‘My bride told me of her four other husbands . . . on our wedding night’

Reporter: RICHARD HOOTON
Date published: 24 June 2009


THE FIFTH husband of a bigamist bride has revealed how she seduced him with lies and trapped him in a sham marriage.

Ashley Baker (25), of Fitton Hill, admits Emily Horne (30) confessed she had been married to four other men . . . on their wedding night.

But he agreed to stay quiet after being duped that she was suffering from cancer and was pregnant with their child — before the relationship ended amid her increasing violence and unfaithfulness.

At Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court on Monday, Horne admitted marrying even though she had never divorced her first, and only legal, husband. She will be sentenced on July 27.

Also known as Amileannya Carmichael, it emerged she had been through four ‘marriages’ by the age of 23 and regularly changed her name to avoid detection.

She was cautioned in 2001 for two offences of bigamy and jailed for six months in 2004 after her next two marriages.

She has left Mr Baker £8,000 in debt and he is now forced to live with his mum in Fitton Hill until he’s back on his feet.

He said: “I never want to see her again. I just need to get my marriage annulled and then I’m free and can put it behind me.

“I was naive and because I was a nice bloke she came to me for help and I couldn’t refuse her.”

The couple met at a massage parlour in May, 2007, when on a night out Mr Baker’s friends hired Horne, a former adult-movie star who worked as an escort, as a “belated birthday present”.

He said: “We ended up talking and I gave her my number. I did not expect her to ring but she did.

“We talked and she explained she did not have a place to stay so I said she could stay at my house. She never left.

“We hit it off. I was in love with her. She kept on suggesting wouldn’t it be good if we got married. Because she kept on suggesting it I ended up proposing after a couple of days.”

Horne claimed she had suffered cancer of the womb and breast cancer and talked him into quitting his sales job to look after her.

Six times she claimed to be pregnant but said she had miscarried.

“She said we had to get married so quickly as she had cancer and did not have long left,” said Mr Baker. “She organised it all.” The couple married in September, 2007, at Chadderton Town Hall.

He said: “On our wedding night she told me the marriage wasn’t legal but in her eyes it was so I ended up going along with her.

“As far as I was concerned she was ill and in trouble. She took me for a fool, which obviously I was.”

Mr Baker’s close relatives say they had major doubts but he was so smitten he refused to see the truth.

He met Emily’s family, who he thought were nice, but says she had told them the problems with her previous marriages had been solved and her latest was legal.

She became violent, slicing his arm with a knife during one row.

Two months after the wedding he was driving her home when she demanded to be let out the car at 50mph.

He said: “She said if you are not going to stop and let me out then I’m taking you with me. She grabbed the steering wheel and we crashed into a road sign and wrote the car off.”

Neither was seriously injured and Ashley was furious — but because of her illnesses, he remained sympathetic.

Their relationship deteriorated and she had an affair — but they stayed together and moved into a house in her name.

After one row she went to visit a friend — but four days later Mr Baker knocked on the door of his best friend and discovered Emily was staying there and having an affair with him too.

Mr Baker returned to live with his mum before eventually ending the relationship.

But when he went to the police they told him he would need to show them her previous marriage certificates as proof.

Meanwhile, she falsely claimed he had abused her and Mr Baker was arrested and questioned. She eventually told police she did not want to take the matter further.

But, believing Mr Baker would tell the police everything, she confessed to bigamy in the hope she would get a lesser sentence.

He said: “I have no idea why she does it. It’s all part of her sick personality.”

It’s made it difficult for him to trust people, saying: “It’s hard and sometimes I find myself stepping back emotionally.

“I let things just go on around me without letting things involve me emotionally.”

But he has a new girlfriend he met last October and a new job in sales and has been supported by close family and friends.

Horne said: “I genuinely regret causing any hurt to the men I married but I am trying to put it all behind me.”