Robert Webb, 54, of Walton Road, West Molesey, Surrey was Ms Mercer's partner for 13 years and was warned at Kingston Crown Court yesterday that he faces jail after experts found the signature on the will was not genuine.
Webb claimed to have found Mercer’s last will and testament in the leaves of a book kept in the house in West Molesey several weeks after she was brutally attacked on the driveway.
No one has been charged with her murder. Prosecutor Lee Harris said: “The defendant's partner, well ex partner, had been murdered on her driveway, not by this defendant of course.”
In reference to the will, he stated that the prosecution “does not accept that it was found in the leaf of a book or that the signature was genuinely the signature of the deceased”.
He added that a handwriting expert had said it was highly probably that the signature was “not her hand writing”.
The prosecution said that he was attempting to get full ownership of the property which was valued at over £800,000 at the time of the murder.
The defending counsel Lyall Thompson said Webb had no intention that the will would to be taken as genuine, saying he believed the genuine will was in the possession of other family members and he was hoping to flush it out.
Webb was bailed and is due to appear again at Kingston Crown Court next month.
