A beautician who was cut out of her pirate radio legend father’s will after he branded her ‘a lazy, useless, lying druggy’ has been awarded a £125,000 payout – which includes cash to cover the cost of a boob job.
Jenna Howe, 37, was dramatically disinherited by her father, Roger Howe, three years before he plunged to his death from a second-floor window aged 55 in March 2020.
Mr Howe left behind a staggering £1.4million fortune, part of which was tied up in his thriving radio engineering company BW Broadcast FM, to his mother, Rosina Howe, his sister Tina Tucker, and his two nephews, Ross and Jamie Tucker.
But a bitter inheritance row broke out after the former rigger, who made a fortune exporting radio equipment, vowed Jenna, his only child, should never see a penny of his estate when he changed his will for the final time in 2017.
A court heard that Mr Howe, a key player in the urban pirate and independent radio scene, had a ‘toxic’ relationship with Jenna, consistently ‘belittling’ her when she was growing up, ‘calling her names’ and taunting her in a ‘nasty’ way about her weight.
Jenna, who went on to develop bulimia and body dysmorphia, became estranged from her father in adulthood and Mr Howe was ‘adamant’ that she should not inherit any of his fortune upon his death.
When drafting the will, he claimed that he had decided to cut his daughter off because ‘she is lazy, grabbing and bad to my parents’. He told a friend he felt ‘jubilation…making sure that (she) never gets a penny of mine’.
Currently ‘destitute’ and recovering from periods of drug addiction, Jenna launched a claim for ‘reasonable provision’ out of her father’s estate, insisting that her life had been ruined by his callous neglect and cruelty during her childhood.
After two days at Central London County Court, Judge Mark Raeside ruled the estate should pay Jenna £125,000 to help her turn her life around.
Her claim for around £450,000 was rejected on the grounds that she is not entitled to have a property bought out of her late father’s fortune.
The lump sum payout includes a £75 weekly ‘maintenance’ payment for the next ten years, plus help with other needs, such as clearing debts and replacement breast implants.
‘Throughout her life, she has been self-conscious about her body and I am quite satisfied that this should be paid for by the estate,’ said the judge, adding: ‘She has had a body problem ever since she was a young child’.
Another legacy of her traumatic childhood was troubling body dysmorphia, disclosed her barrister, James McKean, during the trial of the case, urging the judge to award her cash to cover the costs of cosmetic surgery to replace her breast implants.
‘Where Jenna suffers from body dysmorphia, a payment to replace her breast implants is an investment in her physical and mental health and wellbeing,’ he argued.
During her childhood and teens, Mr Howe consistently ‘belittled’ his only child, said Judge Raeside, also taunting her about her weight.
‘He was really nasty about my weight and talked about me calling me names, and was horrible to me,’ Jenna had said in her written evidence.
She claimed on one occasion, Mr Howe even decided to weigh his daughter in front of his lodger.
Jenna developed an eating disorder while a teenager and, when bullied at school for being overweight, her ‘disciplinarian’ father showed no sympathy, continuing to ‘pick on her and make her feel bad about herself,’ said the judge.
Giving his ruling and awarding Ms Howe a payout, the judge said: ‘The view I have come to is that, in the exercise of my discretion, a lump sum award should be made in her favour from the estate to meet Jenna’s present and future financial needs in light of her mental condition, which has driven most of those needs.’
He described Jenna’s finances as ‘precarious,’ saying she is still hemmed in by heavy debts left over from a previous court clash with her relatives.
And since the effects of her mental conditions have made work almost impossible, the judge said she now deserves a weekly income of £75 to keep her head above water.
‘She is only just getting by and has a right to maintenance,’ he said. ‘This is a case where she wishes to improve herself and this will no doubt help.’
Mr Howe, a technical genius in the field of radio transmitting equipment, was only eight years old when he built his own transistor radio.
By 15, he was building complex AM and FM transmitters, which he continued to develop throughout his time in school and into the beginning of his career, where he developed state of the art technology for both commercial and military applications.
At just 16 years old, he was making rigs for London pirate radio stations, including JFM, a specialist jazz funk station.
In his later years, he used his expertise to build a successful business which exported equipment all over the world and made him a millionaire by the time of his death.
