Ex-husband sees red - and white and brown

A FORMER BBC journalist who lost his nine-bedroom home and private aircraft in a divorce settlement exacted revenge on his former wife by pouring a cocktail of paint and creosote over her boyfriend's expensive sports cars.

After the loss of his pounds 250,000 home and Piper Cherokee aircraft, 46-year- old Mike Flynn ended up living in a converted cow-shed in South Burlingham, Acle, Norfolk, while his former wife, Jacquie, slept next door in what used to be their marital home with her new partner Alan Newton.

Norwich magistrates' court heard that Mr Flynn had become upset that he could not see his two sons. Shortly after midnight on 4 February he went into the garage where Mr Newton's pounds 35,000 white convertible Mercedes 300SL and pounds 15,000 l970 Lotus Elan were parked. He then threw a five-litre tin of white masonry paint and a tub of brown creosote over the cars.

The cost of the damage to the vehicles belonging to Mr Newton, a documentary film editor with Anglia television, came to pounds 11,563. After the attack Mr Flynn, formerly with Leicester TV, phoned two national newspapers to come and witness what he had done.

Mr Flynn told the court that he had given up full-time work to enable his wife to pursue her career as a producer with Anglia. But she got custody of the two sons, aged nine and eleven, and he was no longer able to see them. He said: "I have gone from a situation where I have been with the children all day and every day to being totally separated from them and that is really why I have had the problems I have had."

Mrs Flynn had said previously that she had left her husband in l996 because of his behaviour and started seeing Mr Newton only in the month after her divorce. She denied preventing Mr Flynn from seeing the children.

Mr Flynn admitted two counts of criminal damage. Sentencing was adjourned until 8 April, and he was bailed on condition he lived with his brother in Lightwater, Surrey, and did not make unauthorised trips to Norfolk.