Aristocrat smashes up house in nasty divorce

A British aristocrat has been jailed after smashing up his lavish London home during a bitter divorce battle. 

Desmond Fitzgerald, whose grandfather was Major General Sir Allan Adair, the 6th Baronet Adair, destroyed the $1.65 million home to try to stop it being sold after he and wife Catherine Akester split. He had been ordered to give up the keys and stay away from the house during a court hearing. 

His destruction spree has since landed him in jail, with a sentence of 18 months. 

During his rampage, Fitzgerald removed all of his own belongings before taking a hammer to pictures and ornaments. He then knocked over furniture and blocked the sink to flood the house. 

In his trial, Fitzgerald said he had been “sofa-surfing” with friends since his split from Akester, and had even been in touch with homeless charities. 

Investigators found his fingerprints throughout the house following the destruction, but he denied criminal damage and claimed that he had been framed for the crimes. 

During the trial, Akester described how Fitzgerald had destroyed a framed picture of her and her siblings. She said: “It had been torn into tiny, tiny shreds. I found that extremely hurtful.
She said Fitzgerald had treated their family court proceedings as a “wrecking exercise from start to finish”.

Judge Davinder Gill said he had “an arrogant and intimidating attitude not only to the witnesses you were allowed to question but also to me as the trial judge when I delivered decisions that went against you”. 

She added that she had seen “no evidence of remorse at all”. 

Fitzgerald was given a restraining order banning him from contacting his ex-wife, and ordered to undergo mental health supervision.