London inheritance row over £2.7m estate sparks transatlantic probe into father’s alleged love children

A High Court inheritance dispute in London centers on the £2.7 million estate of McDonald Noel, a Trinidad-born shopkeeper who moved to London in 1960 and died in 2018 without a will, spouse, or children. The case, being heard by Master Katherine McQuail, has drawn in heir hunters, DNA testing, and a complex cast of potential beneficiaries across the Caribbean and the United Kingdom as authorities seek to determine who should inherit under the rules of intestacy.

Noel’s fortune includes a £1.5 million home in Batoum Gardens, Hammersmith and Fulham, among other assets. With no immediate family, the estate has become a focal point for a transatlantic row that touches on Noel’s father, Stanley Dorant, and the broader question of how many children Dorant fathered, and with whom. The evidence presented in court spans birth records, ship manifests, and DNA analyses that traverse Trinidad, Barbados, and the United Kingdom.

The dispute hinges on the alleged relationships of Stanley Dorant, a Barbados-born man who later lived in Trinidad, with two women: Neutrice Dorant, Noel’s mother, and Clementina Forde, Dorant’s second partner. Clementina later married Stanley, and the case now asks whether her children with Stanley—along with Noel and Francis, and possibly others—should be treated as legitimate heirs to Noel’s estate. The court is tasked with identifying how many children Stanley fathered, their identities, and their exact relationships to Noel.

The court has heard from multiple representatives of potential beneficiaries. On one side, Desiree Dorant, representing the children of St Clair Dorant, and Clyde Dorant’s grandchildren, Ty ler Dorant, argue that they are descended from Stanley and should share in Noel’s estate if the genealogical links prove valid. Gerard Burton, Stella Dorant’s son, also claims a stake on the basis that Stella was Stanley’s daughter, which would make her son a full sibling to Noel.

On the opposing side, Daniel Burton, representing Desiree and her siblings, contends that the central question is Stanley’s paternity record: how many children he had, and who they were. He notes that documentary evidence, plus DNA testing, could establish that Stanley fathered McDonald, Clyde, St Clair, and Francis, thereby supporting Noel’s line in the intestacy distribution.

Aidan Briggs, representing Shaka—Francis’s son—urges the court to weigh the possibility that Stanley may have fathered other children as well, and to be cautious about accepting claims that Clyde and St Clair are full siblings if documentary and DNA evidence do not conclusively prove paternity. He warns against assuming modern norms from a Caribbean context in earlier decades, where complex family arrangements and “outside” relationships were not uncommon. He emphasized that the DNA results, while supportive of Stella and Francis’s claims in the case, do not automatically resolve every potential lineage, and the court must determine paternity on the balance of probabilities.

The courtroom emphasis remains on whether Stanley Dorant’s rightful offspring extend to multiple branches of the Dorant family and how those branches intersect with Noel’s intestate heirs. The proceedings illustrate the intricate intergenerational web that can emerge when a wealthy family’s records and DNA evidence converge, especially within diasporic communities with deep ties across the Atlantic.

The judge has indicated that a ruling will follow once the kin enquiry is completed. If the court accepts that additional branches of Stanley’s descendants are legitimate, the distribution of Noel’s £2.7 million estate could stretch beyond a single beneficiary and alter the share each claimant receives under intestacy rules. The outcome will determine whether Gerard is the sole beneficiary or whether the lines of Shaka, Desiree, and Tyler Dorant, among others, will share the estate alongside Noel’s purported full siblings.

The case has also highlighted the role of heir hunters in modern probate disputes. A London firm, Hoopers, identified potential beneficiaries through genealogical research across the UK and the Caribbean, triggering the current kin enquiry. The cross-Atlantic dimension underscores how modern inheritance disputes can unfold far beyond national borders, especially when ancestral ties and paternity questions span multiple islands and generations.

This is not the first time a British probate case has used DNA to untangle a father’s lineage in the Caribbean. Yet the Noel case stands out for its mix of documentary records, maritime history, and family lore that together will shape the final resolution of who inherits Noel’s estate.