Helen and Alexandra Veevers as soon as had a obscure notion that by the point they reached their mid-30s they might be safe of their careers and married with kids.
As an alternative, as they watched their mates calm down, the sisters had been pressured to put aside their modest ambitions and spend greater than a decade defending themselves in opposition to a unprecedented declare – patricide.
Helen, now 36, and Alexandra, 34, together with their mom, had been accused of poisoning their property tycoon father Harry Veevers for his £7million fortune.
It was, they are saying, a depraved lie, a fantasy concocted by their older half-brothers Richard, 47, and Philip, 45, from their father’s first marriage, to disclaim them their inheritance.
The 2 sisters, from Manchester, insisted their 64-year-old father’s coronary heart assault on Valentine’s Day 2013 in Kenya was on account of pure causes alone.
But the Kenyan authorities entertained the brothers’ claims of foul play and exhumed Mr Veevers 11 months later.
Evaluation of tissue and soil samples produced conflicting outcomes. It will be left to an inquest within the coastal metropolis of Mombasa to resolve if he had been poisoned.
Helen (left), now 36, and Alexandra (proper), 34, together with their mom, had been accused of poisoning their property tycoon father Harry Veevers for his £7million fortune
The 2 sisters (pictured right here as infants), from Manchester, insisted their 64-year-old father’s (centre) coronary heart assault on Valentine’s Day 2013 in Kenya was on account of pure causes alone
Alexandra Veevers gestures throughout an inquest into her father’s dying
Helen Veevers at her father’s inquest
To the sisters’ large misery, the allegations had been reported around the world. And the story of feuding and homicide amongst rich Kenyan expats has drawn inevitable comparisons with the White Mischief case of 1941, dramatised in a novel and Hollywood film.
At stake was greater than Mr Veevers’ property. Helen and Alexandra, and their mom Azra Parvin Din, 75, had been warned that if the ruling went in opposition to them they may face felony expenses – and the terrifying chance of a jail sentence in a rustic the place jail circumstances are mentioned to be among the many worst on the earth.
Beset by delays on account of a backlog of instances and causes not instantly clear, the inquest dragged interminably. One listening to was deserted when Helen obtained intimidating texts from a person who turned out to be the court docket clerk.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that solely now, eight years after it opened in a blaze of publicity, has the inquest reached a conclusion.
Oddly, the decision caught each side’ authorized groups abruptly – they had been anticipating a routine case administration listening to. By probability, Alexandra was in court docket that morning as a result of she and her sister had been determined to search out out when a ruling was anticipated.
All of the sudden Justice of the Peace Charles Ndegwa started studying from a sheet of paper containing his complete evaluation of the long-running case.
Alexandra felt ‘my coronary heart beat out of my chest’. Mr Ndegwa advised the court docket: ‘Lastly, and most significantly, no concrete proof has been adduced to indicate that anybody was criminally accountable for the dying of the deceased. Within the circumstances, I direct the court docket file be closed.’
To the sisters, although relieved, ‘it felt a little bit of an anti-climax’. Mr Ndegwa’s assertion did not even trace on the case’s twisting complexities, far-reaching penalties and the scorched path it left behind.
And the feud is way from over. Senior assistant director of public prosecutions Alexander Muteti is predicted to resolve if brothers Richard, a martial arts teacher, and Philip, a former Military medic, needs to be investigated for fraud and trying to pervert the course of justice. ‘We’ll push for the police and prosecutors to research,’ says Helen.
Then there may be the unresolved query of the Rochdale businessman’s property. Mr Veevers died with out leaving a will. A letter he wrote purportedly outlining his last needs went lacking from a Barclays financial institution security deposit field. Promising to be as rancorous because the inquest, the inheritance battle is on the horizon.
For now, the sisters are numb and battle to make sense of the case that, says Helen, put their ‘lives on maintain’ for greater than ten years. Really, she provides, ‘it’s worse than that – our lives had been ruined by probably the most ridiculous, depraved, horrible lie’.
Alexandra says: ‘The emotional and psychological impression has been monumental. For all these years we have now needed to reside with the terrible worry of being jailed in Kenya for one thing we haven’t executed. It’s onerous to think about a lot worse than being wrongly accused of murdering our father, a person all of us cherished dearly.
‘The identical goes for our mom. It’s been horrendous for her. There has additionally been the knock-on results and the “no smoke with out hearth” factor. I haven’t dated anyone since Dad died. I name myself Alesha after I meet somebody, as a result of I do know if I give my actual identify they may learn the lies about me on the web.
‘And I don’t get parcels delivered to my house as I don’t need neighbours to see my identify.’
Helen and Alex at Mombasa Regulation Courts, Kenya – the sisters had been warned that if the ruling went in opposition to them they may face felony cost
Hlen Veevers along with her mom Azra (proper)
The Veevers sisters go away the Mombasa Regulation Courts after giving testimony on the inquest
Harry Veevers at this house in Niyali District, Mombassa
Harry Veevers with Azra Din by Lake Bolgoria in Kenya
Like her sister, Helen is single. Each reside in rented lodging. ‘We are able to’t get mortgages as all our cash has gone into preventing to clear our names,’ she says.
