Electrician shamed by court as bigamist after tying knot with third wife - while still legally married to his second

A thrice-wed electrician has been shamed by a court as a bigamist after he tied the knot with his third wife - while still legally married to his second.

Mark Rowlands, 47, married qualified nurse Kerry Adams at a Holiday Inn hotel despite not divorcing his previous spouse, Hayley Brown, whom he married eight years earlier. He was reported to police after Hayley - who had reverted back to her maiden name of Brown - learnt of her estranged husband's nuptials from a friend on a social media platform.

When later quizzed Rowlands from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, insisted he had instigated divorce proceedings with Hayley but claimed he had mistaken a decree nisi he had received for a certificate of divorce. It emerged Rowlands had divorced his first wife in 2004, then married Hayley at a seaside hotel in 2012 before they split a few years later.

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He married 45-year-old Kerry the day after Valentine’s Day 2020 - with the couple's marriage certificate wrongly declaring his previous marriage as ''dissolved.''

At Chester Magistrates Court Rowlands initially denied bigamy, which is punishable by up to seven years in prison, but he changed his plea to guilty on the day of trial and was fined £456 with £346 in prosecution costs and a victim surcharge. He now faces paying out legal fees on finalising the divorce with Hayley and paying for a new wedding to legalise his marriage to Kerry.

NHS worker Kerry who is also thought to have worked as a deputy manager in a care home watched the case from the public gallery to support her husband

Leanne Gallagher, prosecuting, said: “Mr Rowlands and Hayley Brown legally married at the Royal Clifton Hotel in Southport in