A pastor who pleaded guilty to bigamy was on Friday given a suspended sentence and a very stern warning from Supreme Court Judge Paulette Williams while the 'new wife' wept uncontrollably in court.

Everton Thompson, 51, of Yallahs, St Thomas, admitted in the St Thomas Circuit Court that he had married Alma Brown in December 2008, while he was still married and living with his wife Pauline Reece-Thompson.

The court was told that Thompson was a member of a Nazarene Church and over the years, he has been promoted through several leadership positions until he became a pastor.

Four children

Thompson was first married in 1980 and the union produced four children. However, he met Brown at a graduation in 2001 and on December 2008, got married to her in Portmore, St Catherine. He told his new wife that because he worked in St Thomas, he would have to spend time there, but when he was in Kingston, he would spend time with her.

Thompson's infidelity was revealed when Brown telephoned him and a woman answered. She asked for her husband and when the first wife questioned her, she discovered that her husband had a new wife.

The two women agreed to report the matter to the police and Thompson was arrested and charged with bigamy.

When the parties appeared in court Friday, the legal wife asked the judge to make an order for Thompson to support her and the children of the marriage because he earned good money from his job as a pest controller. She said she had taken the matter to the Family Court.

Reece-Thompson told the court that the incident had caused her a lot of pain and embarra**ment. She said they still lived in the same house but she no longer had an intimate relationship with Thompson.

She disclosed that on the day that the accused is said to have got married to the second wife, he got dressed at the matrimonial home and returned that night and slept with her.

Brown broke down in court, cried bitterly and had to be consoled. She described Thompson as a "wicked man" and said he did not tell her that he was married.

Serious offence

Defence lawyer Melrose Reid, in applying for leniency for Thompson, told the court that although the offence was a serious one, she was asking the judge not to send him to prison. She said it was not as if he had murdered someone or committed a gun offence.

The judge, in sentencing Thompson, told him that he had emotionally murdered two women. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment but the sentence was suspended for three years. The judge warned Thompson that if he was found guilty of any offence within the next three years, he would be taken back before the court and sent to prison to serve the two-year prison term.