- [Narrator] Some people have
problems telling the truth. This woman is one of them. She's called Emily Horn,
also known as Emily Lacont, Ameliana Carmichael, Emma Banker, and Anna Matthews. Emily is just 30 years old
and she's already been married to five different men but she never bothered to get
divorced from any of them. - The blokes are basically indicating they were led by their pricks. - As my father says, more for all them. Get that camera out of my face. (cameras clicking) - [Narrator] In 2003,
after her fourth marriage, Emily was jailed for bigamy. She was convicted of
the same offense in 2009 and she's on her way to
court for sentencing. - If she's decided that
she's going to take some sucker for a ride and she's done the crime,
so she does the time, fair play to her. - I would doubt anything that she says because I learned from experience that at best she exaggerates everything, at worst it's out outright lies. - Don't put a flash in her face, you know she's epileptic. (woman mumbles) - I believe that she did love me, but she loved me in her way. Not in a sort of a rational way that you and I or another
person would love a person. - [Woman] I just knew for
God's sake, knew, okay. Stop in my way. There's your camera where's
your (voice cuts out)? - [Narrator] Everybody I
met while making this film talks of her family having a
relaxed attitude towards truth. It seemed as though it would
be wise to accept nothing at face value. (slow instrumental music) Emily is pure tabloid gold, a
giddy mix of sex and deception that made her infamous for awhile. The first question I put to her
was why she wanted to appear in a film that would go
beyond juicy headlines. - To set the record
straight, for the truth. There is no way I can be
painted as some sort of Mary Magdalene, some sort of wronged woman but the truth is nowhere near as bad as the tablets have made out. In some aspects maybe, to a
certain extent it's even worse. - [Narrator] What do
you think my chances are of getting the truth and this documentary? - No better than 50/50. Emily can sometimes, she will
either lie outright or she will tell you a
truth and embellish it to something it just isn't. - She won't mean you any harm. She's, I think she's probably, it's almost like she's not
happy with the life she's had. So she's trying to invent one that makes her feel like somebody special. - This is my own letter to the judge. Dear Sir, I'm sure that every
person who comes before you believes they have special circumstances, perhaps even me. I lost over a decade of
my life to mental illness. I have absolutely no intention
of losing another decade. Lithium has given me
back my sanity completely and as intelligent educated woman. Society must have law
or that would be chaos. I hope my defense will
prove that the only victim in this sorry affair has been the law and for that I am truly sorry. My decision making process
may have been flawed due to the drugs, but my
basic sense of right and wrong was not, yours sincerely, Emily Horn. (somber instrumental music) (reports asking questions at once) I think the next thing I do
is I should get a divorce. - [Narrator] She was given
a suspended sentence. Was it her letter that did the trick or was the judge lenient after hearing about the difficulties of Emily's life? One thing is for certain,
the court did not hear the whole truth that day. - To freedom. - Freedom.
- Freedom. - [Narrator] The mom
celebrating Emily's liberty is Wayne Harper, her latest boyfriend. He knows all about Emily's past but he's inclined to look for positives. - Obviously, besides the obvious, she's good looking, intelligent,
I get on great with her. I mean, we don't really
have that much in common. Emily likes to read books. Last time I read a book I was at school. So, yeah, we do have a good time. - Wayne's quote, I love him
enough not to marry him. - I don't judge her, where there's a lot of people do. They judge her by the
things that she's done. Everybody's done things that they regret and I can just look past that. (moody music) - [Narrator] This is how
they met: one night in 2008, Wayne drank enough cider
to make him a bit wobbly. (dark moody music) He cycled into a lamppost, damaged his eye and was treated in
hospital in Wolverhampton, and it was there that he met Emily, who'd been admitted with abdominal pains. (dark moody music) - Think Wayne was in hospital. We went to visit him and she was there. And from that moment on, she
was in your face, wasn't she? Then we went to see Wayne. We couldn't ask him anything about his eye or anything else because she just did not stop talking all the while we was there. And we can't ask him because
that was a nightmare. - The first thing I said
to mom was she'll come home with Wayne and she won't leave. And...
