Marc Dougherty, 54, of Acorn Street in Newton-le-Willows, was sentenced to an eight-week suspended prison term at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday after admitting bigamy. The case came to light when his former mother-in-law spotted photographs of his second wedding in Las Vegas on Facebook and alerted the authorities.
Illegal Wedding in Nevada
Dougherty married his second wife, Pamela Lewis, at Nelson Ghost Town in Nevada on July 4, 2024. The ceremony took place at a scenic former gold mine on Independence Day. However, Dougherty was still legally married to his first wife, Samantha Todd, whom he had wed at a registry office in Kingston-upon-Hull in September 2006. The divorce proceedings he initiated in November 2020, citing adultery, were never finalized.
Prosecutor Lucy Moran told the court that Dougherty had falsely declared on a form submitted to the State of Nevada three days before the wedding that he had been divorced since June 2019 and possessed a decree absolute. The county clerk later confirmed that no proof of divorce had been supplied.
Police Investigation
Police first contacted Dougherty in September 2024, but he failed to provide the decree absolute during that contact or in two subsequent voluntary interviews. After his arrest in December 2024, Dougherty told detectives that his relationship with Ms Todd had ended in 2018 because she had cheated on him. He claimed to have received the decree absolute in hard copy and via email in July 2019 and to have provided it to Nevada authorities, but this was not corroborated.
Defense and Sentencing
Bernice Campbell, defending, described Dougherty as a businessman who employed nine people. She said: "To say that the defendant puts his head in the sand and cannot deal with things is something that the court doesn't like to hear." She added that Dougherty had started the divorce process correctly but let it unravel amid issues with drinking, mental health, and suicide attempts. His wedding reception in the UK was attended by two children from his first marriage, highlighting the confusion.
Judge Louise Brandon noted that Dougherty had 11 previous convictions for 16 offences, including theft, breaching a non-molestation order, and drink driving. She said: "You simply, deliberately did not bother, whether you didn't think of the consequences or because you weren't willing to invest the time and money required." The judge also pointed out that Dougherty misled Nevada authorities and was evasive with UK police, wasting valuable police time.
Suspended Sentence
Dougherty was handed an eight-week imprisonment suspended for 12 months, with 100 hours of unpaid work and £1,000 in court costs. The judge cited a pre-sentence report that assessed him as low risk of reoffending and noted that an immediate custodial sentence would likely collapse his business and harm his caring responsibilities for step-children and children from his first marriage. The court was obliged to suspend the sentence under current guidelines.
