![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1375f158-5364-4b0c-97c9-c7869e5dcf2f.jpg\")
The bride after the attack. She walked down the aisle two hours laterCover Images<\/p>\nGemma Monk instantly fell in love when she first laid eyes on the dress, knowing it would not just complete her wedding day but could live on as a family heirloom to be passed to her daughter.<\/p>\n
Yet just moments before she was due to walk down the aisle with her childhood sweetheart, those romantic visions were obliterated as her resplendent white gown was left doused in black paint.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On what was supposed to be the happiest day of her life, Monk, 35, was ambushed by her sister-in-law in a revenge attack that she said had tarnished her life for ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The attack unfolded shortly after Monk had arrived at Oakwood House, a Victorian mansion in Maidstone, with her bridal party in May 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As Monk stepped out of her father\u2019s car, trying to stay on top of nerves, her older brother Ashley\u2019s wife, Antonia Eastwood, who had not been invited, was watching discreetly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Monk, a mental health worker from Herne Bay, Kent, was standing alongside her father Jason, bridesmaids and flower girls when she heard her name called and turned around.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When she did so, Monk was confronted with a shower of thick black liquid that had been thrown at her by Eastwood. In the ensuing chaos, Monk tried to grab Eastwood but she fled the scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As well as the obliteration of her \u00a31,800 dress, Monk\u2019s face and decolletage was left splattered in the black liquid as she broke down in tears.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bride after the attack. She walked down the aisle two hours laterCover Images<\/p>\n
Despite the trauma of what unfolded, the mother of two gathered herself and walked down the aisle to marry Ken Monk, her partner of 20 years, two hours later wearing a replacment gown.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had waited for that day for so long. Nothing was going to stop me,\u201d she told KentOnline.<\/p>\n
What exactly provoked the extraordinary ambush remains unclear. Eastwood was said to have wrongly accused Monk of \u201ctrying to trip her up\u201d at her own wedding a year earlier.<\/p>\n
The episode led to a falling out between the couples.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe [Eastwood] 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monk was speaking on Wednesday after Eastwood, 49, who now lives in Manchester, was sentenced at Maidstone crown court for two offences of criminal damage.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/da3cc4dc-4872-40fc-adc8-6f4dffbb333f.jpg\")
The couple on their wedding dayCover Images<\/p>\n
Despite managing to rescue her wedding day, Monk told a court case that the episode has had a \u201cdramatic impact\u201d on her life. Since her wedding, Monk has suffered depression and is unable to work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The court was told that the bill for repairs and \u201closs of revenue\u201d at Oakwood House was believed to exceed \u00a35,000.<\/p>\n
The wedding came at a time when Monk had had a cancer scare during which she lost weight, going down to a size four. She has since been given the all-clear.<\/p>\n
Monk said her sister-in-law knew about the medical issue at the time but \u201cstill decided to ruin the most important day of my life and put me at risk\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a victim impact statement, she said: \u201cTo have paint thrown over me by my brother\u2019s wife changed my outlook on life and made me question whether I had done something really bad, whether I had done something wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the incident, if it wasn\u2019t for my children or my family, I don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
In mitigation, Clement Idowu told the court Eastwood \u201cwished to apologise\u201d to Monk. He said the legal proceedings had \u201ctaken a toll\u201d on her own mental well-being and that she had been \u201cvery fearful at the prospect of going to prison\u201d.<\/p>\n
Eastwood was given a ten-month sentence, suspended for 12 months, in addition to 160 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She was also given a ten-year restraining order and told to pay \u00a35,000 compensation \u2014 split between \u00a34,000 to Monk and \u00a31,000 to Oakwood House \u2014 at a rate of \u00a3100 a month.<\/p>\n
Monk said that that she and her husband did not celebrate their anniversary because of what unfolded, but they were considering renewing their vows on the same date.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat way, it may override the memory, and we\u2019ll be able to celebrate,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gemma Monk instantly fell in love when she first laid eyes on the dress, knowing it would not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-384865","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}