(Mom laughs) - [Narrator] Emily has an undoubted talent for finding shelter. The Harper family heard her tale of sorrow and took her in and gave her lodging. But not everyone in the family
thought that was a good idea. - From the first day that
I met her I thought that something was wrong. I said I don't trust her
then and I still don't. But that's my opinion. Everybody else has got their
own opinion, but that's mine. She knew what she was doing. You can't marry five people
and not know it's wrong. So. - [Narrator] Anita's
suspicion was well founded. Before long, Emily was
fibbing to her new family. She told them that her father was dead. - That's what I couldn't understand. When you still blatantly
lied about your dad. - When you two both
cornered me that night... - [Woman] It wasn't cornered. I just asked you straight
out, a simple straight out. - Yeah, the problem I'd had was less than 24 hours off the being raped, my father said you're on your own. As far as I was concerned, my father was dead. To try and explain that
to a set of strangers, as you were at the time,
was very difficult. And then of course, you became my family. So how do you go back and say, look, I am sorry. - I've been lying all the time. - [Emily] Yeah. - I asked the one time about,
oh, how's your father doing? And she said, he's dead. So right, so what happened then? Says he died in a car crash. I didn't, I didn't ask any more questions because I thought this
is another, another lie. I think in a way she is,
she was killing people off. I think, I think, I
dunno if it's some kind of psychological condition,
but it started to, I started to realize that she was always killing people off in her family. - She said her sister
died when she was 16. She had to fight to get them to turn off the life support machine,
something like that. But she used to cry over that. - [Narrator] What did she
say her sister died of? - I think she said meningitis. - Yeah, I think I know
why she got the idea the meningitis one. Hmm, really. Yeah, because I lost a
brother to meningitis when I was very small. So I think that's a
pretty cruel, cruel thing. - [Narrator] Emily was first married at 18 to a soldier called Paul Rigby. The marriage lasted less than a year and Emily took herself
to university in Leeds. While she was there, she met the man who'd
become husband number two. - It was after 10 pin bowling night. I was a league bowler. So it was, we'd play the league and I'd gone into my local
pub just for a couple of relaxing drinks before going home. And she was working as a bar maid there. (soft instrumental music) I'd never met a girl like her before. Everything I'd say to her she seemed to know something about. She was intelligent, she'd
pick up on things very quickly. Eight and 10 pin bowling, you know, she took that up herself, even though she'd never tried it before. She seemed to be head over heels with me. I don't know, I suppose it,
it didn't take long at all before I did fall for her utterly. She was just intriguing, beguiling and because we were spending
so much time together I just became enveloped in her. (soft instrumental music) She probably showed attention to me that in a way that no girl had done before. Now, I've had relationships before, but she seemed to focus
100% of her attention on me all the time and that's very flattering, I guess. We'd been together
perhaps two or three weeks when she first mentioned marriage. And she said she'd come
from a Roman Catholic family who didn't believe in a relationship without the idea of marriage. But she was very pushy on the idea of getting married because
of the sexual relationship. I didn't know if I was coming or going. I didn't want to get married that quickly because no matter how in
love with someone you are you don't know them
after two or three weeks. - Unfortunately, well,
fortunately, unfortunately, I found out I was pregnant. (soft somber music) We already bought the dress anyway, one of those bargains. We'd already been looking at rings, ensure that we'd spent the
traditional month's salary. Not my idea of a sensible
way of spending money. - I was at work one day and
someone passed me a note. Emily had phoned in and she'd asked me to meet
me in a pub after work. (somber instrumental music) Walked up to the pub on my own, had to look around and couldn't see her. One of the barmen came over to me said, "There's something for you." There was a note on the bar
saying, you know what to do. There's a box with a note, opened it up and there was engagement ring in the box. So she'd been out and
bought an engagement ring. I turned around and she was there. Yeah, put the ring on her finger. - So we got married. Unfortunately, the pregnancy wasn't meant to be. - [Narrator] That was in 1999. 10 years later Emily told Wayne's family about another pregnancy. - Within two, three
weeks of her being here she come down the stairs,
really happy and smiling, told tell me she was pregnant. And I was just... The rest can be implied. I said, just said, "You'd better not be." - She didn't talk week
after that, did she? - We didn't get until for a few months. And basically, she had a
