Strickland heir claims harassment, threats and human rights violations

Robert Hornyold-Strickland, nephew and heir to Allied Newspaper founder Dame Mabel Strickland, reveals in an article published today that he has received 'threatening letters' in connection with a court case against the Strickland Foundation, which he claims was set up as a result of pressure on the late Mabel Strickland to change her will to the advantage of her legal executors, and to the exclusion of her own family.

Allied Newspapers, which publishes The Times, was founded in 1936 by Mabel Strickland, together with her father the former prime minister Lord Gerald Strickland. Following Mabel's death in 1988, control over the group was transferred to a foundation, as per instructions in her last will and testament.

READ Full account by Robert Hornyold-Strickland

The Strickland Foundation now controls 78,5% of Allied Newspapers. However, Robert Hornyold-Strickland is currently in court with the foundation's administrators, claiming that the executors of her will (namely the late Prof. Guido de Marco and Dr Maxwell Ganado) had taken advantage of their position of trust to 'persuade' Mabel Strickland to change its contents without the knowledge of her chosen heir.

Apart from excluding any member of the Strickland family from the administration of the family estate, Roberty Hornyold-Strickland also claims that the Foundation even took possession of the family residence of Villa Parisio.

"The executors and their representatives at the Foundation have deliberately stopped my family being able to enjoy our rights in privacy for the last 24 years..." Strickland writes in today's edition.

He goes on to say that "the Villa also contains much of the Strickland family possessions such as portraits and family records going back many generations which I had previously understood my aunt wished to leave to me. 

"Since her death, the Executors have consistently denied me access to all of her personal diaries, correspondence and family records [which] includes all correspondence and instructions relating to her wills. Why would they want to withhold this information?"

He further claims that attempts to reach an amicable solution proved futile.

"Instead I have received over 24 years of harassment aimed at myself and my family and more recently two threatening letters making me believe that the 'Powers of Persuasion' [a reference to de Marco's autobiography, published in 2010] do not involve dialogue."