Divorcee told she may lose her home 10 years after split

A DIVORCEE was dragged screaming from court after being told she might lose her home to her ex-husband – almost 10 years after they split.

Doreen Crowther, 46, bought the house in 2002 with an inheritance and said her mother’s dying wish was that her ex-husband, Robert, 40, who is on benefits, did not get a penny.

But after being told she might have to sell the £200,000 house in Worksop, Notts, to pay him a share, she launched into a finger-wagging, foul-mouthed tirade at Mr Crowther and his lawyers at the Court of Appeal.

Senior judges retreated to back offices as the hearing descended into chaos and security guards were called to escort her from the building in the Strand, London.

It means the long-running case, which began in 2010, will have to go back to court to decide whether Mr Crowther should get half of the house.

“He is holding me to ransom for my mother’s house,” said Mrs Crowther during the hearing.

“He is dragging me through the courts to make me look stupid.”

The case reached a divorce court in Oxford in 2015, when Judge Robin Tolson decided Mrs Crowther should keep the house. But at the Court of Appeal, Mr Crowther’s lawyers insisted that the judge had not properly considered his needs in making the decision.

Allowing the appeal, Lord Justice McFarlane, sitting with Lady Justice Macur and Lord Justice Henderson, agreed that Mr Crowther had not had time to prepare evidence for the divorce case.