[Paleopsych] Candian Press: British bigamist undone as 3 wives attend his sickbed; gets suspended sentence

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British bigamist undone as 3 wives attend his sickbed; gets suspended sentence
http://www.canada.com/news/oddities/story.html?id=520e2027-8b9d-450b-b566-951b0f314207

     Cassandra Vinograd
     Canadian Press
     Thursday, August 11, 2005

     LONDON (AP) - Some people bring flowers, others bring balloons. But
     when Melvyn Reed's three wives showed up to visit him in hospital they
     brought an unexpected end to his years as a bigamist.

     British police confirmed Thursday that after Melvyn Reed woke from his
     triple bypass heart operation earlier this year, his complicated
     marital affairs took a turn for a worse. All three of his spouses had
     turned up at the same time, despite his efforts to stagger their
     visits.

     Upon realizing that something was amiss, the wives held a meeting in
     the parking lot and learned they were all married to the same man, the
     British news media reported.

     The 59-year-old company director from Kettering, in central England,
     turned himself in on May 12.

     A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service said Reed pleaded
     guilty July 19 to two charges of bigamy at Wimbledon Magistrates'
     Court in south London, and was given a four-month suspended sentence
     and ordered to pay 70 pounds (about $150 Cdn) in costs, police said.

     Reed, his three wives and Reed's lawyer, Laurence Grant, could not
     immediately be reached for comment.

     The London Metropolitan Police said Reed married his first wife, Jean
     Grafton, in 1966, then left her without divorcing her. He went on to
     marry Denise Harrington in 1998, then married Lyndsey Hutchinson in
     2003.

     The British media have widely reported that Reed recently moved back
     in with his first wife. They say she is the mother of his three grown
     children.

     London's police said Harrington and Hutchinson had sought advice on
     getting their marriages annulled. But news reports say lawyers have
     advised the women that their marriages were never valid.