Stephen Kiely, of Enfield, Kildare pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to criminal damage at the house he shared with his girlfriend in Oldbridge Park, Lucan, Co Dublin on June 9, 2013.
Gda Gerard Reynolds told the court Kiely got in an argument with his girlfriend at a birthday party in their house when he saw her texting a man she had met a week earlier.
Kiely, 45, later demanded to see the messages but the woman tried to flush the phone down the toilet.
Kiely retrieved the phone and saw what the defence described as "very graphic confirmation" that she was having a relationship with the other man.
He ran downstairs and smashed the phone off the ground before returning to the house to break two televisions, a microwave, a bathtub, shower doors, a chest of drawers, mirrors, bannisters on the stairs and the legs of two dining room chairs.
Kiely also slashed two couches and cut the cables from the barbecue, a hair straightener and the hoover.
Lorcan Staines BL, defending, said Kiely's "heart was broken in two" when he saw the messages.
He said Kiely had recently been prescribed Prozac and was "in despair" after his girlfriend told him he had been impossible to live with.
Mr Staines said: "We're not asking about where there might have been some suspicions.
"What he saw would have offered very graphic confirmation of a relationship.
"He went on a rampage of sorts throughout the house.
"He was enraged, humiliated, in despair and angry."
Mr Staines disputed the injured party's valuation of the items at €16,000 and said that he had done his best to get €5,000 together as he is currently unemployed.
Judge Martin Nolan ordered Kiely to pay the €5,000 to the injured party and imposed a two year suspended sentence.
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