Hairdresser's Marriage Crumbles After Pub Knife Row

A leading hair stylist's marriage fell apart after a rowdy night at a local pub during which he plunged a knife into the table his wife was sitting at in front of around forty shocked guests.

Mark Richard Westbrook, 50, of Breamwater Gardens, Richmond, who is the boss of the salon that bears his name in nearby Kew Village, was rowing with 36 year-old Czech-born Nikolka Westbrook, the mother of his three children.

He pleaded guilty at Wimbledon Magistrates Court to using threatening behaviour at the Anglers Public House, Broom Road, Teddington on November 9 , last year and yesterday was conditionally discharged for two years and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

“We accept you have been under considerable stress due to the breakdown of your marriage, illness and your financial situation,” the magistrate told Westbrook. “You are impulsive and need to control that.”

The court did not make a restraining order prohibiting him from contacting his estranged wife because a non-molestation order made by the Family Court already exists.

Westbrook was found not guilty of two alleged assaults and another threatening behaviour count at the family home later that night after a highly-charged trial in which his supporters packed the courtroom.

Nikolka claimed she feared her husband's temper, but Westbrook claimed her complaints were motivated by a desire to continue enjoying the lifestyle he financed during their twelve-year marriage.

She continues to reside at the £700,000 family home and Westbrook has been forced to move to an address fifty miles away in Chichester Place, Brighton, East Sussex.

The prosecutor told the court: “He felt his wife belittled him in front of a male outside the pub and slammed a cutlery knife into the table.

“She is shocked and there are forty guests present and Mr. Westbrook then storms out of the pub.”

Nikolka claimed violence continued at the family home, but Westbrook was cleared of those charges.

It was put to her that she enjoyed a “nice lifestyle” which included good clothes and meals, but Nikolka told the court: “I would say he enjoyed more of a social life than a family life.

“He was very abusive and aggressive towards me, using foul language in front of the children.”

She denied telling friends Westbrook was “getting old and fat” and had a “pot belly” and asking what the money was like for a single-mum.

Explaining the knife incident she said: “It was frightening. It made me scared.”