OAP’s three bigamy charges are dropped
Crown Office halts case due to ‘insufficient evidence’
A SCOTTISH pensioner accused of bigamously marrying three women in only seven years has had all charges dropped on the eve of his trial.
Alexander Paton was said to have wed the women at a register office in Glenrothes, Fife, and a church in Greenock, Renfrewshire, between 2006 and 2012.
Mr Paton, a retired engineering inspector, was set to go on trial at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court yesterday. But court staff confirmed the case had been dropped at the last minute after prosecutors said there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to proceed.
The 68-year-old’s lawyer had told a previous hearing the case could be ‘resolved’ once divorce records from the Los Angeles Superior Court were sent to Scotland.
It was alleged that Paton married Filipina mortgage funder Perla Montilla, 65, at a register office in Glenrothes in October 2006. But prosecutors said he was already married to another woman, Dorothy Campbell, at the time.
The second charge alleged that he married Romanian engineer Judit Gherghiteanu, 67, in June 2007 at the same register office.
A third charge alleged that he illegally married Margaret Nicol, 66, of Fife, at a church in Greenock in 2012.
Mr Paton, of Kirkcaldy, Fife, had denied all three charges at a series of hearings over the past year.
His lawyer, Bill Clark, previously told the court that the American divorce records would relate to an apparent split from Miss Campbell in the US.
When the case was called yesterday, prosecutors said they no longer intended to proceed due to a lack of evidence.
Explaining its decision to drop the charges, a Crown Office spokesman said: ‘The procurator fiscal at Kirkcaldy received a report concerning Alexander Paton in connection with alleged incidents between 2006 and 2012.
‘ Summary proceedings were raised against him, charging him with three counts of bigamy.
‘It is the duty of the Crown to keep cases under review and after further investigation it was decided that there was insufficient evidence to take further action at this stage.
‘The Crown reserves the right to reraise proceedings i n future should further information come to light.’ Mr Paton was not i n court yesterday when the proceedings were dropped.
Bigamy is defined as the crime of marrying a person while already l egally married. In Scotland, penalties range from fines to substantial prison sentences.
A bigamist is seen as perpetrating fraud against the state, causing a disruption in record-keeping and, in some cases, upsetting the practice of inheritance and estate laws.
If the second spouse is unaware of a still valid prior marriage, the bigamist may also be seen as causing him or her to enter into a legal agreement under false pretences, which may be another form of fraud.
In 2010, bigamist businessman Alexander Roy – who juggled two wives and two fiancées and had a string of previous lovers – escaped a jail term at Stirling Sheriff Court.
The f ather of two married charity worker Morven Wylie in a civil ceremony at the Dunblane Hydro Hotel in Perthshire while still l egally wed to another woman.
It was concluded that Roy, who was still the l awful wedded husband of Denise Roy at the time of the ceremony in 2007, was suff ering f r om ‘ an adjustment disorder’.