miscarriage within a week. - So she said. But she came into the wrong family to get away with anything like that. Look, I've had six kids. You work it out in your own head. You don't meet somebody,
have sex with them one week, and three days later,
tell him I'm pregnant. (somber instrumental music) - [Narrator] It's not
difficult to see patterns in Emily's behavior. For example, when she meets a new man who suits her requirements, she likes to get married very quickly. - Into the new year, end
of January, she was saying, kept saying, let's go down
to the registry office in lunchtime, get married, no witnesses, no friends, no family. I wasn't going to do that. I wanted some friends
there at the very least. Her family had big
problems with each other. Her mother and father were divorced and wouldn't speak to each other. So if she invited anyone from her family there would be rows. And she didn't want to go to a wedding where none of her family where they are, but all of mine were, so she
asked if we could get married without any of my family there. In the end, we got married
with just a few friends there. Almost immediately after getting married, very, very quickly she seemed to change. She'd have nights away, no explanations as to where she'd been or what she'd been up to. Become far more demanding
of me emotionally. She'd start making up obvious stories because each time I asked her it was a different story every time. I could only think that she
was seeing somebody else, but could never get to the truth of it. Never get her to admit it. - [Narrator] Not long
after getting married, Emily took a temporary job in Norway. (moody music) She also took a lover when he dumped her, she went back to Sean. - And Christmas was great
and New year was wonderful and then I realized by about mid February, nothing's changed. - Again, she started having nights away, not being where she said she
was going to be to meet me, just disappearing, no explanations. So then I decided fairly quickly
that that was it you know, it wasn't a marriage in anything but name. - I took a job over in Lancashire, which would mean me staying over there five or six nights a week. - And I said, right, if you
take that job in Fleetwood, it's over. I'm not going to be sitting
here for six weeks at a time waiting for a phone call. - You accept that job, it's over. He took the job. - And yeah, we did drifted
apart fairly quick. - She's like a predator. She, you know, they're her prey. She done what she needed to do. She's found, all right the naive man, maybe they are mucks for believing her, but she's very good at what she does. I wouldn't be proud of that. - I hadn't actually seen her for a while when she turned up at
the end of March, 2000 and asked me if I go for a drink with her. And so, so yeah, fine, I
haven't seen her for a long time and so there's, there's
nothing wrong in that. And we went for a drink here, at a cafe bar in Leeds. And she told me that the
relationship with Sean was over. A colleague of Sean's, a
guy called Simon Thorpe, had become a very close friend of mine. To be honest, I've been in love with him since the moment I first saw him, but I was committed to somebody else and I don't break my commitments. - She then told me that
she was leaving Leeds. She was going to get a
job in the lake district and I was sorry to hear this news 'cause of the friendship that we'd had, but I thought, well, you know it's probably a good thing to leave Leeds because you don't want to stay here, where obviously all the memories of that particular relationship. - He seemed absolutely gobsmacked that my relationship with Sean was over and I was somewhat upset. I went down to powder my nose so to speak, get myself under control. I came back and Simon said,
"Don't go, I love you." - No, no I didn't say that. No, I mean, the thing was, I mean I wasn't in love with
her before the relationship. I liked her and she was
attractive in her own way and you know, she, but I I
wasn't in love at that time. No, definitely not. (moody music) It was later to that evening, she confessed that she'd
been in love with me. I was a little bit embarrassed at first because oh, what does one say? Because I thought if I reject her, it could be rather cruel. You know, she's a friend, but on the other hand I thought, well, I get on really well with Emily. You know, we have this great friendship, we share a lot of common interests. I thought give it a go. - So I took the job in Grassmere and Simon came up to see me that Easter. We rented at holiday cottage and from that Easter, right on through to,
probably about November, was the happiest time of my life. Taste of honey. (slow instrumental music) I love Simon. I've loved him from the
moment I first saw him and I will love him until the day I die. Simon and I would have tore
the world apart for each other. We did. - well, what do I say really? It was passionate, I'll say that, but I can't say, I can't say
it was a deep, romantic love. It sounds a very cruel
thing to say, doesn't it? I mean the various degrees of love, I did love her in my own way but it wasn't a, I wouldn't say it was an
