Ex-head girl accused of faking headmistress's will to claim £4.2m home

Former head girl, 42, is accused of faking old headmistress’s will four months before she died aged 82 in bid to claim seven-bed £4.2m estate that was once the private school she attended

• Leigh Voysey, 42, was left everything by her late headmistress Maureen Renny 
• Ms Voysey wrote will, saying Mrs Renny dictated to her and wanted it kept secret
• Only witnesses were friends of Ms Voysey, and one signed on Mrs Renny’s behalf
• Family of Mrs Renny accuse Ms Voysey of faking the will at London’s High Court 

A former private school head girl has been accused of forging the will of her old headmistress in a bid to claim her £4.2million estate. 

Leigh Voysey, 42, is being taken to the London’s High Court after Maureen Renny, former head of the independent Barn School, left her everything in a new will she allegedly composed just four months before she died – including her £1.65m seven-bed house in Much Hadham, Hertfordshire. 

Ms Voysey claims her former mentor, who died aged 82 in January 2020, wanted to save her property and eight acres of land from being sold to developers, who had allegedly offered her in the region of £10m. 

Ms Voysey claims she wrote out the will herself in September 2019 while Mrs Renny dictated to her. The only witnesses were two friends of Ms Voysey, one of whom signed on behalf of the former head, as she struggled with writing due to her poor eyesight. 

But the cut-out family allege Ms Voysey faked the will, and will argue that even if her account is true, Mrs Renny had suffered a stroke in July 2019 and was subsequently recorded in a carer’s notes as ‘talking gibberish’. 

She was also described as being confused about money, vulnerable, delusional and ‘largely living in the past’, meaning she was not in her right mind to execute a new will and testament, her family claim. 

Mrs Renny’s sprawling home, Hill House, was until 1998 the site of The Barn School, which Ms Voysey attended as a girl, starting as an eight-year-old in 1987.

Leigh Voysey (pictured), 42, is being taken to the London’s High Court after Maureen Renny, former head of the independent Barn School, left her everything in a new will she allegedly composed just four months before she died – including her £1.65m seven-bed house in Much Hadham, Hertfordshire

Mrs Renny’s sprawling home, Hill House (pictured), was until 1998 the site of The Barn School, which Ms Voysey attended as a girl, starting as an eight-year-old in 1987

She claims that Mrs Renny had ‘always favoured her,’ giving her the best parts in school plays, and that she ‘reconnected’ with her by chance during the last three years of her life, after she was hired as her carer. 

Ms Voysey, a mother-of-one, says the elderly former head asked her to write out a will and organise a friend to sign it on her behalf in September 2019, as she feared that her beloved former school building would be sold to developers if she left it to blood relatives.

Ms Voysey claims Mrs Renny knew her former pupil ‘loved’ the old schoolhouse as much as she did and decided to leave her everything, cutting out cousins and the children of her stepson, who had stood to inherit under a previous will written in 2016.

But Mrs Renny’s relatives are now fighting the former head girl’s bid to claim the fortune, accusing her of fraudulently faking the 2019 will. 

The previous will from 2016 had divided her estate between her cousins Gillian Ayre, Angela Eastwood and Susan Vickers, and the children of her stepson, Thomas and Katherine Renny.

Ms Voysey claims she bonded with her former headteacher after visiting her as a carer and then a friend from 2016 and that she wrote her ‘distant blood relatives’ out of her will because she feared they would sell the old schoolhouse to developers.

She says Mrs Renny asked her to write out the will and have it signed on her behalf because she could not do so herself due to problems with her eyesight.

In papers lodged with the court, Ms Voysey tells how she was delighted to find that her former teacher still remembered her when she visited as a carer.

‘Mrs Renny remembered exactly who I was, even though it was 25 years since I’d left her school,’ she says.

‘Mrs Renny told me that she’d been asking about me during the years since I had left her school.

‘The whole experience that day was very touching.

