Ex-girlfriend assaults and robs widow over change to husband's will

Some stories involving estates are so strange, they are hard to believe. This is one of them.

In 2013 in England, a man named Michael Winner passed away, leaving a large estate. He was survived by his wife, Geraldine Winner, whom he had married in 2011. Things took a terrible turn for Mrs. Winner in 2015 when her husband's former girlfriend, with whom he had been involved between 1999 and 2002, got upset that she'd been left out of his will.

The former girlfriend, Gurgana Gueorguieva, believed that she was supposed to have been left a bequest of 100,000 pounds. She also believed that Mrs. Winner was the one who had persuaded her husband to leave Ms. Gueorguieva out, and that Mrs, Winner had hastened her husband's death by the use of a voodoo doll. She decided to get even.

For the next two years, Ms. Gueorguieva stalked Mrs. Winner, cased her apartment, and eavesdropped on her, all the while planning her revenge. In October 2015, Ms. Gueorguieva made her move. She forced her way into Mrs. Winner's apartment one night, armed with an iron bar. She hit and restrained Mrs. Winner, tying her down with plastic cables. She then looted the apartment, taking jewelry, artwork, photographs, and cash with a total value of somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 pounds.

Mrs. Winner, 81 years old, was left with cuts to her head, a broken rib, and a broken finger. Ms. Gueorguieva, 48 years old, was arrested and charged. This week, she was sentenced to 9 1/2 years in prison and is the subject of an indefinite restraining order.

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Whenever I read stories about estates gone wildly wrong, I always try to determine what the person (in this case, Mr. Winner) could have done differently to avoid the dispute. In this case, I honestly don't know what else he could have done. Surely a person is not obligated to leave a bequest to former romantic partners just in case they turn out to be violently jealous nutbars. It's quite possible that before launching her home invasion and robbery, Ms. Gueorguieva consulted lawyers to see whether she could contest the will, and was told that she had no grounds to do so.

The attached photo of Michael and Geraldine Winner appeared in www.telegraph.co.uk and is credited to Andy Butterton/PA.