A bigamist who carried out a ‘cruel deception’ by secretly marrying two women and fathering five children between them has narrowly avoided jail.
Former soldier Jason Hayter, 48, married his third wife Sara at a ceremony in Norfolk in 2016- without revealing that he was still married to Tracey Larkcombe, who he previously wed in 2010.
Hayter maintained his double-life by travelling between one family in Germany – where he was stationed with the army – and another in the UK.
He concealed his cheating by blaming his lengthy absences on going away with the Army, and later claimed he was training as a paramedic or suffering from mental health issues.
Hayter, who was already divorced from his first wife when he married his victims, was eventually rumbled after one of his daughters contacted his second wife on Facebook and asked her who she was.
‘Two families were comprehensively deceived,’ said Judge Katharine Moore at a sentencing hearing in Norfolk.
Handing him a suspended sentence, she told him: ‘Your behaviour has been disgraceful. You perpetrated a cruel deception that struck at the very heart of the institution of marriage.
‘Such deception erodes trust and devastates families.’
Hayter, appearing in court in a wheelchair accompanied by his current partner Sarah Taylor, had previously pleaded guilty to bigamy.
Chris Youell, prosecuting, told the court his complicated love life had seen him ‘living a double and even triple life at various stages’.
‘He carried out quite a lot of lying and a lot of toing and froing geographically,’ he added.
Charles Judge, defending, said Hayter had been left with PTSD after serving in the armed forces for 23 years, which had left him unable to deal with relationships in a normal way.
‘There were lots of stresses and strains. He wasn’t able to deal with relationships in a way one would consider normal or acceptable,’ he said.
He added: ‘There is every prospect of rehabilitation. He has certainly learned his lesson in terms of relationships and what’s the right thing to do.’
Following the verdict, his first wife, Teresa Fortune, 52, issued a warning to his current partner that his cheating would likely happen again.
‘He probably won’t make the same mistake of being married to two people at the same time but he won’t rehabilitate in terms of cheating on women,’ she told the Mail.
‘He should have served some time to deter him and other people from doing it.
‘I just get the feeling that because of who he was – such as his time in the military – it was like “We can’t send him to prison.”’
In a statement read to the court, Mrs Hayter said that her husband’s time away had been explained as training as a paramedic for London Ambulance Service.
‘I don’t want anything more to do with him,’ she said. ‘I did not see this coming. He manipulated me.
‘I believe everything he has said is a lie. I don’t think he knows the truth anymore.’
Hayter, who is now unemployed and registered disabled, was told he would have to wear an electronic tag and follow a 7pm to 7am curfew for eight weeks. He was also ordered to pay costs of £100.
None of his five children wished to retain contact with him, the court was told.
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