Family feud over £2.1m legal claim

Anthony Steel became entitled to a massive settlement from the Government when he spent almost 20 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of murdering Bradford bakery worker Carol Wilkinson.

But he died in 2007 before he could enjoy the money, and the claim for compensation has since been held up by legal disputes between the woman he lived with during the last years of his life, Margaret Angus, and his sister and brother-in-law, Angela and Donald Emmott.

Yesterday Richard Snowden QC, sitting as a deputy judge of the High Court, ruled a statement prepared in support of the claim, which the Emmotts say includes errors and exaggerations, could not be submitted to the Ministry of Justice in its present form. He instead ordered that Ms Angus, of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, and Mr and Mrs Emmott, of Greetland, near Halifax, should be removed as executors of Mr Steel's estate and replaced by a solicitor who will decide on alterations to the statement before it is submitted.

The judge said: "A situation has been reached in which there is such a degree of animosity and distrust between the executors that the due administration of Mr Steel's estate is unlikely to be achieved expeditiously in the interests of the beneficiaries unless some change is made."

The court heard the draft submission is for a claim of 1.495m plus interest, for loss of liberty, malicious prosecution, damage to reputation and psychiatric injury, together with 657,618 plus interest for loss of earnings.

Mr Steel was found guilty of Miss Wilkinson's murder after a trial at Leeds Crown Court in 1979. He was released on licence in 1998 and his conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal in 2003.

His will left 120,000 to his family and most of his future fortune to Ms Angus.