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A strange aunt with a creepy husband, who in my opinion spent most of her time standing around looking wooden, and almost rivalled her own niece Jenny Hartley for annoying awfulness. Some time after Jenny Hartley had been imprisoned for the murder of her awful Nana, she mentioned her Aunt Harriet to another prisoner. She said she had married a man the grandmother had not approved of, and as a result had not been heard of until now. But Jenny was shocked when she found out Aunt Harriet and husband Steven Formby were trying to have the grandmother's will invalidated. They even came to Wentworth to tell Jenny not to contact them again, in what I consider one of the series' most memorable examples of poor acting and characterisation. It took May Collins to point out the possible reason for this odd attitude - if Jenny were in prison on a life sentence, Aunt Harriet might inherit in her place.
When Jenny suspected her lawyer of being paid off by her aunt, she fired him, and instead hired the scruffy Howard Simmons, at May's recommendation. (Even though he had defended May and lost.)
Steven Formby visited Jenny, and virtually confessed to murdering the old lady, saying he'd chosen the "wrong one", and should have married Jenny instead of Harriet. But when Jenny realised she could not prove his confession, he got hysterical, and had to be put into solitary, presumably in case the overacting turned into an epidemic among the bit parts.
Howard had decided to investigate why George the gardener had been sacked so suddenly. Harriet paid a visit on Howard, and when he mentioned George, she tried to buy him off. He accepted the money, but planned to use it to pay for Jenny's defence. But he did find out that Harriet and Steven were in debt, and had arrived three days earlier than they had previously claimed.
Howard tried to convince Inspector Grace to reopen Jenny's case, while talking to him in a bar. Inspector Grace was not impressed with the new evidence, and when Howard was roughed up by thugs (advising him to "drop the Hartley case") the ever-sharp Grace did not believe it had anything to do with him investigating Jenny's case.
On the day of the court case, Jenny's evidence was dismissed as hearsay, though Howard did appear as a witness in an attempt to expose Harriet. In the end, a retrial had to be ordered, as the jury had not reached a verdict.
Soon after this, a television news programme mentioned Steven being arrested for the murder of his wife, Harriet. Jenny realised this could help her case, as it proved he could have murdered her Nana too. Steven confessed to the murder, and as a result Jenny was set free.
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