all consuming love now. (somber instrumental music) She gave in her notice at the hotel and my parents very kindly
allowed her to stay in our house. It was a large Victorian house. So I had my own apartment
really, within the house out of the attic rooms. So had a sitting room and a bedroom. So it had a lot of privacy that really. - We'd get a couple of bottles of wine. We get books out when be
arguing over Tennyson and Byron. Or we'd be bringing in more modern stuff, like Dickens and the
state of England novels. - She is bright, she's very bright. I don't think she has a great deal of depth to intelligence
in any particular subject. She's one of those people,
a bit like a magpie, she can sort of steal lots of ideas from all sorts of different sources and she can very quickly
read a book and sort of have a sort of superficial
knowledge of a subject. 'Cause she can talk about
such a wide range of them, but she hasn't studied any
subjects in any real depth, I don't think. And I got a feeling that she
homed in on my own interests 'cause once she realized
what interested me, she did sort of start to take interest in my own sort of interests. - His interest was in
the pre-Raphaelite era. Mine was Cress and Detroy and Mallory. I speak French. So I was able to translate them. Pre-Raphaelite was a Victorian
renaissance over author, and that kind of lady of the lake appeal. Whereas mine was, you know,
when it was written originally. He wanted to be a Bramwell,
Bronte or a Tennyson, you know. Mr. Darcy type character. - [Narrator] So it was romantic? - Yes. Very. - [Narrator] Did he make
big romantic gestures? - No, he made romantic gestures,
I wouldn't go them big. The best gift he ever
gave me was a sunrise. - But as usual, when we
had these conversations she was doing most of the
talking and I was just listening, going, yeah, and of
course, Keats's, yeah, okay and I just couldn't get a word in edgewise because she could just talk
and talk and talk and talk. - [Narrator] Emily has
always been good at talking but less good at telling the truth. Simon had some vivid
examples of her fantasy life. - She told me that her sister
died of a drug overdose and I'd actually met
this particular sister. So I didn't know her very briefly. I was so shocked though, well,
I can't, I can't work today. You're in an emotional
mess, it's affecting me. So I went to work and I had
to word with my boss said, look, my girlfriend's sisters
died of drugs overdose. Can I have the day off? So we went to York and she
told me all about what happened and there was a funeral booked. She said to me, don't
tell anyone about this. Don't tell your mother,
your father, your sister or anyone about what's happened to Verity. I don't want anyone to know. So for the next few days,
I was sort of like living with this kind of notion
of her sister had died and it was wearing me down
emotionally, I have to say. And at one point I said to my mother, I think it was the day
before the supposed funeral, I said, Mom, can I just have
a word with you in confidence? And I told her what happened. I said, perhaps she's one
to the funeral tomorrow, so can you just keep an eye out for her. Then on the day of the funeral,
when I came back from work, my mother pulled me to one side and said Emily never left the house. Right, so I went upstairs
and where she was at. I said, "How did the funeral go?" And she told me about, you know the events of the
funeral, blah, blah, blah. I said, "You're lying." So what do you mean? So you never left the house. And I said of all the
low things you can do, what a wicked thing to do, to make up a story like that. The emotional effects out of me, not withstanding the
fact to use a poor sister as some kind of emotional tool. I, I was horrified. - [Narrator] You told me
once that you had a sister who died, is that true? - I'm not prepared to talk about that. - [Narrator] Can you just tell
me whether it's true or not? - I'm not prepared to talk about - Because there are
things that you said that, you know they're quite big things. - My view of... All right, let's deal with this. My view of family is very
different from 10 years ago. Mainly having spent a lot of
time living with this family. I have been normalized, if you understand. Reprogrammed. From 18 to 25, my only family were my friends. I was very lonely during my
late teens, to a certain extent and there was someone I
was very, very close to and it was a drugs overdose. That was who I lost. What I said and how I phrase things, five, eight years ago is very
different to how I do it now. Do you expect me to go looking people up running around and correcting things? It was perception, poor
perception I would add. - [Narrator] But you still do do it because you told Barbara and Vicki that your father was dead. - That's for completely different reason. My father and I had a massive
falling out, very big, when I needed him the
most and he wasn't there. And I cut him out dead. I didn't want to have to
answer awkward questions about my family. - [Narrator] That's quite
a big thing to tell people that your father is dead. - Yeah, I'd appreciate it if you actually didn't tell my father. (soft instrumental music) - Look at the peas, Nan! - Ay?
