Kirianna Curley began a relationship with Corporal Ben Wilmott after her husband, another corporal in the Royal Marines, was killed by a bomb in Afghanistan.
But things began to get tricky when she began dating a third soldier, Matthew Cotterill. The three soldiers were close friends while serving in Afghanistan, and had been nicknamed “the Three Musketeers”, Exeter Magistrates Court was told.
Wilmott felt betrayed and sent the pair a series of threatening messages warning that the couple would end up in hospital, as well as leaving a note under the tyre of Mrs Curley’s car.
The 26-year-old Marine admitted harassing the pair without using violence. He was sentenced to six weeks in jail, suspended for two years, and was made the subject of a five year restraining order keeping him away from the couple. He was also discharged from the Marine Corps last month at his own request.
James Rickard, who defending Wilmott, said the soldier felt “cuckolded, hurt, jealous and abandoned” when the relationship ended. He said Wilmott had been best friends with Corporal Curley.
While Wilmott did not accept many of the things that Mrs Curley had said, Rickard said the soldier was “an honourable man” who behaved badly using “an ill conceived, ill written, ill meant, unfair and unkind” series of messages.
He added: “He is not a bad man and has learned a salutary lesson for making a stupid, foolish, frightening, worrying mistake.”
Image: Getty
