Mark Gibbon has been charged by US police with the attempted murder of his daughter-in-law Jasmine Wyld after allegedly trying to drown her in a swimming pool while on holiday
This is the first picture of the young British hairdresser whose father-in-law allegedly tried to drown in a swimming pool near Disney World in Florida.
Jasmine Wyld, 33, reportedly feared for her life after it is said she got into a heated row with Mark Gibbon, 62, about his will during a luxury holiday. It is alleged Gibbon, who has a film and television lighting firm Ultralight in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, pushed and held Ms Wyld’s head under water in the pool multiple times.
He has today been charged with attempted second-degree murder and battery by police in the US, where the family had been staying at a rental home at the Solterra Resort in Davenport, Florida. The grandfather is being held at Polk County Jail.
Ms Wyld shares two children with Gibbon’s son, Alex, who had previously worked with his father at the film and television lighting firm. He resigned as director in April 2023, it is understood.
Gibbon Snr has since renamed the company as MRG Lighting. He is listed as the sole director. Photographs on Facebook show Ms Wyld, a hairdresser from Buckinghamshire, happily smiling with Alex and their two children.
Companies House documents show she was previously a director of Jasmine Elizabeth Hair, but the firm was dissolved “via a voluntary strike off” in April 2024. When contacted by the Daily Mail on Wednesday, Ms Wyld reportedly declined to comment about her father-in-law’s arrest.
Officers had responded to reports of a disturbance in a back-yard swimming pool at around 5.20pm local time at the Solterra Resort on Sunday. According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, Gibbon had got into a spat with Ms Wyld over the “stipulations of his will”.
Deputies wrote: “She advised that she could not breathe and believed that she was going to drown. [The victim] advised that she had to fight Mark in order to get away from him and from under the water but he kept pushing her back under.”
MRG Lighting, which is Gibbon’s company, has previously worked on television and film sets, as well as on music videos for and Paloma Faith. The dad, of Beaconsfield, is also listed as the only director of Sage Hairdressing.
Gibbon and his daughter-in-law had been drinking before the altercation, reports Law and Crime. Ms Wyld’s nine-year-old daughter jumped into the pool to try to stop the incident, police said.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said: “It’s great that Polk County draws visitors from all across the world, but we expect vacationers to behave while they visit with us, just as we expect our lifelong residents to do the same. Because Mr Gibbon couldn’t control his anger, he may find himself spending a lot more time in Florida than he had anticipated.”