AN ABERPORTH pensioner’s decision to leave her £575,000 Welsh farm to her son – and just £10,000 to her daughter – triggered a bitter family feud which ended up at the High Court.

Sian Lloyd claimed her mum, Doris Harris, was hearing voices and suffering bizarre halucinations when she signed her final will in 2005.

Stricken by dementia, Mrs Harris’ eye sight was so poor she could only read through a large magnifying glass, her daughter said.

And her lawyers told the court there was a real “suspicion” that the will was not read through to Mrs Harris before she signed it.

Mrs Lloyd said she suspected she may have been penalised because she “married out” of the local Welsh-speaking rural community.

But now a senior judge has ruled that Mrs Harris knew what she was doing when she left Pen y Graig farm, on the coast near Aberporth, to her son, Ioan.

By her will, Mrs Harris – who died in December 2010 – bequeathed the farm to Ioan and his wife, Kathy, equally.

Mrs Lloyd received a legacy of £10,000.

And, although not everyone would agree with the way she favoured her son over her daughter, Judge David Cooke said there was nothing irrational about Mrs Harris’ will.

She had the mental capacity to make her own choices and was probably able to read the will, even without her glasses, he ruled.

The will was prepared, without a solicitor, by Mrs Harris’ niece, retired Newcastle Emlyn GP, Hedydd Parry Jones, the court heard.

Mrs Lloyd argued that, by the time she signed the document, her mother had for years been suffering from memory loss and delusions.

She was said to be so confused that she believed that she had won £1m in a Reader’s Digest competition after receiving a marketing mail shot.

Prone to wandering off, she had to be supervised day and night and did not have her magnifying glass with her when she signed the will, argued Mrs Lloyd’s legal team.

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