- Look at there! They're still not big enough, they can last another couple of days. - [Narrator] Life comes
anew pretty much as usual for Wayne and his family, even with Emily as a long-term guest. She had good days and bad ones. As the date for sentencing got closer, she seemed more prone than ever to making melodramatic statements. - Four days
(somber music) and counting. It's getting harder, but if you're expecting
me to break down and cry, I'm not going to. I cry alone. Or I cry in the rain. I think it's one of the reasons
I'm portrayed as so harsh is because I don't
share that much emotion. I only show emotions in situations
where I'm not vulnerable and with people I trust completely. (somber music) And I've got that wrong a couple of times. - In 2000, Emily and Simon
bought a house together in Leeds, but before long, they split up. Not long after that,
Emily bumped into Sean, the man she was still married to. He'd returned to Leeds,
broke and discouraged, after losing his job. - I came back to Leeds, quite
distressed about the job, distressed about the marriage breaking up. Members of my family were ill then and I was struggling really,
emotionally, to deal with that and couldn't deal with anything
financially without a job. So at that point, the house is in danger of being repossessed and
I've got to the stage where I wasn't even opening post. Met Emily on the bus and
explained the situation I was in with the house and that at some stage it was going to be repossessed. By then she was with
somebody else that she'd met and she offered to move
back into the house with him and pay the mortgage for a while until I got back on my feet. (somber music) - [Narrator] That's I suppose,
by anybody's standards, an unusual situation. - Very much so. Looking back, I can't quite
believe it was going on, but I was in such such an
emotional state at that time that it seemed perfectly reasonable. - Sean was in hell of a state he blamed me for leaving him and the job falling through. So, the fact that Chris and
I moved into the top room was practical, bills have to be paid. - [Narrator] What was
life like in the house with the three of you? - It was okay. It was, I mean, it was
very difficult for me if I saw them together
and they'd go to bed or, or I'd go to bed and
leave them downstairs. Those are difficult moments. - [Narrator] Did he know
that you were married? - No. As far as he was concerned
that I was an ex-boyfriend of Emily's and she'd asked
me to keep our marriage quiet and just to say that
I was an ex-boyfriend. - Sean and I continued with
me staying in the top room, and me paying the mortgage until until I found that I was
carrying Simon's baby. (light music) At which point, I mean, it's difficult
to explain the amount of pressure I was under. Sean was blaming me for the
fact that he was unemployed, and Simon was less than happy
over what I'd done with Chris and I was being pulled
like a piece of elastic. - [Narrator] So, she was living in a house with a second husband Sean, but sharing a bed with boyfriend Chris, while still having an affair with Simon. A very modern arrangement, which must have involved
a lot of deception. Do you think that you have
a different concept of truth to most people? - It's interesting one. Truth is for philosophers. Facts are undeniable. There's a possibility, yes. I most definitely had a conceptual problem with both five to eight years ago. - We still saw each other and we used to spend a
bit of time together. We were never living together after that. Once she left Wells street,
we were never living together, but we used to meet up now and again and we stayed on very good
terms and we had fun together. I have to say, I'm not going
to lie and say it was all bad. - [Narrator] Having fun
is all well and good, but Emily wanted more. She fancied another marriage
but Simon had always said no. He knew she was married to Sean. - Out of revenge almost, you know kiss the other boy to make
someone else look jealous. I married Chris Barrett
and I knew it was illegal. Chris was an innocent victim of, I wouldn't say a power
struggle, that's the wrong word. A love that would tear the world apart. Which would mean Simon. - [Narrator] With the world
remaining in one piece, Emily decided to celebrate
her illegal marriage to Chris. - She told me they were
going to have a little party to celebrate the fact
that they were together with some friends. I thought hey, that's fine, I
don't really want to be there. That would be very awkward indeed. But they came home that
night and they were married. - [Narrator] And she told you we married? - She didn't no, I saw
