A man who was falsely accused of being a ‘criminal’ and a ‘psychopath’ by his sister, has finally won a £1million legal battle after she was found guilty of committing ‘fraudulent calumny’. Fraudulent calumny occurs when a beneficiary of a will makes untrue comments to the person making the will about the character of another potential beneficiary. A will dispute happens when a formal objection is raised against the validity of a will.
In this case, David Whittle took his sister, Sonia Whittle, to court, after discovering that she had been feeding lies about him to their father, in a desperate attempt to get him removed as a beneficiary from the will that he had made. She claimed he was a ‘criminal’ and a ‘psychopath’, convincing 92-year-old Gerald Whittle that his son had been trying to steal his bank details and classic cars. She also tried to convince her father that David and his wife had tried to force their way into his house, stating that the police had issued a harassment order issued against the pair. Another false claim she made was that David had stolen money from his mother-in-law, and that he was a violent man.
However, David told the court that he had a ‘good relationship with his father’ and visited him ‘at least weekly’, providing extra support since the death of his wife. In a final verdict, the court found Sonia’s claims to be false, with Judge Woodburn presenting the following statement:
“On all of the evidence presented to me, it is abundantly clear that the aspersions cast on the characters of both David and his wife, are not merely unproven by (Sonia), but, I find, are completely false,” adding that the claimant had ‘succeeded in proving fraud and undue influence’.
She was found guilty of committing ‘fraudulent calumny’ due to her untrue statements regarding her brother. You can read the full story here.
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