Housewife ‘besotted’ with builder rips out his girlfriend’s hair in drunken attack
Woman, 59, launched alcohol-and-drug-fuelled assault over claims of affair with tradesman she hired
A JEALOUS housewife drank a bottle of wine and took cocaine before launching a drunken doorstep attack on her builder’s girlfriend.
Alison Moore, 59, who lives in a £1million farmhouse in Damerham, Hants, which features a Norman church and is mentioned in the will of Alfred the Great, had been employing Gary House, a local tradesman, for work on one of her properties in nearby Fordingbridge.
She allegedly became so “besotted” with him that she marched 300 yards through the New Forest village to Mr House’s property and confronted his partner of 11 years, Aimee Burnett.
She has been handed a one-year restraining order at Southampton magistrates’ court for the “unpleasant” attack and ordered to pay Ms Burnett £500 compensation.
The row took place at about 11pm on April 6 last year, when Ms Burnett, 42, received a knock on the door while watching a film. She answered it to find Ms Moore on the doorstep telling her: “Your husband [sic] is trying to f--- me.”
Ms Moore, who had drunk a bottle of wine, taken cocaine and visited the village pub earlier that evening, left her victim “shaking and in complete shock” when, having already tried to barge into her house, she dragged Ms Burnett by the hair.
Mr House was oblivious to it all, sat in the bath upstairs listening to music.
Varun Chuni, prosecutor, told the court that the two women had met only once before at the village pub, The Compasses Inn, before the attack, and that Ms Burnett knew there had been messaging “going on” between Ms Moore and Mr House.
The intruder threw something at a window when Ms Burnett attempted to shut the door, Mr Chuni said, adding: “She was worried the defendant was going to break the window, so opened the door again when Ms Moore pushed her in the chest and tried to barge her out of the way.
“She wanted to know where her partner was and made a comment saying ‘fat people shouldn’t be in the house’.”
The court heard that one of Ms Burnett’s sons had to intervene.
“The defendant grabbed the hair of the complainant, causing her immediate pain by violently pulling down,” the prosecution added.
Eventually they were separated but Ms Burnett was left “shaking” and in “complete shock”, it was heard. When she returned to her home, she realised a “large clump” of her hair had been pulled out.
David Storry, Ms Moore’s lawyer, told the court that she had had “a lot to deal with” after the breakdown of a previous marriage with an “abusive” ex-husband and that “she very much regrets it”.
Ms Moore was sentenced to a 12-month community order made up of 12 rehabilitation requirement days and 100 hours of unpaid work, and was ordered to pay £500 compensation to Ms Burnett, £620 legal fees and £95 victim surcharge – totalling £1,215.
Mr House said he had been carrying out building work for Ms Moore when she became “besotted”. Ms Burnett said in response to Ms Moore’s claims of an affair: “It looked very much the other way around.”