the ring on her finger, asked her if they were married. I can't remember if it
was Chris or her said yes, they got married that afternoon. - [Narrator] Did you say anything? Did you say, but we're married? - No, I didn't. As far as I remember, I just
broke down and run upstairs. (somber music) So I couldn't believe
she's done that to me. Couldn't believe she'd done that to Chris. They seem to love each other. Just earth shattering. - I think she just knows how to pick them. I think she can look at
person, speak to him for a bit and know that the
vulnerable, or if you know, she can manipulate them and stuff. I think she's really good at telling what people's
characters are like and I think that's what
she like looks out for, you know, in a man. She just tells them like,
that she's had a hard life and everything and they just want to try and make her life
better, which in the end, she'll ruin theirs. - [Narrator] Emily left Chris
and Sean and possibly Simon, in a state of emotional turmoil and then she went to the train station. - I got a train on the
first job offer I got, which was Ipswich. I didn't even to say goodbye. - I met Emily on a train. My job at that time was a train guard. She was dressed very sexy and it was one of those
occasions that you notice people and she looked really nice. I had a conversation with
her about the tickets. - James was normal with a capital N and that's very attractive when you've led an alternative
lifestyle for very long time. He was probably another innocent victim. - She did seem to enjoy my company. She seemed to like talking to me and guards have a sort of uniform so that you're aware that
that has a certain attraction to certain types of ladies,
which is quite nice. So it might be that she was
attracted to the uniform. - I invited him for a cup of coffee because he just finished
shift at the railway station. - She went back with me to my place and she ended up staying the night. - [Narrator] Emily stayed a
little bit longer than that. In fact, it was only a matter
of days before she moved in and shortly after that, they were married. - She seemed to want to
get married very quickly. I was happy with that because I thought I found somebody that believed in the things I believed, somebody who wanted be with me. - Once the snowball starts
it's very difficult to stop it. Very, very difficult, indeed. (somber music) So I went ahead with it. - [Narrator] So James
became husband number four. Was Emily right when she
said that the men in her life were led by their pricks? An adventurous young woman
can have a powerful influence on an older man. - She seemed to be very, very open-minded about the whole issue of sex. She was always wanting
to do different things, had different suggestions
about what to do. She had no issues or problems
with herself being naked in front of me and was quite happy to, seemed to be quite happy to
do and try almost anything. (dark moody music) - [Narrator] As well as being
happy to try almost anything, Emily was keen to try
things with almost anyone. James has said, shortly
after you got married, he found out you were
working, in his words, at a massage parlor. Is that true or untrue? - James found out I was
working as an escort. I was working as an escort
and a glamor model in London that James was aware about anyway. When we met I told him I was a model. It didn't specify what genre. - [Narrator] But did he
know you were working as a prostitute? - By definition, please change your words. Escort, there is a difference. - [Narrator] Let's go with prostitute. - No, there is a difference. - [Narrator] What's the difference? - First a start, an escort
is paid for her time. What she chooses to do on
her time is her own choice. She can say no. Prostitutes and massage parlor can't. That's the big difference. - [Narrator] Okay, did you,
when you worked as an escort, did you have sex with men for money? - Course I did, but I also
walked away sometimes. - But did James's know about that, that you were doing that work? - It's pretty much the
same as glamor modeling. It's not a great deal different. Sex for money, definition. - [Narrator] No, glamor
modeling is not the same as prostitution. - Sex for money. Sex for money in private. - [Narrator] Posing topless is not sex. - Glamor model also covers
adult film work, the genre. Porn star, better word. (moody music) - [Narrator] When you're
married to four different men and when your life is
constructed of a series of untruths and fantasies, it must be hard keeping
track of everything. - I finally came to the conclusion that I needed to piece
together what the truth was and from that, I could