Mrs Renny’s relatives are now fighting the former head girl’s bid to claim the fortune, accusing her of fraudulently faking the 2019 will. (Pictured: Angela Eastwood, cousin of the late Maureen Renny)

‘I worked one more shift as a carer for Mrs Renny, then visited her as a friend after that.

‘After reconnecting in February 2016, I visited Mrs Renny when I could…approximately three to four times a year.

‘When I visited Mrs Renny, I would make us both a cup of tea and we would talk about my time when I was at The Barn. We both enjoyed that immensely.

‘During one of my visits, she asked me what I thought about The Barn, i.e. Hill House, and I said I loved it.

‘Mrs Renny said to me ‘I hope it never gets built on’.’

She said Mrs Renny had mentioned leaving her estate to her in a new will, but that she did not want to accept that her former mentor was going to die.

But eventually in September 2019, the former teacher arranged for two of Ms Voysey’s friends to witness a new will as she did not want anyone to know she was making it.

‘Mrs Renny asked me to complete the 2019 will and dictated to me what she wanted to be written on it,’ she says.

A previous will from 2016 had divided Mrs Renny’s estate between her cousins Gillian Ayre, Angela Eastwood and Susan Vickers (pictured), and the children of her stepson

‘I wrote down exactly what Mrs Renny told me to write. The blank will was lying on the table in the lounge. I have no idea how the will got there as Mrs Renny was chairbound.

‘Mrs Renny was unable to sign the will herself as she had problems with her eyesight,’ Ms Voysey says, adding that the former head ‘confirmed she was happy’ for one of the witnesses to sign it on her behalf.

‘I knew that Mrs Renny had been unwell, but I felt that she was back to her usual self when arranging and making the 2019 will,’ she says.

However Kate Selway QC, for the family, says in the defence to the action: ‘It is the defendants’ case that the 2016 will was the deceased’s last true will. The 2019 will is invalid because it was procured by the claimant’s fraudulent conduct.’

‘It is denied that the claimant had any ongoing acquaintance with the deceased after leaving The Barn School. It is averred that the only other material time that the deceased and the claimant met was on 19th February 2016 when the claimant was working as a carer…and worked a lunchtime shift looking after the deceased that day.

‘The claimant cared for the deceased only once for a few hours over lunchtime on 19th February 2016.

‘The claimant undertook no more shifts as a carer for the deceased and never visited the deceased again.

‘It is denied that the deceased made the 2019 will or any will leaving her estate to the claimant.

‘The alleged events said by the clamant to have taken place…never happened.

‘The deceased never signed the 2019 will. The 2019 will was completed in the claimant’s handwriting and allegedly witnessed by two friends of the claimant who were not known to the deceased.’

The barrister says it was ‘impossible’ for the blank will to have been on the table when Ms Voysey arrived, since Mrs Renny was so frail she could not get out of her chair or even hold a telephone.

Ms Voysey however says savings the house and school, set in eight acres of grounds, from developers was very important to Mrs Renny and was the crucial justification for her changing the will.

Ms Voysey claims Mrs Renny knew her former pupil ‘loved’ the old schoolhouse (pictured in old photograph) as much as she did and decided to leave her everything, cutting out cousins and the children of her stepson, who had stood to inherit under a previous will written in 2016

‘I think it was more important to Mrs Renny that she left her estate to me to save The Barn/Hill House and the surrounding land from development rather than leave her estate to her distant blood relatives,’ she says.

‘It appears that Mrs Renny’s desire to save The Barn/Hill House was stronger than any bond of natural love and affection with her blood family,’ she adds, claiming the former head told her she had rejected a £10m offer from developers for the land and house.’

Ms Selway is also raising an alternative defence to the claim, stating that Mrs Renny lacked the testamentary capacity to execute the will and did not know or approve of its contents, even if it wasn’t faked.

She had a stroke in July 2019 and subsequently was recorded in carer’s notes as ‘talking gibberish,’ confused about money, vulnerable, delusional and ‘largely living in the past’.

The family also say that, even if she proves her case, Ms Voysey should not be entitled to recover money already distributed from the estate. There is currently £725,000 remaining undistributed.

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