A millionaire businessman who stabbed his wife to death in the midst of a bitter divorce row is being sued for £1.5m by his two sons.
Ben Workman, 27 and his brother Nicholas, 23, said their father, Ian, had “profited” from their mother’s death.
In the case at the appeal court in London described as “unique and troubling”, the brothers claim their 63-year-old father would have had to hand over half his fortune to their mother, Susan, in a divorce settlement had he not murdered her.
If the car dealer is allowed to keep the £3.3m fortune, the brothers’ lawyers argue, he will have profited from murdering their mother.
Workman, who is serving a life sentence, is defending himself from his prison cell and insists he did not kill his wife for money. He is believed to have given away almost his entire fortune to his eldest son, Grant, 28, who has stood by him throughout his conviction.
Workman stabbed his wife through the heart in a frenzied row at the family home in Edgworth, near Bolton, in April 2011.
Stephen Killalea QC told London’s civil appeal court that Workman snapped as the estranged couple rowed over the financial fallout from their divorce. Susan had been claiming a payout of about £1.5m from her former partner.
But the money remained in his possession after he was convicted of her murder at Preston crown court in December 2011.
Workman claims he has been treated “unfairly and oppressively” by his two sons but they are determined he should not profit from their mother’s murder. Backing their claim is Susan’s sister, Carol Forrester, who is representing her murdered sibling’s estate.
Workman watched the case via live video link from jail as his lawyers insisted he had not been given a fair chance to defend himself.
The brothers’ case reached the appeal court after Workman challenged a judgment for £1,503,579 that was entered against him in 2013.
As part of an asset-freezing injunction, Workman had been ordered to disclose his assets worldwide. But Killalea said he made no attempt to comply with the order and, as a result, was barred from defending his sons’ claim.
The QC also claimed Workman had “voluntarily dissipated virtually all his assets” to Grant.
Workman’s obstruction of the legal process had led to “horrendous delays” and caused “intense emotional strain” to the brothers and deepened the trauma already caused by their mother’s murder, he added.
However, Workman’s barrister, Katherine McQuail, urged the appeal court to give him a fair chance to defend himself against his sons’ claim.
Denying that a “profit motive” lay behind the murder, she said Workman was “in temper” when he killed his wife at the height of a “bitter dispute” during the breakdown of their 35-year marriage.
During his trial, Workman insisted he acted in self defence after his wife came at him with a kitchen knife and that she was fatally injured during the struggle. But he was convicted and ordered to serve a life sentence. His conviction challenge was turned down by the criminal appeal court in 2014.
At his murder trial the court heard poignant extracts from Susan’s diary – with the last entry written moments before the killing. The log, titled “Sue’s Memories”, recorded how her former husband stormed into the house to retrieve his “clothes and jumpers”. Her last unfinished line read “standing, staring at me acro …” before she was stabbed to death.
Lord Justice McCombe, Lady Justice Sharp and Lady Justice Thirlwall have now reserved their decision on Workman’s appeal.
