A BIGAMIST flew out to The Gambia to marry a woman he had met on a drink and drugs binge while on holiday with his wife.

John Kinder, who has now been reunited with his wife of 22 years, claimed he had been pressurised into the marriage by the woman's brother after spending the night with her.

He claimed that after a one-night-stand with Haddy Camara, he was told he would have to marry her and provide for her, or she would be thrown out onto the street.

A few days after the wedding, he returned to his Derbyshire wife and showed her a DVD of the wedding ceremony.

Handing out a six-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, a judge at Derby Crown Court told the 54-year-old that the whole episode "would have been laughable if it hadn't caused pain to others".

Judge John Burgess said: "I don't know whether you were duped. I do know you were unutterably stupid."

The court heard that Kinder, of Glossop, had gone missing for three days while on holiday with his wife Judith in April. When he returned, he told her he had caught up with old friends and got involved in heavy drinking.

The couple then returned to their Coombes Lane home but on May 8, Kinder went missing again.

It later transpired that Kinder had flown out to The Gambia again, converted to the Muslim religion and married Miss Camara.

Stephen James, prosecuting, said: "After a week, his wife got a text saying, 'in The Gambia – trying to buy a business here'.

"Then, on May 24, Mrs Kinder received a phone call to collect him from Manchester airport.

"He was wearing a wedding ring and then he showed her a DVD of the wedding in The Gambia and said, 'look what I've done'."

Mr James said Mrs Kinder was shattered by the news and called the police. Her husband had told her he had done it so he could purchase a business in the country. However, he later told her that if he did not marry the woman, she would have been ostracised.

Sarah Johnston, in mitigation, said Kinder had felt undue pressure to marry Miss Camara.

Miss Johnston added: "The remorse he feels is for what he has put his wife through – it has been a case of great stress and anxiety for both of them."