Elizabeth Mary Josephine Purbrick (née Boone; born 16 May 1955 at Warren Farm,

West Acre West Acre is a village and civil parish in the King's Lynn and West Norfolk district of the county of Norfolk, England. It covers an area of and had a population of 187 in 83 households at the 2001 census, the population increasing to 260 at th ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

) is a winner of an Armada Dish at the

Badminton Horse Trials The Badminton Horse Trials is a eventing, five-day event, one of only six annual Concours Complet International, Concours Complet International (CCI) Five Star events as classified by the International Federation for Equestrian Sports, Fédér ...

in 1984 having competed several times with several mounts including Peter the Great and in many different events. In 1978 she went as an individual to the World Championships at Lexington, Kentucky but finished a poor 16th. There were no less than 22 retirements on the cross country phase. She was part of the British team selected for the 1980 Olympics which the British team attended in part, the British government taking no official position on the US-led boycott. In 1981 she was a member of the team that won a European Gold Medal at Horsens, Denmark. After moving to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, Purbrick retired after being ousted by the UK equine institutions. There on a small farm breeding horses, she also coached young people in horsemanship and maintained a

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoid ...

sanctuary. After her marriage broke down she returned to the UK, engaging again with the horsemanship community, and also became involved in a personal relationship with Conservative peer Lord Prior. In 2018, after Purbrick had seen Prior in the company of another woman, she entered his home in

Kennington Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between the ...

South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, London Borou ...

with a key that he had given her, and then daubed graffiti on the walls in pig's blood. In a later High Court case, she admitted one charge of criminal damage. District judge Susan Green described the "series of highly abusive slogans" as "quite appalling", and sentenced Purbrick to 120 hours' community service and imposed a

restraining order A restraining order or protective order, is an order used by a court to protect a person in a situation involving alleged domestic violence, child abuse, assault, harassment, stalking, or sexual assault. Restraining and personal protection or ...

. She appeared on ITV Daytime show '' This Morning'' on 30 July 2018.

References

British event riders 1955 births Living people British female equestrians {{UK-equestrian-bio-stub