A British bride has battled depression and has been unable to work in the nearly two years since she was drenched in black paint by her spiteful sister-in-law. The attack occurred moments before she was slated to walk down the aisle to wed her childhood sweetheart — the climax of a revenge attack amid an ongoing feud.
Gemma Monk, 35, a mother of two, was looking forward to marrying her now-husband, Ken Monk, in May 2024. She was walking with her father on a cream-colored carpet at the venue in Maidstone, England, when someone called out her name. Seconds later, she was splashed with black paint, she told Kent Online in an article published Friday.
Realizing the attacker was her sister-in-law, Antonia Eastwood, who is married to Gemma’s older brother, Ashley, Gemma grabbed her by the hair, but Eastwood managed to get away. The bride was left distraught and in tears.
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"This has had a dramatic impact on my life," Monk told Kent Online on Wednesday, after Eastwood was sentenced by a British court for two offenses of criminal damage. "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," she added. "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 — one I will never forget, and neither will my family."
The attack occurred after Monk had lost significant weight during a cancer scare. Though she has since been given a clean bill of health, Monk said her sister-in-law knew about the medical struggle at the time but "still decided to ruin the most important day of my life and put me at risk."
Eastwood, 49, had been banned from the wedding following a feud that stemmed from her own nuptials, during which Monk was accused of "trying to trip up" Eastwood.
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In court, Eastwood was handed a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months. She was also ordered to perform 160 hours of community service.
"This was meant to be a special day for Gemma Monk and her family. Courtesy of your conduct, it turned into a nightmare," Judge Oliver Saxby told Eastwood before imposing the sentence.
Eastwood's husband, Ashley, was once Ken Monk's best friend and actually introduced him to Gemma when she was only 14.
Despite the attack, Gemma scrubbed the paint from her face and body in the changing room and borrowed a dress fetched by an usher so she could marry her partner of more than 20 years.
"We had waited for that day for so long. Nothing was going to stop me," she said. "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."
However, Monk, a mental health worker, has since suffered from depression and has been unable to work. In a statement to the court, she said the incident changed her outlook on life and "made me question whether I had done something really bad, whether I had done something wrong."
The couple also called off a planned honeymoon to the Maldives because Gemma "wasn't up to it."
"I had a gut feeling—a bad feeling that something was wrong—when I got out of the car with my dad," Monk said. "But he said it must be nerves."
"I will never accept her apology," she added. "I thought the sentence was too light. She should have received at least 23 months for the wait we have had to get this to court."
