A MELBOURNE bride had the shock of her life after finding wedding photos on Facebook of her husband marrying another woman.
The discovery prompted the woman, “Lucy Woo”, to launch a Family Court action to have her marriage to the love rat declared null and void.
Chinese-born Ms Woo, in her 20s, came to Australia to study and became a permanent resident, then a citizen.
“Eddie Chan” also came out as a student and became a permanent resident.
Mr Chan and Ms Woo were married in Melbourne earlier this year, but it was to last less than six months.
Weeks after the wedding, a friend from China came to stay with the newlyweds.
The friend told Ms Woo that a little over a month before their Melbourne wedding, Mr Chan, also in his 20s, had married a former girlfriend, “Maggie”, in Hong Kong.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
“He had told me he went to China to visit his family,” Ms Woo said.
“I told (Eddie’s) mother that I had married him … She was shocked to hear about our wedding and did not know anything about it.”
When Ms Woo confronted Mr Chan about his earlier marriage, he admitted it.
“(Eddie) told me that his parents and (Maggie’s) parents had arranged the marriage and that he had felt pressured to follow his parents’ wishes,” Ms Woo said.
Ms Woo searched Maggie’s name on Facebook and found an account containing wedding photos of Maggie and Eddie.
The lawyer for the love rat admitted Mr Chan had committed the offence of bigamy.
But the lawyer argued the court should not refer the case to the authorities for prosecution due to “cultural reasons”.
The judge said: “The submission was that the cultural embarrassment and shame which would be brought on both Ms Woo and Mr Chan would be so significant as to create family tensions of considerable proportions.”
But the judge decided he was bound to pass the information on to federal authorities.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions said it had not yet received the referral on the case.
There has been one prosecution for bigamy in Australia this year, two the year before, and one in 2008 most resulting in fines.
