A man who has been warned that he could be jailed for bigamy has claimed he didn’t realise his first divorce had not been completed.
Adam Moore, from Exeter, tied the knot with Lyndsay Haywood in 2008. But when their relationship broke down a few years later, it emerged that Mr Moore was in fact still married to his first wife.
Documents showed that he had been granted a decree nisi, but failed to obtain a decree absolute – the final step of the divorce process.
As a result of the oversight, Ms Hayward discovered that, in actual fact, she had never been Mr Moore’s wife in the eyes of the law.
At Torquay Magistrates Court last week, the 33-year-old defendant admitted bigamy.
Katrina Byrne, defending, said that her client’s case was not one of “outright deception”, with no evidence of any financial benefit.
Legal experts have said the case illustrates why it is important that people going through divorce proceedings follow the letter of the law and take into account that the process doesn’t come to an end until the decree absolute has been issued.
A pre-sentence report was prepared and Mr Moore was bailed until next month, when he will discover whether he faces a custodial sentence.