then make a decision of what I was going to do. And one of the first things that came out when I started that, was I discovered that there
was a second marriage. I started to realize
that there was no point in the marriage that I had
because it was just a farce. We met up and we were on a
train and we were talking and she said and she put her tongue to the side of her cheek,
as she does when she thinks something's rather dramatic and funny, and she told me what the truth
is, is actually another one. I'm actually married to three
other and you're the fourth, which was a bit of a surprise. But by then I got used to her surprises. (somber music) The person I thought she was, the person I loved didn't exist
and she didn't seem to care. - [Narrator] James gathered evidence about Emily's other marriages and took his findings to the police. She was convicted a bigamy and served a six month jail sentence but that didn't quash her
enthusiasm for matrimony. In 2007, she met Ashley Baker, in Oldham. - We've recently found
out that how he met her was actually in a massage parlor. So his friend actually paid for her time as a
birthday present for him. - [Narrator] Ashley wouldn't
take part in the film, but his two sisters, Lisa and Shelley, were close observers of his
relationship with Emily. - Well, they'd only been
together a couple of month when she was supposedly pregnant, which we thought it was a bit suspicious when she said she was pregnant because she'd actually told
him she couldn't have children. I asked my brother, was he
using anything and he said no. So I was like, well, why not? And he said, well, because you
said she couldn't have kids. So I was like, well,
you still use something because you know, you don't know, you've only been together two weeks, you don't know where she's been, you know. (somber music) - [Narrator] Despite the
misgivings of his sisters, Ashley decided to go ahead
and get married to Emily. - The wedding was really tense. None of her family was there at all and then when they turned
up in like dark clothes and she had like a vest top on and jeans, which is a bit odd. If it's your wedding, you know, the other one you're
supposed to have, you know, to our knowledge, then you want to make
it a special occasion. So we thought that was
a bit weird as well. - [Narrator] The happy couple
sets off for a honeymoon in Scotland but instead of love talk, Emily had something serious to say. - She started crying on
the way up to Scotland and he was saying, what's wrong? And she said, oh, I've
got something to tell you, I don't how to tell ya. And he was like, well, you know, tell me and eventually got it out of her and she said, I don't
think my marriage is legal, the marriage is legal,
but it is in my heart or something like that,
she said it was real to her and real in her heart,
but it wasn't legal. (somber music)
(thunder rumbles) - [Narrator] Despite this knowledge, Ashley decided to stick
by his bigamous wife. - I think because he loved
her and the way they were, he always thought he could look after her because she said she had so
many things wrong with her, womb cancer, she said she had migraine, she was on antidepressants
and she'd also say to him, well, look if you leave
me, I'll kill myself and it was worried for her and that's why he put up with it, because they must have had good times, as well as the bad times. So I think he just hopes
on that they'd have more good times than bad. (somber music) They got together in May, 2007. They was married in September and then she left him in June
for his friend from work. He was devastated, he
was really devastate, 'cause he still loved her. 'Cause we were saying how if
she'd have just left it to it. You know, I know it's
hard because he loved her, but we said, well, you need
to just, if she's done that, if you take her back, she can do it again. - [Man] Shall we try for something a bit more classical? I'll try for a full length. Just relax. Just relax, nice easy smile, you're amongst friends here, Emily. That's it, you're at ease with the world. Your dad loves you, your whole
family love ya, all right. Nice one. - [Narrator] Emily's life
has been a turbulent one. She's crammed a lot
into her three decades. Five husbands, criminal
convictions, mental illness and a career as a sex worker. There doesn't seem to have
been a great deal of joy in her life lately. But her father remembers
her as a happy child. - She was a textbook baby. She was bright, she's intelligent. She took in information
very, very quickly. She learned to speak, do
all the standard things speak, walk, talk, interact with people very, very quickly. As far as I'm concerned, a father couldn't have
