The brother of a bride who was reduced to tears after her sister-in-law hurled black paint onto her white dress has claimed there is ‘more to the row’ that resulted in the wedding from hell.
Gemma Monk, 35, was subjected to the ‘revenge’ attack by Antonia Eastwood as she tied the knot in front of stunned guests to her now-husband Ken in May 2024.
Eastwood had accused Mrs Monk of ‘trying to trip her up’ during her own wedding to the victim’s older brother, Ashley, in September the year before.
The bride, from Herne Bay, Kent, was left in floods of tears as Eastwood fled the scene at Oakwood House, a Victorian mansion in Maidstone.
Eastwood was this week handed a ten-month sentence, suspended for 12 months, in addition to 160 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty to two offences of criminal damage.
However, Ashley has now claimed there is ‘more to’ the disagreement, adding that he ‘does not want anything to do’ with his sister who he has disowned.
He admitted there had been ‘disagreements’ in the family prior to the wedding – but said he did not want to air them publicly.
Ashley told The Mirror: ‘There’s more to it. But she’s been punished now, she’s suffered more than enough. We want it over and done with.’
One guest who attended the wedding claimed Eastwood, who had not been invited to the ceremony, carried out the attack due to ‘spite’.
They said: ‘Obviously she’s got issues, but that’s one thing you don’t do. It’s a special day for a woman.
‘They want the fairytale and that was all taken away from her all because of what someone else heard. When the truth came out it was nothing to do with Gemma.’
Remarkably, Mrs Monk’s wedding ceremony did proceed on May 24, 2024, despite Eastwood’s attack.
The mother-of-two, who is a mental health worker, scrubbed herself clean as the paint covered most of the left side of her face, arm and chest.
She borrowed another dress, fetched by an usher.
However since her wedding, Mrs Monk has claimed she has suffered depression and has been left unable to work.
In a victim impact statement, the 35-year-old told Maidstone Crown Court the incident ‘changed my outlook on life and made me question whether I had done something really bad’.
She said it has had a ‘dramatic impact’ on her life, adding that she became ‘extremely emotional and started crying’ while providing a police statement following the attack.
Mrs Monk said she would have struggled to ‘get out of bed’ without the support of her husband and children – and that she has lost her dignity.
She added that the incident had ‘turned the most special day of my life into the worst memory I will never forget’.
The couple cancelled their honeymoon to the Maldives as a result.
Prosecutor Pietro Matarazzo told the court on Tuesday: ‘Her wedding dress turned black. It was splattered with paint, as were her eyes, face, and skin.’
Eastwood admitted during the proceedings that it was a revenge attack and pleaded guilty.
However, she answered ‘no comment’ to all questions put to her by police during a voluntary interview three months after the incident.
Defending, Clement Idowu said Eastwood ‘wished to apologise’ to Mrs Monk.
He told the court of her depression, adding that the case had ‘taken a toll’ on her mental health – however no details about why she launched the revenge attack were revealed.
He said Eastwood was ‘fearful’ of a custodial prison sentence.
Judge Oliver Saxby KC said the defendant had turned Mrs Monk’s wedding into a ‘nightmare’, adding that Eastwood ‘wanted to wreck her day’.
He described Eastwood’s actions as ‘horrid and nasty and mean’.
In addition to a suspended sentence and unpaid work, the defendant was handed a ten-year restraining order.
She was told to pay £5,000 in compensation, with £4,000 going to Mrs Monk and £1,000 to Oakwood House.
After sentencing Mrs Monk said she will never accept her sister-in-law’s apology, adding that she believed the punishment was ‘too light’.
She told KentOnline: ‘We had waited for that day for so long. Nothing was going to stop me. She was determined that the wedding was not going to happen.
‘I did not think twice, I would have walked down the aisle in my knickers and with black paint over my face if I had to.’
