"We have struggled in the last year with a lot of family issues that have put a lot of pressure on us, Kevin and I, and our family," she said.
Their relationship strained, Kevin would often drink alcohol, and Kiri and her daughters had also started drinking to cope, she said.
"I guess we were both trying to find ourselves again ... We put a lot of our lives into trying to support other people and when we needed help we didn't get it back."
On Boxing Day last year the family had returned home after an afternoon of shopping and parted ways; Mrs Swannell heading inside to do some cleaning and the defendant to the outdoor shed.
The court heard she texted her husband to check if he was okay, to which he replied he was, but his mood deteriorated as the evening progressed.
In one of several visits out to the shed to check him she found he had been crying, she said.
"He was upset and there was some glass smashed on the floor. He was sitting on the floor and I said, 'Are you all right?' He was struggling with something, with his thoughts or feelings at that time. He had been crying."
Later in the evening she heard a chainsaw start up and went out to the shed to find the roller doors pulled down and the lights switched off.
She yelled out to him to ask what he was doing and he told her he was cutting firewood and turned the machine off.
"He wasn't angry, he was just sad and had that feeling that nobody loved him and cared about him anymore ... Looking at our rapport in the community, we were alone and Kevin felt that too; that we were alone with the battles we were fighting."
Judge Adeane said Swannell had become "emotionally overwrought and upset" and started the chainsaw, giving his wife cause for concern which was all that was needed to prove the intimidation charge.
He sentenced him to nine months' probationary supervision and directed him to complete any programme as directed.
The Swannells had been married for 25 years and had six children together.
They spearheaded homeless charity Limitless Hope and had since 2013 been vocal at public rallies and throughout the media about those sleeping rough in Hawke's Bay.
In June 2015 Limitless Hope was pledged a total $66,071.60 through a Givealittle appeal to build an emergency shelter for the prevention of homelessness in the region.
A two-storey building was donated to the cause by Property Brokers but the shelter proposal fizzled as it was said to have presented too many road blocks.