September 1 • 2019 The Mail on Sunday^
Desperate couple
offer son’s killer
£40,000 to just get
grandson back
By Simon Parry
THE parents of a British executive
murdered by his estranged wife
in China have taken the heart-
wrenching decision to offer their
son’s killer more than £40,000 so
that their grandchildren can grow
up together in the UK.
Ian and Linda Simpson with their
family and supporters have spent
over two years fighting for custody
of Alice, six, and eight-year-old
Jack after their son Michael was
stabbed to death in a jealous rage
by Wei Wei Fu in his Shanghai
apartment in March 2017.
They won custody of Alice in
December and flew her home to
start a new life in Suffolk after
agreeing to pay Wei Wei’s family
more than £9,000, guaranteeing
that the siblings would speak by
video link every week and meet
up once a year.
But while the weekly calls have
gone ahead, Jack’s Chinese grand-
parents have refused to honour
the court agreement and hopes of a
summer holiday reunion in Britain
were dashed when they refused to
let him leave their home in north-
west China.
Now, Ian and Linda have written
to the family offering to put 350,
yuan (£40,200) into an account for
Wei Wei to support her after she
is released from her life term for
murder if they agree to let Jack
leave China for the UK.
The extraordinary offer to their
son’s killer is the latest turn in a
painful two-year transglobal cus-
tody fight over Jack and Alice, who
were whisked away to the back-
ward city of Nanzhang and denied
contact with their British grandpar-
ents for a year after the murder.
Michael, 34, an executive with
clothing firm Next who had lived
in China for nine years, was killed
in his Shanghai apartment by Wei
Wei as Jack and Alice slept.
The couple had split two years
earlier and Michael had been left to
raise the children.
He was with his new partner
when Wei Wei burst into his flat
and stabbed him in the neck, killing
him instantly.
She also attacked Michael’s
girlfriend and left her with life-
long injuries.
Within days, Jack and Alice had
been spirited 600 miles from Shang-
hai to live in Nanzhang with their
Chinese grandparents, bicycle
repairman Fu Shi Bao, 61, and Hu
Dei Xiu, 55, while their mother
awaited trial for Michael’s murder.
As Ian and Linda launched a com-
plex legal fight for custody of the
children which has already cost
more than £100,000, the Fu family
at one stage demanded more
than £60,000 to hand over both Jack
and Alice before finally agreeing
to let Alice leave in a deal struck in
court on Christmas Day.
The family earlier rejected an
offer of £10,000 and a declaration
of forgiveness from the Simpson
family in return for handing over
the children – a deal which under
Chinese law could have halved
Wei Wei’s minimum 20-year term
when she was sentenced in July
last year.
Ian, 70, told The Mail on Sunday
he wrote a letter to the Chinese
family last week making the £40,
offer after being told taking legal
action to force them to abide by
the court agreement would cost
about £25,000 upwards and take
‘You have to put your
emotions to one side’
The moment we
told Alice how her
father was killed
THE father of murdered
Michael Simpson has told of the
anguished moment he had to
tell his little granddaughter the
truth about her parents after
she asked him: ‘Did Mummy do
something nasty to Daddy?’
Alice Simpson, six, did not
know her father had been
stabbed to death by his
estranged wife Wei Wei Fu
when she arrived in Britain to
live with her grandparents in
January nearly two years after
the murder. Her Chinese
grandparents had said only that
her parents were working away.
Covering up the truth about
Michael’s murder from Alice
and her brother Jack meant
Alice’s British family Ian and
Linda had the ordeal of telling
her what really happened as she
tried to adjust to moving from
China and relearning English.
‘We got someone who spoke
Chinese to very gently explain to
Alice her father was dead and
her mother was in prison. I’m
not sure if she fully understood
that at the time but she said she
did,’ said Ian, who consulted a
psychiatrist for advice on how
to break the news.
It was five months later when
Alice, who now lives near Bury
St Edmunds, Suffolk, with her
grandfather and his second wife
Diana, spoke of the night of her
father’s murder for the first
time. She told Ian: ‘Oh, that’s
when I woke up Jack. There
was this noise and he’s my big
brother so I woke him and he
went out to find out what was
going on. Then a man came and
told us we had to get dressed
and my uncle came the next
day to take us away.’
At that point Alice said: ‘Oh,
it’s all too scary.’ Ian explained:‘That’s her way of saying she
doesn’t want to talk about it
any more.’
Jack has now been told by
his Chinese family the truth
about his father’s death after
Alice left for Britain. He has
visited his mother in prison at
least twice.
How Alice comes to terms
with the reality of her father’s
murder in the long-term is now
a huge worry for her British
grandparents. ‘All the signs
are positive,’ said Ian. ‘She
sleeps well, she eats well, she
plays well, she is really doing
well at school. There is no sign
of any problems.
‘But we don’t know what is in
the back of her mind and that
terrifies Di and me.’MEMORIES: Ian Simpson with son Michael, Wei Wei Fu and grandson Jack
on the couple’s wedding day. Now he is set to pay £40,000 to bring Jack homeCUSTODY: Alice, riding this
summer, came to the UK in JanuaryMURDERED: Michael, with children Alice and Jack, was stabbed by Wei Weiup to a year – with no guarantee
that they would ever comply.
‘The reason the Fu family want to
keep Jack is so he can look after his
mother – that is the [traditional]
Chinese approach,’ he said.
‘The earliest Wei Wei will get outis 2036 and Jack will be 27 by that
time. We’ve said we will put money
in Wei Wei’s bank account and it
will be worth double by the time
she gets out, and that is the alter-
native to them hanging on to Jack.’
The decision to offer money totheir son’s killer was an emotion-
ally fraught one, admitted Ian, who
is focusing on the welfare of Jack,
who in recent months has finally
been told his father is dead and has
visited his mother in prison.
‘Believe me, it isn’t fair toMichael,’ he said. ‘But you have
to come back to what is practical
and put your emotions to one side.
‘If money is what it takes to bring
Jack to Britain and reunite him
with Alice, that is what we have
to do.’