Woman gets 18 months for sinking yacht

LONDON, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- A "manipulative, angry" woman who admitted sinking her estranged husband's yacht was sentenced in a British court Thursday to 18 months behind bars.

Mandy Fleming, 47, of Sheerness in Kent, cried when she heard she would be jailed, The Guardian reported. She entered a guilty plea last month at the Old Bailey in London to endangering life through criminal damage.

"You were a manipulative, angry and troubled individual," the judge, Richard Hone, told her.

Fleming and her husband, who have since divorced, were separated in 2004 when she went to his boat, the Double Dragon, for a sexual encounter with a couple, Mark Gadsden, the prosecutor, said. The boat was docked at the time at a marina in Brighton.

Gadsden said Fleming became angry when she saw her husband had spent money on a new TV and other items for the boat, after telling her he had none. After calling her husband and screaming at him, she returned to the boat with a drill, put three holes in the hull and turned on the gas on a propane stove.

The dock master said he quickly realized when he found the boat slowly sinking the next morning that a single spark could have caused an explosion.