The parents of a British executive who was killed by his Chinese wife have agreed a custody deal to bring their granddaughter to the UK but they will have to leave their grandson behind.
Ian and Linda Simpson, from Suffolk, wanted to bring both of their grandchildren eight-year-old Jack and Alice, six, to live with them after their son Michael was murdered in 2017.
Since their father’s death in March 2017, they have been living with their maternal grandparents in a remote city in north-west China.
According to reports by the BBC and Mail on Sunday, they have paid a financial settlement of up to £10,000 to the family of their son’s killer wife so that they can bring Alice to live with them in the UK.
But the maternal grandparents, from Nanzhang, who are said to survive on about £200 a week and have a limited income, have refused to allow Jack to leave. It comes after a near two-year legal battle.
Mr and Mrs Simpson did not want to split the children up but said that they were hoping to return home with Alice in the new year before continuing their fight to have Jack join them.
Their son, who was an executive with the clothing firm Next was stabbed to death in his Shanghai apartment by his estranged wife Fu Wei Wei while the children slept. They had been separated for two years and he had been raising the children.
His new partner was also left with life-long injuries.
Fu was sentenced to life in prison for the killing.
The children’s grandfather Mr Simpson, 69, told the Mail on Sunday: “We feel terribly guilty leaving Jack behind. You try to do the right thing and there was no easy answer here unless a judge somehow gave both children to us."
He went on: “The comforting thing is our lawyers are already talking to us about phase two – bringing Jack home.
“In the meantime we will try to get the Fu family’s trust and try to get Jack to want to come to us. We will never give up."
