Cruel Cut

Drouin, 51, from Littlehampton, told police a "red mist" descended on her when she carried out the 19,000 wrecking spree on her husband Philip's new home, where he was living with a younger woman.

He returned to find "that anything which could be broken was broken", Lewes Crown Court heard on Monday.

She admitted a charge of damaging property but was spared a jail sentence after the court was told the attack had been "cathartic" and Drouin was unlikely to offend again.

Pierce Power, prosecuting, said: "The husband arrived home with his new partner. He found his home was broken into and the entire contents were destroyed."

The couple's 26-year marriage had broken up a year before the vandalism attack and Mr Drouin had left their home at Norfolk Gardens to begin a relationship with a younger woman just seven years older than the couple's daughter.

After making a string of nuisance calls to her husband's home at Haywards Heath, Drouin arrived at the house and broke in, using a broom handle to smash through the kitchen door window.

The doors of the kitchen units were damaged with a knife or saw, said Mr Power. The kitchen, he added, was a picture of "general chaos".

In the lounge, everything had been broken, including picture frames and the stereo. The only items untouched were pictures of the Drouins' daughter, Donna, 26, and religious items.

In the main bedroom, the defendant had pulled all the light fittings out of the ceiling, as well as raiding her husband's wardrobes, taking the scissors to his clothes.

She was arrested by police the following day and admitted she had been responsible for the attack, saying she was "angry about family matters".

She had fallen out with her daughter, for whom she was making a wedding dress, and felt snubbed at not being invited to the hen night. Her uncle had also died recently and all these emotions had been "fermenting" in her mind, the court heard.

Guy Russell, in mitigation, said: "One can see there is almost a grieving aspect to what happened at that time. She had lost her husband to a new woman in his life, some seven years older than their daughter."

The hen night snub, he added, meant she felt "excluded from the wedding as well as the marriage".

He went on: "She said that a 'red mist' descended on her that day. This lady is in need of help. She has suffered and is deeply ashamed of her actions. Her mind was obviously traumatised at the time. She is now in a much better condition."

Carrying out the attack, said Mr Russell, had been "cathartic" for her and helped her to get the matter out of her system.

Judge Richard Brown told Drouin: "So-called domestic violence, be it physical or be it related to property, is just as unacceptable when it is committed by a female as opposed to a man."

But Drouin did not appear to be at risk of reoffending, said the judge, placing her on a two-year rehabilitation order. "This is very much a last chance for you," he said.