Legal News

A court has spared a leading biochemist jail, after he was found guilty of committing bigamy.

The Daily Mail reports that leading scientific researcher Robert Marchmont, 59, separated from first wife Claire, also 59, in 1999 after 20 years of marriage – but the chemistry teacher would not divorce him because of her faith.
However, Marchmont went on to marry Victoria Smith, 45, in an illegal ceremony at Gretna Green, Scotland, seven years later.

Ms Smith had no idea that her wedding to Marchmont was bigamy until he left her without warning for his next wife, Lesley Kenneally, 61, on the eve of Valentine’s Day 2014.

Ms Smith reported her husband to the police but ten months later and before the case got to court, Marchmont married Mrs Kenneally at a country house hotel in County Durham.

Ms Smith – a marketing manager – discovered he had committed bigamy again after finding images of the lavish wedding on social media. She said she had suspected her biochemist husband of having affairs.

As a research scientist, Marchmont was earning £106,000 a year – plus bonuses – and drove a Porsche.

“It’s terrifying how plausible he is,” said Ms Smith. “I can’t believe the man I once loved and trusted so much has been capable of such deceit.

”We met working for the same company in Newcastle and fell for each other. He’s 15 years older than me but we were in love and we married at Gretna in 2006.

“As the years passed, I started to suspect he might be seeing other people.

“I trusted him when he went on business trips – but then I found a receipt from Munich when he was supposed to be in Belgium, and his behaviour became secretive and distant,” she added.

In court at Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, Marchmont admitted bigamy in relation to Mrs Kenneally, a pharmaceutical sales rep. The court heard he had told police he had lied to the registrar when applying to marry Mrs Kenneally “for fear of losing her”.

The court heard that his marriage to his first wife has now been legally dissolved – and his second marriage to Ms Smith annulled.

Marchmont was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison suspended for 12 months for bigamy and making a false declaration to a registrar. He was ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and pay £165 in costs.
The new Mrs Marchmont has said she will be standing by her husband –
the couple now live in a detached house in Darlington.

“Perhaps he did a silly thing,” she said. “I’m not disputing that – but it is understandable.

“We had wedding plans, families to think of – and he went ahead with them for the sake of everyone else. Nothing he did was for bad reasons,” she added.

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