Former Olympic showjumper confessed to Lynn police after daubing insults in pigs blood at ex-lover's home, court told
A woman daubed explicit insults in pigs blood at the home of her former lover, a Tory peer, when she caught him cheating with another peer’s wife.
A court has heard Lizzie Purbrick, 62, handed herself in to police in Lynn after using five litres of blood from a butcher and a garden sprayer to write the lewd messages at the home of Lord David Prior in south London.
Purbrick, of The Street, Warham, yesterday pleaded guilty at Camberwell Green Magistrates Court to causing criminal damage.
A charge of burgling the property with intent to do unlawful damage was dropped.
Purbrick, a member of Great Britain’s 1980 equestrian team, was placed on a 12-month community order, which includes 120 hours community service work and must pay £85 costs and an £85 victim surcharge.
She was also served with a two-year restraining order prohibiting contact with Lord Prior or visiting the address, plus his properties in Beccles, Suffolk and Norfolk.
A neighbour called the police when they saw blood oozing from under the front door onto the pavement outside and officers, fearing a major crime, forced entry.
As well as the daubing they found blood emptied over the beds of both bedrooms and over Lord Prior’s clothing.
“The whole thing looks like it has been lifted out of a Jilly Cooper novel. An Olympic show jumper, a Lord and member of the Cabinet,” said her lawyer Simon Nicholls.
“Putting it as delicately as I can she found him in the arms of another woman, who is married to a member of the House of Lords.”
Purbrick caught Lord Prior with the married woman when she let herself into another of the peer’s properties in East Anglia to collect belongings.
Prosecutor Alex Du Sautoy told the court: “Mrs Purbrick is a former partner of the complainant, David Prior.
“At 5.30pm she entered Mr. Prior’s apartment using a key she still had from the relationship.”
The court heard she daubed the insults and also bloodied one of Lord Prior’s suitcases, leaving him a £1,000 cheque.
“She tipped the remaining blood onto the floor.”
The police were called at around 10.30pm by a concerned neighbour. “They saw what they thought was a male entering the property and heard loud music.
“They saw a red liquid appear to come under the door and onto the pavement.”
Purbrick confessed the next day after giving herself up at Lynn's police station.
“She acts in a way that is completely out of character,” added Mr. Nicholls. “She has gone to King’s Lynn police station at the first opportunity and admitted the damage she’s done, no excuses.
“This was a unique one-off incident by this woman. She has now identified the relationship is over.
“The damage to the flat she describes as cathartic and now is the time to move on.
“This is a woman who was emotionally vulnerable who believed the relationship had longer than the day it was terminated.
“She caused that damage, there’s no argument she did it. She took the blood there and daubed the words on the walls and on the floor.”
He told the court Purbrick now plans to spend more time in South Africa, where her two businessmen sons and “estranged” husband, a retired British Army officer, live.
Purbrick won the Amanda Dish at 1984’s Badmington Horse Trials and in 1978 competed at the World Championships in Lexington, Kentucky.
In 1981 she was a member of the gold medal-winning British team at the European Championships.
Lord Prior’s official title is Baron Prior of Brampton and the Charterhouse School and Cambridge-educated peer married Caroline Holmes on St. Valentine’s Day, 1987 and they have a son and daughter.
He was a Conservative MP for North Norfolk between 1997 and 2001 is currently Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in the House of Lords.
The former investment banker, 63, is the chairman of University College Hospital and was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health in David Cameron’s government.
Probation Officer Paul Leach told the court: “She told me she travelled from Norfolk to another of the victim’s properties to collect belongings and found Mr. Prior with another woman.
“She describes herself as being ‘beyond upset’ and cried all the next day.
“She says the balance of her mind was disturbed and she was contemplating self-harm and describes her actions as a temporary madness.”
The court heard she recalls her actions like a “surreal dream” and regrets them.
But, passing sentence, District Judge Susan Green told Purbrick: “I don’t accept this was spontaneous. It was planned and pre-meditated.”
And she described the use of pigs blood as “calculated and extensive.”
