A bigamist who married his teenage step-daughter while still wed to her mother has spoken out after his trial, calling the situation “weird” and “a misunderstanding”.
As exclusively revealed by KentOnline in our court coverage earlier this month, the bizarre and unusual case involved 69-year-old John Ingram who changed his name to marry his 16-year-old stepdaughter in 1988.
John Ingram admitted bigamy but managed to avoid jail time
His other wife even attended the ceremony, while he secretly fathered children with both women.
The web of lies was only fully uncovered in 2020, and when sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court this month, Mr Ingram managed to avoid jail time.
He was instead fined £450 and given a two-year community order, while it was noted he was surviving on a state pension while acting as a carer to his wife who suffers from dementia.
Speaking to MailOnline from his Sheerness home following his sentencing, he admitted the situation was “weird”.
“I’m lucky I did not go to prison,” he said.
“Bigamy seems to be bigger in America. But it can be anything from a suspended sentence to a couple of years.
“I took a bag (to court). I feel lucky. If I had then social services would have had to pick up the bill for looking after my wife. She has Alzheimer’s and is also disabled.
“Not sending me to prison has saved the taxpayer money.”
When interviewed by police after his 2020 arrest, he confessed and claimed the motive for the illegal marriage was financial.
Ingram, of James Street, Sheerness, later pleaded guilty to bigamy when he appeared before Medway magistrates in May last year.
But because of the seriousness of the offence, the case was committed to the crown court for sentencing.
Mr Ingram has now spoken out following his trial
His crime, which he says was financially motivated, carries a maximum sentence of seven years’ imprisonment.
“When my step-daughter left school back in the 80s, you automatically had to go on a training scheme,” explained Mr Ingram.
“But because she was pregnant we were able to manipulate the situation, where instead of going on to the Youth Training Scheme, she was able to finish early and went straight on to benefits.’
“It made it sound like I benefited, I did it to benefit her.”
At the hearing on January 6 prosecutor Jeremy Kingsford said Ingram had married his wife in January 1983, before getting wed illegally to his step-daughter five years later.
The court heard how Ingram changed his name by deed poll so he could marry again at the age of 32, and signed his marriage certificate with his step-daughter as ‘Neil Carr’.
That surname was also used by his genuine wife when she witnessed the same marital document, the court was told.
Ingram, who is known to have used several aliases in the past, has eight previous convictions for 19 offences committed between 1973 and 1992.
“The only people who knew were my wife and my mum,” Mr Ingram told MailOnline.
“It all came out in February 2020. There were a lot of questions. I answered them, truthfully, and we worked around it.
“The family talk to me. They have forgiven me.”