Family furious at bigamy sentence

Suspended jail term for ex-glamour model

THE family of a Fitton Hill man have criticised the decision not to jail a bigamist bride who seduced him into a sham marriage.

Ashley Baker (25) unwittingly became the fifth husband of Emily Horne (30) — who confessed on their wedding night she was still married to four other men.

The former glamour model was handed a 10–month suspended sentence at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court yesterday.

Judge Mushtaq Khokhar said it was because she had made progress in the past six months since being prescribed with medication for a personality disorder. He described her as a manipulative woman who had undermined the institution of marriage.

Outside court, Horne said: “I am feeling great. I have been vindicated,” before adding: “I think next time I should get a divorce.”

But Mr Baker’s sister Lisa Baker–Conway said she was angry about the judge’s decision.

She said Horne had falsely claimed to have cancer and added: “My brother’s life has been ruined and he has had to start again. He did love her and she manipulated him. She said she was pregnant about five times and we grieved for babies that did not exist.”

Mr Baker had told the Evening Chronicle he was in love and had stayed with his bride after her confession as he believed she was ill and felt sorry for her — but their relationship ended amid her increasing violence and unfaithfulness before the police were alerted.

Horne, from the West Midlands, who changed her name on marriage certificates to avoid detection, married four men by the age of 23.

The former adult actress, who has bipolar disorder, wed soldier Paul Rigby in York in 1996, left him to marry banker Sean Cunningham in Leeds in 1999, and moved on to website designer Chris Barrett for a wedding in Leeds in 2000. She was cautioned by police for two offences of bigamy in 2001.

A year later she married rail guard James Matthews in Ipswich and was given a six-month jail sentence. Mr Baker became husband number five at Chadderton Town Hall in September, 2007.

Paul Hodgkinson, defending, said: “Her decision-making was affected by her mental health. She is an attention seeker and she is a lady with emotional problems but she has had to put up with a great deal of trauma in her life.

“She is sorry for what she has done and she is sorry for the pain she has caused to the men and their families.”

She’d had a difficult childhood, her sister died when she was 18 and it was an unhappy marriage to Mr Rigby, who has a conviction in Ulster for disposing of the body of a 15–year–old girl.

She now has a new partner, Wayne Harper (29), who is set to become her sixth husband next year.

Det Con Colette Kelleher, of Oldham CID, said Horne had betrayed the love and honesty her husbands bestowed on her.

She said: “Bigamy is not something to be sniggered at or brushed under the carpet. It is a very serious offence and the lives of five men have been severely affected by Horne’s selfish and quite frankly, cruel, actions.”