Bride covered in paint seconds before wedding in 'revenge attack'

Bride covered in paint seconds before wedding in 'revenge attack'The court heard the dress and venue were badly damaged in the incidentNewsNeil Shaw Assistant Editor (Money and Lifestyle)11:20, 17 Apr 2026Updated 11:32, 17 Apr 2026View 5 ImagesGemma Monk after the attackA woman standing in her wedding dress was left covered in black paint after an attack by her sister-in-law, who had not been invited to the event. Gemma Monk's dream wedding gown was drenched with black paint seconds before she was due to wed her childhood sweetheart.‌The mum-of-two was subjected to the attack in front of wedding guests at Oakwood House Register Office in Maidstone. Antonia Eastwood, who is married to Gemma’s older brother, Ashley, fled the venue after the incident. Gemma, 35, pulled herself together, scrubbed her face and body in a changing cubicle and borrowed a dress fetched by an usher to marry her partner of more than 20 years.‌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.”‌View 5 ImagesAntonia Eastwood pleaded guilty to criminal damage after throwing black paint over her sister-in-law's wedding dressEastwood, 49, who now lives in Manchester, was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court for two offences of criminal damage. The court was told that the bill for repairs and "loss of revenue" at Oakwood House was believed to exceed £5,000.Neither Eastwood nor her husband were invited to the wedding following an ongoing feud which flared up after their wedding, which was a year before the Monks were married. Gemma said that she had been wrongly accused of ”trying to trip up” Eastwood during her wedding to Ashley in Dover in September 2023.‌The relationship between the two couples has since soured despite Gemma's new husband Ken once being Ashl...