequently blamed their uncle for ‘bullying’ their grandfather into cutting them out.

The five sisters are now suing their uncle and aunt at London’s High Court, demanding they be handed what would have been their father’s inheritance if he had not died.

The sisters claim that, after their father’s untimely death in 2015, their grandfather had promised during an emotional conversation over a drink at the wake that they ‘need not worry that father’s share of the inheritance would be passed down.’

The sisters’ uncle Terry Ward is also said to have promised to make sure ‘they would get their father’s third’ at the funeral wake.

Fred Snr, who lived in Willow Road, South Ealing, London, died aged 91 in 2020.

But when his will was read after his death, a bitter shouting match broke out – which was recorded and played to the court – when it was revealed that the five sisters had been cut out.

They claim that their grandfather’s last will, made in 2018 and leaving his £500,000 estate to Terry and Mrs Wiltshire, is invalid.

It was drawn up when he was ‘an ill man’ and ‘frightened’ of Terry, who ‘bullied’ Fred Snr into making it, they say.

Fred Jr and his brother Terry had not got along, the sisters’ barrister James McKean said, telling Judge James Brightwell: ‘The relationship between Fred Jr and his brother was historically poor.’

He claimed that Terry had developed a particular ‘hate’ for his niece Carol Gowing after a family falling out over a property, and said there was a ‘palpable…dislike between the two sides of the family’.

‘The claimants allege a mercenary side to the relationship between the defendants and the deceased,’ the barrister said, with witnesses for the sisters recounting ‘the deceased complaining of being asked for money by one or both’.

The witnesses are also ‘alleging they were told of physically violent behaviour by Terry to the deceased,’ who in his later life ‘appeared scared’ of his son Terry, he told the judge.

Terry and his barrister Maxwell Myers vehemently denied these ‘unpleasant’ allegations, with Terry in the box calling one of the witnesses who made them ‘an absolute liar’.

The sisters say they were promised they would be ‘looked after’ by their family at the funeral of their father Fred Ward Jr (pictured)

Prior to Mr Ward’s death, their grandfather Frederick Snr had made a will in 2011 dividing his half-a-million pound estate equally between oldest son Fred Jr, his brother Terry Ward and sister Susan Wiltshire (pictured)

With Carol Gowing in the witness box, Mr Myers put to her that ‘when ones dies, one is entitled to leave one’s property to whoever one pleases.’

‘Yes, as long as the will has been written up correctly,’ she replied.

‘Fred Snr made (his three children) promise in front of him that should anything happen to one of them their share would go to their children. They all needed to promise that that would happen,’ she told the judge.

Mr Myers said Ms Gowing’s case was that her grandfather had been ‘bullied and controlled’ by Terry Ward and Susan Wiltshire, but put to her that her claim that her grandfather was a weak man ‘differs from reality.’

‘His strength of character is attested to by a close friend,’ the barrister said, adding that the friend claimed ‘Fred Snr would never be frightened by Terry or Sue’.

He told the judge that an attendance note from a solicitor confirmed that Fred Snr understood the contents of the 2018 will.

But Ms Gowing replied: ‘I don’t believe that he understood the effect of the will.

‘I was told by family members that he was being pushed or bullied into changing his will in 2017 and he had turned around and said ‘F-off I’m not changing my will.’

‘I can’t prove they bullied him, but I feel the evidence we have points to that. It’s what we’ve been told by family members.’

Fred Snr had failed a dementia test in 2016, she told the judge, adding: ‘He was frail and he was old and they did take advantage of him.’

Her sister Amanda Higginbotham told the judge she believed Fred Snr was ‘petrified of Terry’ and ‘felt extreme fear of his son’.

In response, Mr Myers put to her that ‘there was actually a very loving and close relationship between Terry and his father.

‘He simply wasn’t the type to be afraid.’

Terry Ward (pictured) denied that his father would have made a promise at Fred Jr’s wake in relation to inheritance

Giving his evidence, Terry Ward denied that his father would have made a promise at Fred Jr’s wake in relation to inheritance.

‘He was a very private man,’ he said.

‘He was extremely private, he would never discuss his finances with anybody.

‘I can’t believe he would sit at a bar talking about his finances…as far as I’m concerned it didn’t happen.’

He also denied as ‘absolute nonsense’ the claim that he had promised to the sisters that they would ultimately get what would have been their father’s inheritance.

‘What I said was “don’t worry I’ll look after you”,’ he said, describing evidence from witnesses that he had made the promise as ‘lies.’

The court was then played a secret audio recording of the row at the reading of the will made by Carol Gowing, in which screaming and shouting could be heard.

Several of the sisters left court in tears and the trial had to be briefly adjourned.

Terry slammed Mrs Gowing for secretly recording the family meeting ‘to use in this diabolical case’.

Mr McKean said to Terry: ‘Your evidence is blinded by your hatred of Carol.’

‘I don’t hate anybody,’ he replied.

The judge reserved his decision in the case to be delivered at a later date.

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