London - A bigamist who secretly married a second woman was caught out after his other wife spotted a picture of the couple on Facebook, a court heard yesterday.
Computer consultant Iain Theyers, 45, tied the knot in a register office ceremony with Louise Martin after cutting off all contact with his supposed wife Marian Belahonia and their young son.
Miss Belahonia, a Spanish teacher from Peru, tried to track down Theyers using a private investigator so she could file for divorce, Hull Crown Court was told.
When that failed and letters to his parents were ignored she did her own detective work on Facebook.
She was shocked to find a profile picture of Theyers with another woman and suspected they had married.
He was then reported to police and they charged him with bigamy. Gordon Stables, prosecuting, said Miss Belahonia came to the UK in 2004 and did voluntary work in Nottingham where she met the defendant and they started a relationship.
Both had been married before and Theyers had yet to divorce his first wife.
However, their relationship ‘blossomed’, she moved in with him in Nottingham in December 2005 and six months later his divorce came through. ‘They lived together for about a year before the defendant asked Marian Belahonia to marry him,’ Mr Stables said.
But her visa had expired so she had to return to her native Peru. Theyers then travelled to South America to marry her, the court heard.
Their passports, birth certificates and other documentary evidence were presented to the authorities and the couple allegedly married in the family home in Peru on December 9, 2006 in a ceremony attended by family, friends and two officials. Days later they applied to the UK Home Office for a spouse visa – a process which required a marriage certificate.
The couple returned to live in Nottingham and Miss Belahonia gave birth to their son Kyle in June 2007.
But after four years the marriage collapsed and Theyers moved out in December 2010. Mr Stables said: ‘Initially Iain Theyers and Marian Belahonia remained in contact allowing him access to his son.
‘However in 2011 suddenly, just like that, all contact ceased. Marian Belahonia heard nothing from Iain Theyers at all. No communication, no contact with his son.’
Unknown to his wife, Theyers fell in love with another woman and a year after leaving the marital home he married Louise Martin at Bridlington Town Hall, East Yorkshire on December 30, 2011. The court heard he lied to the registrar by failing to disclose his marriage in Peru.
But Theyers denies he was ever properly married to Miss Belahonia.
Meanwhile Miss Belahonia had found a solicitor to sort out a divorce and she set about tracking down her missing husband so the split could be dealt with.
After finding the Facebook profile she sent a message to the new woman saying ‘she needed him to sign divorce papers and contact his son,’ the jury heard.
But Miss Martin’s response was to ‘block’ Miss Belahonia so she could not contact them on social media. The Peruvian duly obtained a copy of the marriage certificate involving the defendant and Miss Martin and went to the police.
Theyers, from Balloch, Inverness-Shire, denies bigamy. The trial continues.