Now disgraced ex-convict Duke invents military past

Released from prison after serving four months for attempted burglary in Las Vegas, the bigamist Duke of Manchester has posted an updated CV on Facebook that omits all mention of his time in High Desert State Prison, Nevada.

Instead the australia-born bigamist claims — falsely — that he was an officer ‘in the British military’ from 1977 until 2005.

The assertion is greeted with derision by Marion Stoner, his first wife, who married alexander Montagu — as the Duke then was — in australia in 1984. ‘He’s a bloody liar,’ says Marion, explaining that, at the time of their marriage, her husband was in the pay of notorious australian underworld figure Tom Erickson, who was later to die on the day he faced 11 charges of threatening to kill.

‘I still can’t believe it when I see these documentaries about australia’s greatest criminals and see the people alex was with,’ she tells me from australia, where the Duke was twice imprisoned.

‘He’ll never be different. He thinks he can get away with anything.’

Though the Duke has never served in the British armed Forces, Marion has personal experience of his familiarity with weaponry, walking out of their marriage after he fired a spear-gun at her.