The top doctor, a secret love child... and two brothers at war over inheritance

From The Daily Express - 16/05/2007

By Martin Evans

It is a tale of sexual intrigue which would not look out of place in the pages of a Barbara Taylor Bradford novel.
One illegitimate brother battling another for a share of the family fortune while an eminent doctor is accused of fathering a secret love child.

But this salacious saga is not the plot of a best seller – it is the devastating reality of a High Court case which has ripped a wealthy family apart.

Adrian Northcott, 44, and brother David, 39, are battling over a £300,000 family inheritance after their mother claimed the younger son was illegitimate and therefore not entitled to a penny.

Diana Northcott, 79, has admitted a number of affairs before, during and after her troubled marriage and she told the court her late husband John Northcott was not the father of David.

She claimed his real father was world-famous doctor and former chief executive of the British Medical Association, Dr John Havard, whom she had known since childhood.

If this is proved to be true, David, a lighting engineer from Tufnell Park, North London, would not be entitled to a portion of the estate set up by the brothers' grandfather, George Northcott, in 1955.

David has branded his mother "dysfunctional, malicious and nasty" and says she has made the claims because she wants to hurt him. Mrs Northcott told the court that after marrying factory owner John in 1962 she soon became pregnant with Adrian.

But her marriage had disintegrated due to her husband's drinking and violent temper.

She desperately wanted a baby girl after losing a daughter to cot death and turned to Dr Havard for help.
Mrs Northcott claimed that after she met him in his private members' club, The Oxford and Cambridge, in Pall Mall, he agreed to assist her.

She added: "He was very gallant about it, saying something like 'how could one refuse'." Mrs Northcott gave birth to David who suffered a troubled childhood and had learning difficulties. She said she kept the truth about her son's paternity a secret until 2001 when, after a disagreement with David, she told the trustees of the fund he was not a legitimate heir.

The three estranged parties in the case faced each other yesterday at the High Court in London as the intimate details of their family history were played out.

The case has been brought by the trustees of the inheritance who have asked Mr Justice Blackburne to rule on whether David is entitled to benefit from the fund.

A DNA test has shown it is 99.84 per cent likely that the brothers do not have the same father. But in a further twist David has claimed that Adrian is also illegitimate and his true father is their uncle, Vernon Northcott, with whom their mother has admitted an affair.

Mrs Northcott told the court she "came clean" about the paternity of David because she felt he was planning to "spoil" things for her other son and his two daughters.

She said: "It wasn't done in malice but to protect my daughter-in-law and her family, those innocent little girls." Mrs Northcott said her relationship with David was "threat, threat, threat, money, money, money." Richard Buswell, barrister for David, said: "You have taken against your son David and that is why you have pursued this action against him." Last night Dr Havard, 89, hit out at the allegations that he was David's father. He insisted Mrs Northcott's claims were "complete fabrication".

At his home in London's Wilton Square where he lives with his 99-year-old wife Anne, Dr Havard said he had refused to act as a "stud" for Mrs Northcott. He insisted: "I could not have been David's father." Dr Havard said: "She told me she wanted some help having a child. What she really meant was she wanted a stud. I told her 'no way'." But Dr Havard agreed to be David's godfather and sees him regularly. He has refused to take a DNA test to prove he is not his father.

David told the court his mother could not be trusted because "she has a history of fabrication about her past." She had told him Adrian's father was Uncle Vernon and not John Northcott.

Adrian told the court a number of things down the years had led him to believe Dr Havard was David's father.
The case continues.

(c) 2007 Express Newspapers
Date: 16/05/2007
Publication: The Daily Express