An
unsuspecting wife discovered her cheating husband had secretly married another
woman 4,000 miles away - after she saw him kissing his new bride on Facebook.
Nurse
Yvonne Gibney, 55, spotted photographs of oilman Maurice Gibney, 49, cuddling
teacher Suzanne Prudhoe during a £45,000 ceremony in Oman after investigating
gossip about his love life.
And
the devastated mother-of-two discovered the love cheat had been
"married" to Miss Prudhoe for 11 months and had even been walked down
by the aisle by her mother-in-law.
Yvonne's
step-daughter was also at the wedding, held at the British Embassy, as a
bridesmaid.
Her
globe-trotting husband, who earns a tax-free salary of £85,000 a year, had even
cheated on her at Christmas when she went out to Oman see him.
He
falsely claimed he had to go away "on business" - only to fly back to
the the UK to be with Miss Prudhoe.
The
father-of-three, who works as a senior contractor for Oman Oil, pleaded guilty
to bigamy at Wirral Magistrates' Court in Merseyside.
He
was handed a six-month prison sentence suspended for two years.
Yvonne,
who had lived with Maurice in Hoylake, Merseyside, gave an emotional statement
about her bigamous husband's betrayal.
She
said: "I allowed myself to be manipulated and controlled by him.
"At
the time of the bigamous wedding we had been married 17 years. I believed in
our marriage and shared values, trust, love and respect for each other, a sense
of morality.
"I
loved him unconditionally and believed that love was reciprocated.
"I
simply don't have the words to effectively convey the pain and hurt and sense
of betrayal."
Mr
Gibney had spun a web of lies claiming that he had divorced Yvonne, telling his
family and Miss Prudhoe they had kept it secret for the sake of their children.
He
also had falsely claimed Mrs Gibney was "crazy" and urged his family
not to have any contact with her.
The
couple had agreed to divorce but last February – a week before details were to
be agreed – she spotted comments about her husband on Facebook and traced them
to Miss Prudhoe's profile.
It
was then she discovered he had illegally married Miss Prudhoe in March 2013.
Photographs
of the event showed a grinning Gibney in an open-necked shirt, cream jacket and
slacks kissing blonde Miss Prudhoe who was sporting a white wedding dress.
Other
photos showed them exchanging vows under a white gazebo on a sandy beach.
District
Judge Michael Abelson told Gibney: "You initiated into a bigamous
marriage, you knew precisely what you were doing at the time you did it, there
was no hiding it."
Gibney
was also ordered to pay £85 costs and a £80 victim surcharge.
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