Gemma Monk’s wedding day was thrown into chaos when her sister-in-law hurled black paint over her dress in a revenge attack – but the determined bride still walked down the aisle two hours later after her attacker was handed a suspended sentence
A bride has shared how her dream wedding turned into a nightmare when her sister-in-law threw black paint all over her dress.
Gemma Monk revealed she was the victim of a spiteful “revenge” attack by her sister-in-law, witnessed by shocked guests as they gathered to watch her marry her now husband Ken. Antonia Eastwood – wife of Gemma’s older brother, Ashley – bolted from the Oakwood House Register Office in Maidstone, leaving her paint-covered victim in tears.
Incredibly, 35-year-old Gemma pulled herself together, washed the paint off her face and body in a changing cubicle, and donned a spare dress before marrying her partner of more than 20 years. However, The Mirror reported that following the incident, brother Ashley stated he had cut ties with his sister, adding “we don’t want anything to do with her”.
A guest at the wedding said: “She was so determined that she wanted her day. She’s strong-hearted. When she walked down the aisle with her dad, she did amazingly to hold it all together. Everyone started applauding her as she walked down the aisle. You could see a tear in her eye. She’s one in a million.”, reports the Mirror.
She said: “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.”
Gemma broke her silence after Eastwood, 49, now residing in Manchester, received her sentence at Maidstone Crown Court following guilty pleas to two counts of criminal damage. The court was told that the repair costs and “loss of revenue” at the venue were thought to surpass £5,000.
Neither Eastwood nor her husband, Ashley, had received invitations to the wedding, after a bitter row which had begun a year prior at their own ceremony.
Gemma maintained she had been wrongly accused of “trying to trip up” Eastwood at her wedding in Dover in September 2023. The relationship between the two couples has since soured, despite Ken previously being Ashley’s dearest friend – even introducing him to his sister when she was merely 14 years old.
Brother Ashley has acknowledged there had been “disagreements” within the family before the wedding – but he declined to discuss them publicly.
He said: “There’s more to it. But she’s been punished now, she’s suffered more than enough. We want it over and done with.” He said “she’s done what she’s done” and they now wanted to move past it all. He added: “I can’t believe it’s taken 18 months to get to this.”
The Monk’s ceremony did go ahead on 24 May 2024, two hours following the paint attack at the Victorian mansion, which was compelled to temporarily close for cleaning. Subsequently, Gemma, who works as a mental health care worker, said she has struggled with depression and been unable to resume work.
Fighting back tears, she delivered her victim impact statement to the court, saying: “To have paint thrown over me by my brother’s wife changed my outlook on life and made me question whether I had done something really bad, whether I had done something wrong.
“This has had a dramatic impact on my life. Even while I was providing this statement at the police station, I got extremely emotional and started crying while talking about the incident.
“Since the incident, if it wasn’t for my children or my family, I don’t think I would even get out of bed to care for myself. I have lost all my dignity and good habits in life. I have lost who I used to be. This has turned the most special day of my life into the worst memory I will never forget, and neither will my family.”
The trauma occurred alongside a cancer scare for Gemma, during which she shed considerable weight, plummeting to a size four. She has since been given the all-clear, and disclosed her sister-in-law knew about the health concern at the time but “still decided to ruin the most important day of my life and put me at risk”.
The pair also scrapped plans for their dream honeymoon to the Maldives because she “wasn’t up to it”. She said: “I had a gut feeling, a bad feeling that something was wrong when I got out of the car with my dad. But he said it must be nerves.” As she walked down the cream-coloured, carpeted hallway with her father Jason, bridesmaids and flower girls, she heard her name being called out and thought someone had accidentally stepped on her dress. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone throw black paint at her.
Prosecutor Pietro Matarazzo informed the court: “Her wedding dress turned black. It was splattered with paint, as were her eyes, face, and skin.” Gemma, recognising it was her sister-in-law, who was with her brother, grabbed her by the hair, but she managed to get away. The police were summoned and in a voluntary interview three months later she responded “no comment” to all questions.
Gemma and Ken, 39, who reside with their son Tyler, 18, and daughter Naomi, 11, in Herne Bay, had been saving for years for their special day. She stated: “It had to be 100 per cent right. I chose Oakwood House because that was where my birth was registered.”
The wedding, which catered for approximately 50 guests and included a reception at The Fields at Aylesford, cost around £8,000. Gemma spent £1,800 on her dress, in contrast to the replacement gown, which was too big for her.
Clement Idowu, defending, said Eastwood had penned a letter to the court and wanted to express through him “her wish to apologise” to her victim. No details explaining why she acted out of revenge were disclosed during the hearing.
Judge Oliver Saxby KC recognised that while “emotions were high” and those involved would “never forget” they should now move forward in their lives. Sentencing Eastwood to a 10-month jail term, suspended for 12 months, with 160 hours of unpaid work, he told her: “This was meant to be a special day for Gemma Monk and her family. Courtesy of your conduct, it turned into a nightmare.
“It is not so much that what you did was upsetting and frightening in the moment, and it was both of those. It was also that you, by what you did, deprived her and her family – the wedding party – of the occasion they deserved and the memories that anyone who gets married cherishes.
“Worse than that, there is a lingering suspicion that even if you do trigger regret now, it’s been a while coming, that deep-down for some time you thought she deserved it. All this stuff about it being on the spur of the moment – yeah, right. You got it into your head that you wanted to wreck her day. And you did, and it was horrid and nasty and mean.”
Eastwood was also handed a 10-year restraining order and instructed to pay £5,000 in compensation – a total of £4,000 to her sister-in-law and £1,000 to Oakwood House. Reacting to the sentence, Gemma stated: “I will never accept her apology. I thought the sentence was too light. She should have got at least 23 months for the wait we have had to get this to court. I want to find myself again. I want to move on. On that day, I managed to smile for the camera because I was marrying the man I love.
“But we don’t celebrate our anniversaries because of what happened. We plan to take our vows again and on the same date. That way, it may override the memory, and we’ll be able to celebrate. And maybe we’ll go on that honeymoon.”
A wedding guest told the Mirror: “We were all getting ready for the start of the wedding while another ceremony ended. Gemma had arrived with her dad in the car. Then we heard this furore. Everyone was looking at each other. It was horrible.
“She had barged past one of the bridesmaids, knocking her over, and threw whatever it was over Gemma. Nobody knew at first what the substance was.”
When asked why Eastwood carried out the attack, the guest said: “Spite”. They added: “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.”
The guest revealed that Eastwood hadn’t been invited to the wedding, but somehow found out about the date and location. Following the paint-throwing incident, Gemma’s husband offered to postpone the wedding to another day. However, she was determined not to be defeated and proceeded with the ceremony around two hours later, in front of approximately 50 guests.