Marriage in bigamy case a sham, rules judge

A FATHER of four has been cleared of bigamy after convincing a judge that his marriage to a Peruvian woman was a ‘sham’ backed up by a fake marriage certificate.

Former airport manager Iain Theyers, 45, was put on trial after his second wife discovered on Facebook he had married for the third time a year after walking out on her and their son.

A court heard Theyers, from Balloch, Inverness-shire, did not tell the registrar of his marriage in Peru to Marian Belahonia, 38, whom he had never divorced.

But judge Jeremy Richardson, QC, intervened to stop the trial at Hull Crown Court after evidence cast doubt on the legality of ‘sham marriage’ in Peru.

The ceremony was conducted in the front room of the home of the pregnant bride’s parents with the mayor and registrar of a neighbouring district, who was a regular customer in her father’s restaurant, officiating.

Theyers’s barrister told the court the Peru ceremony was a ‘sham’. The marriage certificate was handed to the couple in a ‘black market’ transaction after they paid cash to ‘a man in the street who handed over a brown envelope’, the court heard.

Ruling the jury could not safely convict Theyers, the judge said: ‘Although he does not come out of this well, I have misgivings about the validity of the marriage.’

Theyers is still married to ‘third wife’ Louise Martin, whom he wed in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, in December 2011.

He said outside court: ‘I am relieved it is all over. I am looking forward to carrying on with the rest of my life.’