Helen provides that the case ruined friendships and relationships. She had to surrender her job as an property agent, as a substitute taking a a lot decrease profile function with a safety firm.
When their grandmother died, a relative warned them to not attend the funeral. ‘It was loopy,’ she says. ‘After all we went, but it surely’s an instance of the suspicions this has sown.’
Poisonous in additional methods than one, the case featured lies, fraud and corruption. At its coronary heart was the query of whether or not or not Mr Veevers was poisoned. Kenyan scientists claimed to have discovered traces of the insecticide cyhalothrin after exhuming his physique. However in 2018 a British forensic scientist, Dr Alexander Allan, advised the inquest {that a} re-analysis of soil and soft-tissue samples, utilizing a extremely delicate approach, had discovered no such hint of the poisonous compound.
In his report, seen by The Mail on Sunday, Dr Allan, who labored for the Dwelling Workplace for 20 years, famous intriguingly: ‘From the circumstances equipped to me it seems that the most definitely state of affairs for the origin of any confirmed cyhalothrin would have been autopsy addition.’
Mr Veevers’s stays have been saved at Mombasa hospital since exhumation, however the sisters and their mom now hope to rebury him with dignity. The exhumation, they are saying, was an emotional assault.
Helen fears her brothers now need him cremated in England. ‘This is able to be in opposition to his faith,’ she says.
Her father married his first spouse very younger, and divorced her in 1980 after having three kids, Alison, Richard and Philip. He later met Azra, a lady of Indian heritage who was born in Uganda earlier than shifting to Britain and settling in Rochdale.
They married in an Islamic ceremony and raised Helen and Alexandra as liberal Muslims. Harry later transformed. The Veevers typically visited Kenya throughout Helen and Alexandra’s childhood. Ultimately the couple moved to Mombasa, the place they constructed three homes subsequent to 1 one other, dwelling in a single whereas the others stayed empty as investments. Helen and Alexandra, by then adults, remained dwelling in Britain.
Harry later suffered hypertension, angina and an inside ear downside. On the day he died he complained of chest pains, dying as physician arrived at his house.
Helen advised the inquest of the second she knowledgeable Richard, often called ‘Dragon Rik’ due to a dragon tattoo the size of his physique. ‘I might inform the information made him blissful. He mentioned he’d been ready for this present day. He mentioned we might begin by sharing the contents of my father’s UK checking account, which had £500,000 in it. He was excited.’
Following the dying, Richard, Philip, Alexandra and Helen flew to Kenya collectively, although it was later claimed, wrongly, that the sisters had been in Kenya when he died.
On touchdown, the primary signal of division emerged. The brothers mentioned Harry was buried with out their data; the sisters say the brothers took half within the funeral.
Like her sister, Helen is single and lives in rented lodging. She says they cannot get mortgages as a result of their cash has gone in the direction of preventing to clear their names
For now, the sisters are numb and battle to make sense of the case that, says Helen (left), put their ‘lives on maintain’ for greater than ten years
Harry Veevers on the Whitesands Resort in 2012
Helen Veevers enjoys a bonfire along with her father Harry in 1990
The brothers claimed there have been unusual marks on the physique and so they had been suggested that they indicated poisoning; Helen says they’ve did not current any proof.
She accused Richard of seizing management of the household properties and Harry’s automotive with out settlement, and renting out Harry and Azra’s home with out consent. Alexandra advised the inquest she noticed Richard and Philip within the mortuary with their father’s physique, carrying latex gloves and ‘holding some type of instrument’.
Though their father didn’t go away a will, Helen advised the inquest that it was recognized ‘all through the household’ that there was a letter in a security deposit field at Barclays financial institution in Mombasa to be opened within the occasion of his dying. Harry’s brother Chris, who had been granted entry, discovered the field empty.
Helen advised the court docket she believed the letter may need disinherited Richard and he ‘did a deal’ with a financial institution worker to eliminate it.
‘My uncle Chris agreed my father was very shrewd with cash and would by no means have paid for a financial institution field that was empty,’ she mentioned.
‘My uncle warned me that Richard was making an attempt to set us up, accusing us of poisoning my father to get his cash. He mentioned, “You ladies must be cautious.’’ ’
It was additionally claimed that Mr Veevers had threatened to depart Azra, now dwelling in Hampshire, for an additional lady – however the sisters insist the supposed ‘affair’ is one other twisted fabrication.
All sides are contemplating their subsequent strikes. ‘We’ll come to court docket and testify,’ says Helen. ‘We had been actually scared all through. Some days I used to be so anxious I might get up with my nails imprinted into the palm of my hand from clenching my fists in the course of the night time. However we’re not giving up.’
Neither are their brothers. Richard and Philip, who deny their sisters’ allegations, intend difficult the inquest ruling in Kenya’s Excessive Courtroom. Their lawyer Francis Kinyua mentioned: ‘They’re upset however their place hasn’t modified.’
