Stepfather’s claim on £250,000 estate of acclaimed artist killed in Grenfell fire fails because he was already married to someone else when he wed her mother

• Family of London artist and Grenfell victim Khadija Saye won inheritance fight
• Stepdad Bubacarr Bah claimed £250k for being married to mother Mary Mendy
• Miss Mendy left everything to her daughter but they both died in the tragic fire

The stepfather of an acclaimed artist killed in the Grenfell Tower fire has failed in a claim over a £250,000 inheritance from her mother – as he was already married to another woman when they wed.

Khadija Saye, a London-born photographer on the cusp of a career breakthrough, had work on display in Venice when she died, and her photos were posthumously exhibited at Tate Britain.

Despite trying to escape, she died, aged 24, along with her mother, Mary Mendy, 54, when Grenfell Tower in West London, where she grew up, went up in flames in 2017.

The family of the two women featured heavily in the inquiry into the disaster, but their deaths also resulted in a court fight over Miss Mendy’s money – with the bulk of her £250,000 estate coming from her life insurance policy.

Miss Mendy had decided to leave everything to her daughter in a 2008 will, but as both women died in the fire the inheritance went to Miss Saye’s father Mohammadou Saye and her close cousin Marion Telfer, with Miss Saye grew up with in Grenfell.

The family of acclaimed artist Khadija Saye (pictured) who died in the Grenfell Tower disaster have won a £250,000 inheritance fight with her stepfather

Khadija Saye (left) and her mother Mary Mendy (right) when Khadija was a child for her Holy Communion

But the family faced a fight to claim the inheritance by Miss Mendy’s second husband, Miss Saye’s stepfather Bubacarr Bah.

READ MORE: Firefighter took selfie in front of smouldering Grenfell Tower after 72 people had lost their lives in the fire and used it for Tinder

He claimed his 2013 marriage to Miss Mendy rendered her earlier will void, meaning he could claim a share of the cash.

But following a trial this week, Mr Bah’s claim to the estate was thrown out when a judge at the High Court found that he was already married to another woman when he married Miss Mendy.

Khadija Saye was a talent from an early age, winning a scholarship to the prestigious Rugby School before studying at university and working as a studio assistant for artist Nicola Green.

Her 2013 graduation piece was a series of photographs of friends, family and neighbours, celebrating the identity and power of black women through images of their hair, all taken on the 20th floor of Grenfell.

She had recently been interviewed as a rising star for a BBC documentary, which was broadcast after her death, and posthumously had work exhibited at Tate Britain and the British Library.

Mary Mendy had been married to Khadija Saye’s father, Mohammadou Saye, but wed army captain Mr Bah in Gambia in 2013, before quickly discovering that he was already married, the High Court heard this week.

‘The deceased told Mr Saye and Mrs Telfer and her daughter that the defendant was already married when he purported to marry her,’ their barrister Elaine Palser told the judge, Master Iain Pester.

‘When she found out, she tried to divorce him, but she just couldn’t get the divorce through, because he kept avoiding service of documents.’

The first Mr Saye and Mrs Telfer – who are executors of Miss Mendy’s 2008 will – knew about Mr Bah’s claim to Miss Mendy’s money was when they discovered in 2020 that he had been granted ‘letters of administration’ over her estate.

He had done so on the basis that their marriage in 2013 had resulted in the nullification of the 2008 will, because wills are voided in British law when testators marry.

However, a previous will is not voided when a marriage occurs if the marriage is polygamous and one of the parties is ‘domiciled in England and Wales,’ said the barrister.

Mr Saye and Mrs Telfer tracked Mr Bah down via the Gambian armed forces, putting it to him through his lawyers that the marriage to Miss Mendy was ‘polygamous,’ she said.

But despite his lawyers responding to say simply that the marriage was ‘valid’ in Gambia, he had not filed a defence to the claim, she continued.

All his lawyers put forward was a letter stating that the marriage of Miss Mendy and the army captain was valid under the law in the west African country.

Smoke billowing from the fire that engulfed Grenfell Tower in west London on October 30 2019

Any documentary proof Miss Mendy might have had that Mr Bah was already married had been burned in the flames at Grenfell, continued the barrister.

‘All you have to rely on is what the claimants say the deceased told them,’ she told the judge.

‘It was open to the defendant to say that’s wrong, and he hasn’t.

‘He has had ample opportunity to answer what we say in the claim and he has chosen not to do that.

‘We say that is because he isn’t able to do so.’

Giving judgment, Master Pester ruled in favour of Mr Saye and Mrs Telfer, allowing them to split the £250,000.

‘The burden of proof lies on the claimants,’ he said. ‘They have asserted a case that raises an evidential burden on Mr Bah, which he hasn’t discharged.

‘His solicitors don’t positively assert he wasn’t married to someone else. They simply say that the marriage was valid as a matter of Gambian law.

‘I don’t consider that provides an answer to the claimants’ case.

‘Accordingly, I am satisfied that the marriage was polygamous and the deceased was domiciled in England at the time of her void marriage with Mr Bah.

‘Accordingly, it seems to me that the letters of administration granted to Mr Bah should be revoked.

‘It follows that – the will being otherwise valid – probate should be granted to the claimants as the named executors of the will.’

Ms Palser said Mr Saye and Mrs Telfer had agreed privately in what proportions to share Miss Mendy’s estate.

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