AN EX-private school head girl has been accused of faking the will of her old headmistress in a bid to claim her £4.2million estate.

Leigh Voysey, now 42, claims Maureen Renny left everything to her – including her £1.65million seven-bedroom detached house – rather than her family.

She claims the ex-headmistress of Barn School claimed the property would have been sold to developers if it went to "distant" relatives.

Maureen's sprawling home in Much Hadham, Hertfordshire, used to be the site of the Barn School, which Ms Voysey joined in 1987 aged only eight.

She claims that Maureen – who died aged 82 in 2020 – had "always favoured her" by giving her the best parts in class plays.

Ms Voysey said she "reconnected" with her old mentor by chance during the last three years of her life.

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The mum-of-one said elderly Maureen asked her to write out a will and organised a friend to sign it on her behalf in September 2019.

She feared that her beloved former school's building would be sold to developers if she left it to her blood relatives, Ms Voysey claims.

The ex-student said Maureen knew her former pupil "loved" the old schoolhouse just as much as she did.

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As a result, Ms Voysey claims Maureen ultimately decided to leave her everything, cutting out her cousins and the children of her stepson – who had stood to inherit under a 2016 will.

But the elderly woman's relatives are now fighting the former head girl's bid to claim the fortune in London's High Court, after accusing her of faking the 2019 will.

A previous will from 2016 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 first as a carer and then as a friend from 2016.

"Mrs Renny remembered exactly who I was, even though it was 25 years since I'd left her school," she said.

"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.

"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.

Mrs Renny remembered exactly who I was, even though it was 25 years since I'd left her school. The whole experience that day was very touching.

"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'."

Eventually, Ms Voysey re-wrote the will in line with her ex-mentor's instructions, she claims.

Kate Selway QC, for the family, says in the defence to the action: "The 2019 will is invalid because it was procured by the claimant's fraudulent conduct."

She insisted the pair only met once after she left school, when Ms Voysey was working as a carer.

"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," Ms Selway added.

The barrister has also raised an alternate defence, claiming Maureen lacked the capacity to execute the will and did not know or approve of its contents – even if it wasn't faked.

Ms Voysey had a stroke in July 2019 and was recorded in carer's notes as "talking gibberish".

She was confused about money, vulnerable, delusional and "largely living in the past".

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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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