A KNOWLE woman, who stepped up a stalking campaign against her former lover’s wife after a failed attempt to lure him back into bed, has escaped jail.
Dawn Brookfield was given an eight-month prison sentence, which has been suspended for two years, after she lay in wait in her married ex-lover’s hotel bed before she pulled a knife on him and threatened to kill him.
The 53-year-old talked hotel staff into letting her in – and she littered the room with presents and bottles of Champagne.
But she brandished a knife and barricaded the door when her bid to win him back failed, before police forced their way in and arrested her.
Warwick Crown Court heard the incident was part of a long-running ordeal endured by her ex-lover and his wife after he ended the affair in a bid to patch up his marriage.
The Chantry Heath Crescent resident stalked the wife and made malicious calls to police with fabricated stories that she was violent.
Recorder Nicholas Syfret QC told Brookfield: “You’re a lady of 53 and have never been in trouble with the courts before. Your case is one of those unfortunate cases where mental illness comes before the courts.
“I have particular regard to what the doctor says, to the effect that you have a life-long and relapsing condition of bipolar disorder.
“As a result of your behaviour [the wife] in particular suffered really quite considerable mental distress as a result of your obsession with her husband. You must have made her life a misery.
“But she has, in an act of considerable graciousness, said that she would not want you to be imprisoned.”
Recorder Syfret also imposed a restraining order banning Brookfield from having direct or indirect contact with the couple.
