Aristocrat smashed up his £1million home in bitter divorce battle
‘Arrogant and intimidating’
AN aristocrat who smashed up his £1.1million home in a bid to stop it being sold during a divorce row was yesterday jailed for 18 months.
Desmond Fitzgerald, 63, took a hammer to pictures and ornaments at the London house he shared with his ex-wife Catherine Akester in King’s Cross.
He ripped off the radiators, knocked over furniture and blocked the sink to flood their property, which led to the collapse of the kitchen ceiling.
Fitzgerald, whose grandfather was decorated war hero Major General Sir Allan Adair, the 6th Baronet Adair, had been trying to frustrate the sale of the house since the breakdown of his 15-year marriage.
But he was caught when forensic investigators found his bloodied fingerprints all over the property.
The wrecking spree caused £21,000 worth of damage but Fitzgerald had carefully removed his own belongings from the house beforehand.
He denied criminal damage, claiming in court he had been framed in an elaborate plot similar to that of a James Bond film.
The aristocrat, who was described by prosecutor Liz Lowe as a ‘ conspiracy theorist’, was defending himself. He told jurors that a mystery intruder armed with a wrecking ball had targeted the property to destroy a box of papers detailing a legal claim involving his aunt, Annabel Adair.
He said he was not allowed to describe the legal dispute other than saying it was over land in Northern Ireland, but claimed: ‘I am in a position that is very much
like dependent Theresa on May the — DUP.I am The entirely evidence of my aunt Annabel’s ownership of the heartlands of the DUP in Northern Ireland was in those cardboard boxes.
‘ If I had those cardboard boxes I wouldn’t be here.’
But a jury at Blackfriars crown court decided that Fitzgerald had smashed up his marital home himself.
Fitzgerald had reacted angrily after a hearing at Central London county court last October when a judge ordered him to give up the keys to the property and stay at least 200m away from it. His ex-wife, a lawyer, describedout of the family Fitzgerald court storming hearing before heading home.
When she arrived at the house the following day she described her home as a scene ‘of some devastation’. Fitzgerald had destroyed one framed picture of her and her siblings, she said, adding: ‘It had been torn into tiny, tiny shreds. I found that extremely hurtful.’ The court was told that Fitzgerald’s wife became aware that in the last period of their relationship his mental health was deteriorating significantly, and he showed uncharacteristic malice and aggression towards her.
During the trial Fitzgerald said he had been ‘sofa surfing’ at a friend’s house in Islington since January this year and has been in touch with homeless charity Crisis.
Yesterday Judge Davinder Gill said he had ‘ an arrogant and intimidating attitude not only to the witnesses you were allowed to question but also to me as the trial judge when I delivered decisions that went against you’.
Judge Gill added: ‘You decided to embark on a criminal act, not only in revenge and retribution over your former wife but also in an act of defiance of the authority of the family court. For this reason this offence strikes at the heart of the system of justice.’ She also criticised his time-wasting at trial by bombarding the court with ‘often ridiculous’ applications over a ‘farrago of nonsense’.
Fitzgerald was given a restraining order banning him from contacting his ex-wife indefinitely. He was also ordered to undergo three months of mental health supervision.