Gemma Monk was seconds away from the happiest moment of her life when her world turned black. As the 35-year-old prepared to walk down the aisle at Oakwood House in Maidstone, she heard her name called.
When she turned, a thick drench of black paint hit her. The substance splattered her £1,800 white gown, her face, and her eyes in front of horrified wedding guests.
The attacker was Antonia Eastwood, the wife of Gemma’s older brother, Ashley. Eastwood fled the Victorian mansion immediately, leaving her victim standing in the hallway in a ruined dress.
Despite the ‘spiteful’ assault, the mother-of-two refused to let the sabotage win. She retreated to a changing cubicle to scrub the paint from her skin.
An usher was dispatched to find a replacement dress. Although the borrowed gown was too large, Gemma was determined to proceed with the ceremony.
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She married Ken Monk, her partner of 20 years, just two hours after the attack. ‘Nothing was going to stop me,’ she later told KentOnline.
(Picture: Cover Images)
‘I did not think twice. I would have walked down the aisle in my knickers with black paint over my face if I had to.’
The couple had saved for years for the £8,000 ceremony. Gemma chose the venue because it was where her own birth had been registered.
The motive for the attack appears to stem from a toxic family feud that bubbled over a year earlier at Eastwood’s own wedding in Dover.
Gemma had been wrongly accused of ‘trying to trip up’ Eastwood during her walk down the aisle.
Neither Eastwood nor her husband – previously Ken’s best friend – were invited to the May 2024 nuptials.
The paint caused more than £5,000 in damage to the registry office and specialist cleaners were unable to save Gemma’s dress, which she had hoped to hand down to her daughter.
At Maidstone Crown Court, Gemma read a powerful victim impact statement. She described how the attack had shattered her mental health.
‘To have paint thrown over me by my brother’s wife changed my outlook on life,’ she told the court. ‘I have lost who I used to be.’
The trauma was compounded by the fact that Gemma was undergoing a cancer scare at the time. Eastwood was allegedly aware of the medical issue when she planned the attack.
Gemma has since been given the all-clear. However, the emotional toll forced the couple to cancel their dream honeymoon to the Maldives.
Prosecutor Pietro Matarazzo noted that Eastwood initially gave a ‘no comment’ interview to police. She later admitted to a probation officer that it was a premeditated revenge attack.
Judge Oliver Saxby KC did not hold back his contempt for Eastwood’s actions. He dismissed her claims that the incident was a ‘spur-of-the-moment’ error.
‘You got it into your head that you wanted to wreck her day,’ the judge said. ‘And you did, and it was horrid and nasty and mean.’
The judge acknowledged that while emotions were high, he had to follow sentencing guidelines. He cited prison overcrowding and Eastwood’s previous good character as reasons to suspend the sentence.
Eastwood was handed a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months. She was ordered to complete 160 hours of unpaid work and pay £5,000 in compensation.
Gemma, who maintained eye contact with Eastwood throughout the hearing, described the sentence as ‘too light.’ She refused to accept her sister-in-law’s apology.
The newlyweds do not celebrate their anniversaries because the date is now tied to the trauma. They plan to renew their vows in the future to create a new, untainted memory.
Gemma is now focused on moving forward and finding her old self. ‘On that day, I managed to smile for the camera because I was marrying the man I love,’ she said.