Grieving grandparents told to save one child and pay £60k custody

PLAYING with their two grandchildren on Boxing Day, Ian and Linda Simpson tried to stay upbeat and smiling — while on the inside, they screamed.

The pair knew they were about to split the young siblings apart, causing yet more pain to the cherished children who had already suffered far too much.

They had to make the most nightmarish decision of their lives or risk losing both of them for ever.

Jack, eight, and Alice, six, are the children of their son Michael, who was stabbed to death by his ex-wife Wei Wei Fu, the children’s mum, in Shanghai in 2017.

Grieving Ian and Linda immediately knew they wanted to bring the kids to Britain and raise them here, to give them the lives their son had wanted for them.

But while their Chinese mother was being questioned by police, the youngsters had been whisked to their maternal grandparents’ poverty-stricken home in a remote province.

Ian and Linda negotiated for nearly two years to bring the pair to their home in Suffolk — then they were told by the Chinese grandparents that they could not take both youngsters.

They were then given a choice: Take Alice and leave Jack 5,000 miles away in China, or leave them both.

Distraught Linda pleaded with illiterate bicycle salesman Fu Shi Bao, 61, and his wife Hu De Xiu, 55: “How can we wrench them apart?”

But Ian, a retired business consultant, 69, says: “In the end we had to choose between coming home with Alice or walking away without either of our grandchildren. We could have lost them both for ever.”

They knew that in rural China, where boys are more prized than girls, little Alice would have far fewer chances than she would in Britain.

They also knew that their son Michael had been determined to give his children a Western-style education, lifestyle and opportunities — which they had been also able to enjoy in cosmopolitan Shanghai.

Remote Nanzhang, in Hubei province, 600 miles from Shanghai and in an area with no foreigners, was a completely different world.

So they decided they would have to choose Alice — even as her brother, who had never been apart from her, wept and begged his Chinese grandparents: “Don’t let Alice go!”

The three are now awaiting their final paperwork for the little girl to come back with them, and a school place is being held for her at Hartest, Suffolk.

Ian said: “Alice has never been apart from Jack and it’s obvious she misses him badly. She has been amazingly brave but there have been moments when she has been in tears, asking for her brother.”

He cannot hide his fury that the Chinese couple could dare to try to rob them of their grandchildren — after their killer daughter had already robbed them of their son.

Sunderland supporter Michael Simpson, 34, died almost instantly after ex-wife Wei Wei plunged a kitchen knife into his neck in a rage of jealousy in his posh flat in Shanghai in March, 2017. Alice and Jack were asleep in another room.

Retail ace Michael had lived in Wimbourne, Dorset, until 2009, when he moved to the fast-paced Chinese city to run British store Next’s expansion in the booming Far East.

He soon met Wei Wei, who was working in the Shanghai store. They quickly married and in 2010 Jack was born, with Alice arriving two years later.

Michael’s brother Andrew said: “Michael loved working but his overwhelming passion was Jack and Alice.”

The family lived an expat life of luxury in a smart apartment block. The children were privately educated and the family went on expensive holidays to Europe.

Michael Simpson's mother (centre) with the parents of Wei Wei Fu, who murdered her son, are stopping her from bringing grandson Jack home to England
But in 2015 Wei Wei left Michael, leaving the children behind too. A family friend said: “Michael had told friends and family before the killing that she was violent although no one seems to have taken it too seriously. Wei Wei was always after more money from Michael.”

A year later Michael fell in love with another local woman, who prefers not to be named.

Then, on the night of March 20, 2017, Wei Wei and two friends arrived unannounced at the apartment.

A row erupted and Wei Wei, 32, pulled out a knife she had brought with her and stabbed Michael in the shoulder, then the neck, cutting an artery. He died within minutes.

Wei Wei also attacked Michael’s girlfriend, slicing through her right arm. It is still paralysed.

After getting the news, dazed Ian flew alone to Shanghai to bring home his grandchildren, only to discover they were hundreds of miles away.

Desperate to get back the kids, who he was close to and had seen every year on holidays, he even mustered the courage to visit his son’s killer in jail to try to win her support.

He said: “If I had to go to see Pol Pot or Adolf Hitler in hell to get my grandchildren, I would do it.

But he soon found that the wishes of Wei Wei — now serving a 20-year sentence — were irrelevant.

The big issue were her parents, who, led by her brother, were insisting on huge sums of money for any custody deal. They even put money ahead of Wei Wei herself.

A friend of the Simpsons’ explained: “Wei Wei’s family could have got her a significant sentence reduction to her 20 years by agreeing to accept £10,000 for custody of the two kids along with a letter of forgiveness to the court, which carries a lot of weight under Chinese law.

“But the brother was still insisting on more than £60,000, effectively condemning Wei Wei to ten more years.

“The murder and the extortionate demands seem to have been driven by a poor family thinking they’d hit the jackpot when their daughter hooked up with a wealthy foreigner and then being disappointed that it didn’t turn out to be the gravy train they’d banked on.”

Making Ian and Linda even more furious was the fact that the Chinese side of the family had never told the children that their father was dead.
Instead, incredibly, they insisted Michael had deserted them.

Ian said: “They were so close and the love between them so strong. It’s cruel they’ve been led to believe their father is alive but hasn’t contacted them. If I were Jack or Alice, I would be angry. I’d be thinking, ‘Why hasn’t he even rung us?’”

For more than a year Ian and Linda — who are divorced but still close, along with Ian’s second wife Diana, also 69, battled to raise money.

As well as dealing with the family, they had to deal with Chinese authorities, who very rarely allow a Chinese-born child to go to live with a parent or grandparent abroad.

The turning point came last July, after Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt raised the case on an official visit to Beijing.

Negotiations ground on, but Ian and Linda — who had spent £100,000 on the battle — believed they were on track to get both kids. Then at the 11th hour, the Chinese family made it clear they could only have Alice.

On Boxing Day they handed over £9,200 to Wei Wei’s family and signed a deal that they would get weekly phone calls with Jack, and be able to see him once a year.

Alice, who will live with Ian and his new wife Diana, now has an emergency British passport and is just waiting for Chinese authorities to grant an exit permit.

Meanwhile, Ian is still in anguish. He said: “We feel terribly guilty leaving Jack behind. You try to do the right thing and there was no easy answer here

“Our lawyers are already talking to us about phase two, bringing Jack home. We will never give up. We have to get Jack home — then we can finally grieve for our son.”