Jilted mistress wins appeal, apologises to ex-lover’s wife
Every morning a jilted mistress apologises to her victim, family and friends about her ‘‘huge error of judgment’’.
For three years Margaret Denise Kronfeld, of Auckland, was involved in an affair with a Dunedin businessman but when that relationship ended she waged a campaign against her ex-lover’s wife.
At her sentencing, Judge Michael Crosbie characterised her campaign as a ‘‘premeditated, persistent, vile barrage and attack’’.
Kronfeld was sentenced to 120 hours’ community work on a charge of criminal harassment, three charges of intentionally accessing a computer system, a charge of sending a fictitious message and a charge of making a telephone call without speech.
At a judge-alone trial she was found guilty on a charge of criminal harassment and accessing a computer system, after earlier pleading guilty to the other charges.
Her lawyer, Andrew Speed, appealed those trial convictions. He was successful in having the harassment charge dropped and her sentence of 120 hours’ community work was replaced with 70 hours.
Speed, in the High Court at Dunedin on April 24, said his client had a ‘‘high degree of insight into her offending, what motivated it and the effect it had on her victim’’.
A letter from Kronfeld said: ‘‘Every morning when I wake up I mentally apologise to her along with my family and friends, take a deep breath, and remind myself I made a huge error of judgment and that I will never act in that way again towards a living soul.’’