But his relationship with Jenna was fraught and ‘volatile’, the court heard.
‘Roger’s conduct weighs heavily in this case,’ her barrister told the judge.
‘His treatment of Jenna as a child and young adult has shaped the rest of her life, and a direct link can be drawn between that and her need for financial provision.’
While a young and vulnerable teenager, Jenna was the target of savage barbs from her father, explained Mr McKean, including being ‘teased about her weight’.
‘She now recalls several occasions on which he would belittle her, including one where he weighed her in front of a lodger,’ said the barrister.
At the time, Jenna was suffering from bulimia and depression, but her father – who had divorced her father when she was aged two, after which she lived with her mother – was ‘not sympathetic to her needs’ and she ended up drifting away from him.
One witness – a friend of her father – claimed Mr Howe had ended up viewing Jenna with ‘unambiguous hatred’ despite her attempts to reconcile, and branded her ‘grasping’ and a ‘lazy useless, lying druggy’.
And the solicitor who helped Mr Howe draw up his will said he was ‘adamant’ that his daughter must inherit nothing.
Although church-going Jenna has now battled to overcome her drug problems and rebuild her life, training as a beautician, she was ‘truly traumatised by the way her father treated her,’ said her barrister.
With her financial situation labelled ‘desperate,’ she went to court asking Judge Raeside to award her ‘reasonable financial provision’ out of her father’s fortune in line with the 1975 Inheritance Act.
She applied for an award to be held on trust for her of around £450,000 to cover needs such as paying off over £66,000 in debts, £315,000 for a new home, £8,000 to launch her beautician career and £20,000 for a new car.
Disputing her claim were Mr Howe’s 86-year-old mother, his sister and two nephews, who scooped the fortune when he died and were hauled to court by Jenna.
As well as being beneficiaries under the will, Rosina and Tina were sued as executrices of the estate.
In court, Jenna said her life ‘spiralled out of control’ after she began taking drugs and that her father did little to help her get back on her feet.
And although at one point he offered her work at his radio engineering company, she claimed the work involved intricate soldering, for which she had no experience.
‘He criticised me all the time until I had to leave,’ she told the court.
Jenna added that she had done her best to reconcile with her father over the years as she ‘longed for a relationship’ and was badly rocked by his death.
Her barrister added that she had ‘saved for weeks’ to buy lavish flowers for his funeral, adding that she had read a poem during the service, after which he was buried with a picture of her.
But giving evidence, her aunt Tina said Mr Howe had told him his daughter did nothing but paint her nails while at work, also pointing out that there was no contact between the father and daughter for nine years before his death.
‘He told me that when she was working she said ‘I don’t need to bother because one day all this will be mine’ – which I think made him think about his will,’ she said.
‘He came home furious and said she was just painting her nails.’
Mr Howe had branded his daughter ‘lazy, grabbing and bad to my parents’ when explaining his decision to cut her out of his will partly because he viewed her as idle, and partly because he felt she neglected her grandparents, Tina told the court.
‘He tried with her to get her to work, but she didn’t want to and he said to me that every time he just felt she was only there because she wanted his money.’
Asked about Mr Howe’s impact on his daughter’s life, she responded: ‘She blames everyone for everything, she has never taken responsibility’.
And quizzed on whether her brother would have wanted his daughter to ‘end up unhappy,’ she said: ‘I think that he tried with her and then gave up on her, I don’t know.’
She described father and daughter’s relationship as ‘quite toxic’ and when Jenna’s barrister suggested that he ‘made fun of his daughter’s weight on occasions,’ she replied: ‘He did that with me and my mother as well, but he used to get cross when Jenna would do nothing about it.’
Her brother’s hostility towards Jenna reached a point where ‘you couldn’t even mention her name in the house’, said Tina, also commenting: ‘He didn’t like her, Roger wasn’t involved that much in her life and had chosen to walk away.’
Tina also disclosed that she has already spent £150,000 in lawyers’ fees fighting her niece, including a previous court dispute sparked by a challenge brought by Jenna over the terms of Mr Howe’s will which ultimately ended in settlement.
The judge made the £125,000 award to Ms Howe at the end of the case rather than the £450,000 she asked for after ruling that, whilst she needs help, she is not entitled to have a property bought out of her late father’s money.