Sister's bomb scare plot to ruin wedding

Kate Thorley took an extreme approach in her efforts to derail her brother's wedding to a woman she didn't like. She rang the hotel where the reception was due to be held, and told the receptionist she had planted a bomb in the building. She has been given a 12-month community order and ordered to undergo an alcohol treatment programme.

The Gloucester Citizen reported that the 44-year-old from The Bridle in Cainscross, Stroud, rang the Stonehouse Court Hotel near Stroud two days before the reception in September. The court heard that she had told the receptionist she had planted a bomb, and added that she hated the bride, "I hate my whole family" and "I hope they all die."
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She then called the police three times with the same claim, and 45 minutes after her final call, officers arrived at her home to arrest her. They said she had been drinking.

The Daily Mirror reported the judge as saying: "This was a thoroughly vitriolic thing to do." and that it was: "Deeply unpleasant, not only to members of the family but to the hotel staff. Even if you didn't like someone it was no business of yours to interfere with their marriage."

Wedding dramas

It's not the first time an unhappy family member has tried to derail a wedding.

In January 2014, a woman from Plymouth pleaded guilty to harassment. Among the odd things she had done was to cancel her brother's wedding 20 days before it was due to take place - because she didn't like the bride. She then rang her brother to tell him she had saved him on the divorce.

The following month, a Bradford couple's wedding was interrupted by an all-out brawl between 30 of their wedding guests. Apparently it started with a water pistol, then a pork pie was thrown, and it got out of hand. The police eventually arrived and calmed things down, and the bride was reported as saying a punch up was part and parcel of a good wedding.

A year earlier, a young couple was enjoying their wedding reception when the police arrived. Apparently a family member who hadn't been invited took the opportunity to break into the couple's house, steal items, and cause £5,000 of damage.

And in one surreal event, the groom himself made a bomb threat. The Merseyside man realised on the morning of his wedding that he had forgotten to book the ceremony, so he called the registry office and sparked a bomb scare in an effort to hide his mistake. He was arrested and charged - and while the wedding party were waiting for the building to be cleared, the bride discovered his mistake anyway.