Bizarre life of bigamist caught out by Facebook
BIGAMIST Adrian Linham liked the Mexican beach where he honeymooned with his first wife so much he married his second “bride” there.
But when the new “wedding” snaps were posted on Facebook, his double life was exposed, a court heard.
His real wife was shocked when his mother wrote to her to say she was “ saddened” that they had divorced.
But there had been no divorce and Linham, 43, was still behaving as her husband.
The extraordinary story of his deceit emerged after Linham appeared at North Somerset magistrates court on Thursday to plead guilty to bigamy and was jailed for 18 weeks.
Liz Linham, 37, had thought her seven-year marriage, blessed with a four-year-old daughter, was fine.
But for three years Linham had been secretly seeing Hayley Totterdell.
He stayed at the marital home in Bristol only once or twice a month saying he had to be away to work as a scuba diving instructor in Bangor, North Wales.
It has completely altered the way I look at everyone. I look at people now, who I have known and trusted for years, and think, ‘Can I really trust you
The truth was that he was living just 16 miles away with Hayley in Winterbourne, Gloucestershire.
She was not even worried when Linham told her in May last year that he was going to stay in Bangor for a longer stretch to oversee exams.
But secretly he flew off to “marry” Hayley at Riviera Maya on the Mexican coast, surrounded by members of Hayley’s family and his own.
He even had the same best man as at his first wedding. After the trip he returned to England and continued to live his double life.
It was not until three months later that Liz, the real wife he married in Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, in 2007, received a letter from Linham’s mother in which she said she was sorry they had divorced and that she hoped Liz was coping with Adrian’s re-marriage.
A shocked Liz turned to Facebook, where she found photos of her husband embracing his new “bride”.
She said: “I didn’t think stuff like this happened in real life. I never thought for a moment that he’d gone and married someone else.
“It has completely altered the way I look at everyone. I look at people now, who I have known and trusted for years, and think, ‘Can I really trust you?’”
Liz said she had been aware of Hayley’s existence but had been told she was the wife of Linham’s psychiatrist.
Hayley was unaware Adrian was married, only finding out about Liz when he was arrested.
Linham also told extraordinary lies to Hayley in order to conceal his double life.
He spent a Christmas Day with Hayley then told her his mother had died to give him an excuse to leave to go home to Liz.
Later, he returned to Hayley and described his mother’s funeral in full detail – despite the fact she is still alive.
Liz said that after she found out about the second marriage “I called him to confront him – I just went into meltdown.
“He totally denied it and told me not to be so silly. But that was it – I haven’t spoken to him since.”
Liz then reported Linham to police. Sentencing the bigamist, who has two other children from a previous relationship, magistrate Peter Searle said: “The length of deception is nothing short of incredible. You have shown no remorse and you have humiliated your wife.”
Liz said yesterday that she believes prison will do Linham no good, adding: “I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more women. I don’t think he’d stop at two after everything I’ve heard. He’ll never change.”
But Hayley said she was standing by her “husband".