wanted for a better daughter. I think you've got a
lot to be proud of here. I think that's a really nice portrait. - That's a good one. - Yeah and you're happy with it? - Yep, my eyebrows look great. - [Narrator] When Emily was 12 years old, her parents separated. For six months after the split
Emily lived with her mother. (somber music) - She then made
allegations of sexual abuse between me and my father. I could have quite cheerfully
rung her neck over that. She knew it wasn't true,
but it was something that would take time to sort tout and I guess by that time
she figured she could coerce me into staying. - Maryanne's allegation
wasn't outright sexual abuse about me abusing Emily. Maryanne's allegation was
that Emily consensually engaged in an incestuous
relationship with me and that it was a conspiracy
between the two of us that's what and she put it in
paper via solicitors letter. And Emily was as brave as can be because she marched herself
straight down the doctors and demanded an examination on the spot. - For all that everyone says about me, that was a time when I stood
and fought for the truth. Against the police, social
services, the family doctor and I won. - I was absolutely powerless
to do anything about it. Apart of the obvious denials, of course, but Emily was never braver when she, the day she did that. - My mother was just being malicious or she was just trying to make sure that I could never go back to my father. - North Yorkshire social services, whether they took any action on it or not, I later heard on the grapevine that they'd made some low-key inquiries and pretty much concluded
there was nothing in it. They never told me, bless 'em, but yeah it kind of lingers this stuff, leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. It's horrible. - A month later, the next access visit, I left and as I left, God forgive me, I backhanded her. - And I think, looking back on it now, and the benefit of hindsight,
I think the gradual change in Emily's
personality probably started from around then. - [Narrator] Graham
remarried and Emily formed a good relationship with her stepmother. But by the time she was 16, her father was becoming
concerned about her behavior. - She'd disappear for days at a time. She's just drift in and out of the house. Again, she was came through
the door, bright, breezy like nothing had ever happened. Hang on, Emily, where have you
been for the last few days? Oh, it's all right Dad, it's no problem, just with some friends. Gradually, we started to drift apart. We found out that she was
starting to tell lies a lot. We'd caught her out
lying quite a few times as she was starting to show
signs of, I don't know, living in some kind of a fantasy world. And it caused a lot of
friction between us. It was like, it was a hard time. So I got to the point in the end where I just wouldn't believe
anything she said to me anymore. - [Narrator] In that respect, Emily's situation hasn't changed much. The Harper family have heard enough tales to make them wary, but they stuck by her, perhaps because of her
relationship with Wayne. Wayne hasn't really had
any girlfriends before. You know, he's been out with them, never seem to bother, did he Vick? - He's never brought anybody home at all. - [Mom] I think he preferred
being out with his mates, even at his age. - As long as she's with
Wayne, she (mumbles). - With her, if she just
decided to leave or anything on her own accords, whether she'll still want
to know us after or not, I don't know because I think she can move from one life to another. Think she's capable of
doing that quite easy. - And completely forget
about where she's just been. (reports speaking at once) - I think the next thing I
do is I should get a divorce. - [Narrator] Emily served a jail sentence for bigamy in 2002, but
then she got married again. So prison was clearly
not much of a deterrent. This time she escaped prison. Should she have been punished? While her life seem so
chaotic and dispiriting and she probably needs help
rather than punishment. She says the only victim is the law, although Sean, Chris, James,
and Ashley might disagree. And as for the truth, well,
it seems as though the truth will always be a casualty
where Emily's concerned. To freedom. - Freedom.
- Freedom. - I think that my behavior has been vulnerable and wrong. (sad music) Oh and one mistake too far, for whatever reason and has to take into account illness and I paid a very high price. And it's over. (sad music) - [Man] Polygamy was practiced
in Arabia before Islam but with no restrictions
on the number of wives. Islam limited it to four. When a man marries more than one wife it is known as polygyny.
