entrepreneur<\/a> who established a construction company in Jamaica, as well as running the thriving bakery in Coldharbour lane, Brixton, south London.<\/p>\nHowever, he had a “strained” relationship with Dorothy “because of other women in his life” and had fathered at least five other children with various mothers, as well as the two the couple had together, Rik and brother Gregory.<\/p>\n
![\"Dorothy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Dorothy-Ducent.jpg\")
Dorothy Ducent had worked alongside Herbert in his south London bakery business and inherited his wealth after his death 18 years ago (Champion News)<\/p>\n
After his death, a court fight erupted over his fortune between Dorothy – who was left all Herbert’s money under a will drawn up in Jamaica – and one of those children, Sarah.<\/p>\n
His English estate mainly consisted of two neighbouring properties in Peak Hill, Sydenham, jointly valued at around \u00a3900,000, with more property forming his Jamaican estate.<\/p>\n
Sarah went to court in a bid to secure \u201creasonable provision\u201d from her dad\u2019s estate, claiming she is now living \u201con the breadline\u201d and needs cash.<\/p>\n
But in order to claim part of his fortune in the British courts, she had to establish that Herbert’s legal permanent home was in London, rather than Jamaica.<\/p>\n
The key question for Judge Jane Evans-Gordon to decide was whether the English courts had \u201cjurisdiction\u201d to deal with the claim, or whether it was a purely Jamaican issue.<\/p>\n
The judge found that after marrying Dorothy, Herbert also fathered a second child with a Jamaican woman in 1978 and went on to father at least three more with other women in Jamaica.<\/p>\n
Herbert had moved the family to Jamaica in 1983, with Dorothy moving back to London in 1996, after which Herbert never visited England again.<\/p>\n
The judge concluded: “I am satisfied that Herbert was domiciled in Jamaica at his date of death.”<\/p>\n
![\"Sting,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782127573_294_preview.jpg\")
Sting, left, and Shaggy arrive at the 79th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 7, 2026, at Radio City Music Hall in New York (AP)<\/p>\n
In court last week, Sarah challenged the making of the costs order, under which she has to pay \u00a3126,000 to cover Dorothy’s legal bills, describing the sum as “excessive.”<\/p>\n
But lawyers for Dorothy, defending the issuing of the \u201cdefault costs certificate\u201d against Sarah, highlighted her past non-compliance with court orders, including a previous order that she stump up \u00a340,000 towards Dorothy\u2019s legal fees which had not materialised.<\/p>\n
Ruling against Sarah, Judge Evans-Gordon said Sarah “just doesn\u2019t have that sort of money\u201d but that the amount ordered was not over the top.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not going to set aside the default costs\u2019 certificate, I am not satisfied that \u00a3126,000 for a dispute of this nature is plainly disproportionate,” she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a three-day trial and there have been a number of hearings. It was also an international case in the sense that it involved witnesses from overseas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe deceased had been domiciled and resident in Jamaica for many years and much of the evidence had to come from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
At least one witness had to give video evidence from Jamaica, said the judge, adding that Dorothy\u2019s son, Rik, also had to \u201cfly in\u201d to give evidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot say that \u00a3126,000 is disproportionate in all the circumstances,\u201d said the judge, adding: \u201cI see a great many costs orders, some of which are positively eye-watering, and I\u2019m afraid that this is not such a figure.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer inability to pay is irrelevant to the question whether this costs order should be made.\u201d<\/p>\n
In interviews, Rik, who grew up in London and rural Jamaica, has explained how his love of music was sparked by hearing his parents sing, naming his dad as an inspiration and a \u201cbig reggae fan\u201d.<\/p>\n
He has said he never gets tired of playing \u201cIt Wasn\u2019t Me,\u201d which brought about a major life change for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was finally able to silence the detractors who thought I was wasting my life on this music nonsense and I also made my parents very proud,\u201d he told the Jamaica Observer in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was able to travel the world and see places it\u2019s doubtful I would\u2019ve seen otherwise.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver two decades later, I still get recognised [and] can\u2019t count the number of pictures I\u2019ve taken and autographs I\u2019ve signed for the nicest strangers you could ever meet. It\u2019s allowed me to basically retire and focus entirely on raising my beautiful family. Eternally grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the case, Sarah, who said she is now living in poverty in London, said outside court: \u201cI am hurt by the whole thing and I\u2019ve lost my whole family. My dad died, but on the day he died I didn\u2019t think I would end up being in the position I am today, going through all this heartache.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have a step-mother anymore. This money would make a great difference in my life, I am on the breadline right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,219315,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-652068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-the-tonys","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Sarah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Sarah-Ducent(1).jpg\")
Sarah went to court in a bid to secure \u201creasonable provision\u201d from her dad\u2019s estate, claiming she is now living \u201con the breadline\u201d (Champion News)<\/p>\n