Ex-Olympic showjumper given suspended jail term for avoiding unpaid work over pig's blood insults in ex-lover's flat

A former Olympic showjumper who used pig’s blood to daub lewd messages on the “love nest” of a Tory peer after he “dumped” her has been handed a suspended jail term after admitting ignoring the original court sentence.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Purbrick was given a 12-month community order with 120 hours’ unpaid work in July for criminal damage but has not completed a single hour, magistrates in Lynn heard yesterday.

The court heard that the National Probation Service was unhappy that this happened against a backdrop of Purbrick flying from South Africa to be interviewed on ITV’s This Morning about the original offence.

Damien Moore, prosecuting, said when Purbrick was sentenced at Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court in July she said she intended to fly to South Africa. It had been made clear to her that she must complete the unpaid work before doing so.

She didn’t attend an induction appointment with Probation on July 19. It emerged that she had gone back to South Africa to have some dental treatment, which had not previously been mentioned.

In reply to an email from Probation, Purbrick said she was due to return to the UK for a month on September 7 so it was mutually agreed that the unpaid work would be suspended until then.

Another induction appointment was arranged for September 11.

Mr Moore said: “Unknown to Probation, on July 30 was back in the UK and she appeared on This Morning doing an interview regarding the original offence. Probation had not been notified that she was coming back to the UK on that date.”

Probation learned that she had quickly returned to South Africa. However, Purbrick was inducted on September 11, as agreed.

The court was told that special arrangements were made for her to complete the unpaid work between September 17 and October 6, but she did not turn up on the first day.

“That is a wilful breach by Miss Purbrick,” said Mr Moore. “She has deliberately ignored instructions to remain in the UK to complete the unpaid work and it is very clear that she has been back to the UK on at least one occasion that the Probation Service is aware of.

“To date, a total of 256 hours’ unpaid work have been offered – none has been completed.

“She has made it very clear to the media that she is unrepentant about her offence and no doubt that is her motivation for not doing the unpaid work.”

Purbrick, who gave her current address as her son’s home in Johannesburg, shuffled into court using a walking stick, saying she had been “severely kicked” by a horse that morning.

The 63-year-old, who lived in West Acre, King’s Lynn, at the time of the original offence, admitted failing to comply with the requirements of the community order.

In mitigation, Simon Nicholls said: “I’m so glad the National Probation Service knows what goes on in my clients’ minds. It’s very useful - it would probably speed matters up if they do that.

“They have decided that she hasn’t done the order because she doesn’t regret doing the original offence. Or the other side of the coin is that after all this has happened she had nowhere to live.

"She was living in an old caravan on somebody’s farm that she couldn’t stay in anymore and she hadn’t got any other accommodation in the UK. She had to return to South Africa where her son lives.

“The National Probation Service obviously are keen watchers of breakfast TV. What they don’t appreciate is she came across for the interview and went straight back afterwards. She wasn’t staying in the UK at the time.”

Mr Nicholls said the break-up of Purbrick’s relationship had brought her life to a “destructive point”, both mentally and physically through drink.

He told magistrates: “You’re going to say is this someone living in King’s Lynn who is not bothering to turn up for her community service or is this someone who is really down and has the chance with family in South Africa to put this whole incident behind her?”

Mr Nicholls was astonished to learn that the bench had not heard about the original case since it had been in “just about every national newspaper”.

He said: “The facts are very simple. She was in a relationship with a named individual. After seven and a half years that relationship broke up acrimoniously. She took blood from a butcher’s shop in Wells and went down to their love nest in London, tipped blood in the flat and wrote things on the wall.”

He cheekily suggested that the Probation service might want to see his client locked up because it was a “high-profile case”.

Chairman of the bench, Jean Bonnick, told Purbrick: “Mr Nicholls made somewhat sarcastic remarks about Probation’s summary about your motivation for not completing this work. But we read in one of your references that you sometimes regard adherence to rules and regulations as somewhat tiresome and think you can get away with things.

“We do find there is wilful persistence not to do this order.”

The order was revoked as being “unworkable” because of Purbrick’s current residence. She was handed a 28-day prison sentence, suspended for 12 months due to “medical issues”.

She was also given two five-day custodial sentences to run concurrently – one for outstanding fines and the other for the £250 prosecution costs of the latest case. Both are suspended until the amounts are settled.