A woman who claimed she discovered her husband was a bigamist on Facebook yesterday denied that their own marriage was a sham.
Hull Crown Court heard that former airport manager Iain Theyers, 45, tied the knot with pregnant Marian Belahonia, 38, in the front room of her parents’ home in Peru, three days after her divorce.
Ms Belahonia could not stay in the UK to get married as she had illegally overstayed a visa and was accused of fixing a quick sham marriage in Peru by recruiting a close friend of her fathers to officiate as Mayor.
Theyers, of Balloch Farm, by Inverness, denies a charge of bigamy.
He is accused of illegally marring Louse Martin in Bridlington Town Hall on December 30 2011 while still being married to Ms Belahonia.
But he denies his marriage with Ms Belahonia was ever legal claiming he was in emotional turmoil in the relationship soon after the end of his first marriage.
Ms Belahonia told the jury: “It was 18 months before we got married. Before my visa expired he supported me. After a month he proposed marriage to me. I said it was too soon – and that I had to go back to Peru as my visa had run out. I wanted to go back, but he convinced me to stay. After 15 months I said yes. We agreed to go back to Peru and get married – as it was illegal for me to marry here. There was planning, a ring and a dress. We invited people, but unfortunately people could not come from the UK as it was too expensive.”
The jury were shown wedding pictures of Theyers and Ms Belahonia with flowers in her wedding dress he had bought for her in Peru.
Ms Belahonia told how the relationship came to an end in October 2010, with Theyers having weekend contact with his son.
She said: “The contact stopped when he started making excuses. He would say: I am coming, and then not come. Just before the last time he saw my son in December 2011 I said I wanted a divorce.”
He said: “Don’t bother I have searched for that and the marriage is not valid in this country.”
Under cross-examination, defence barrister Glenn Parsons accused Ms Belahonia of pressuring Mr Theyers into marriage asking him because she needed to stay in the UK.
Mr Parsons said she had not followed correct procedures which said witnesses should have known Mr Theyers for three years and three days after the ceremony collected her marriage certificate from a man in the street with a brown envelope paying $50.
Mr Parsons continued: “This whole marriage was a sham – from start to finish – cooked up, by you and your family, who knew the local mayor. You knew all along it was not legally binding. You knew because you had been married before you were not going along with the legal requirement required by Peruvian law.”
The trial continues.
