British bigamist undone as 3 wives attend his sickbed

British bigamist undone as 3 wives attend his sickbed; gets suspended sentence

at 11:49 on August 11, 2005, EST.
CASSANDRA VINOGRAD

LONDON (AP) - Some people bring flowers, others bring balloons. But when Melvyn Reed's three wives showed up to visit him in hospital they brought an unexpected end to his years as a bigamist.

British police confirmed Thursday that after Melvyn Reed woke from his triple bypass heart operation earlier this year, his complicated marital affairs took a turn for a worse. All three of his spouses had turned up at the same time, despite his efforts to stagger their visits.

Upon realizing that something was amiss, the wives held a meeting in the parking lot and learned they were all married to the same man, the British news media reported.

The 59-year-old company director from Kettering, in central England, turned himself in on May 12.

A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service said Reed pleaded guilty July 19 to two charges of bigamy at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court in south London, and was given a four-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay 70 pounds (about $150 Cdn) in costs, police said.

Reed, his three wives and Reed's lawyer, Laurence Grant, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The London Metropolitan Police said Reed married his first wife, Jean Grafton, in 1966, then left her without divorcing her. He went on to marry Denise Harrington in 1998, then married Lyndsey Hutchinson in 2003.

The British media have widely reported that Reed recently moved back in with his first wife. They say she is the mother of his three grown children.

London's police said Harrington and Hutchinson had sought advice on getting their marriages annulled. But news reports say lawyers have advised the women that their marriages were never valid.

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