Woman conned out of £200,000 in six-year marriage to bigamist with 13 children

28 October 2023 , 18:21

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Mary Turner Thomson's story is now being told in a new ITV documentary (Image: supplied)

A woman was conned out of £200,000 over a six-year period while married to a man who had multiple wives and children behind her back.

Mary Turner Thomson first met American man William Allen Jordan online back in 2000 before the pair married, had a child and were together for six years. But one day, her whole world came crashing down when she received a call from a woman who said she was "the other Mrs Jordan" - which revealed the conman's bigamy.

At that point, it was revealed that Jordan had three "wives" who she had duped into believing he was a CIA agent in order to explain his absence, when he was in fact an IT contractor. His deception was all uncovered back in April 2006, but by that time Mary, from Edinburgh, Scotland, had been scammed out of nearly £200,000.

Mary and William on their wedding day (supplied)

At the time, he pled guilty to bigamy, obtaining funds through deception and failing to register as a sex offender. He served two and a half years in jail here in Britain, before being deported back to New Jersey. Mary released her debut boook The Other Mrs Jordan about the ordeal, which was updated and renamed The Bigamist. Now, her story is being told through a documentary series on ITV.

Speaking to the Daily Record back in 2018, Mary said: "I met William online when I was a single mum with a nine-month-old baby. He was very charming. We started dating and he actually asked me to marry him within two weeks of meeting – I said, ‘No’, but we did ­eventually get engaged then we were married for four years.

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"After six months of being together, I fell ­pregnant, which was a huge surprise because he told me he was infertile." Having convinced Mary he was a CIA agent, Jordan told her he was away on "missions" while he was in fact spending time with his other families. He even managed to get her to hand over cash to "blackmailers" who he said were threatening to kidnap her children.

He even showed her proof of his job, including wage slips, and within six months of them meeting the couple were pregnant with their first child, Eilidh. They lived as a family with Mary's oldest daughter Robyn, from a previous relationship.

She said Jordan persuaded her to sell "everything she had" - including her flat - by leading her to believe her children's lives were at risk. She said: "I thought if we didn’t give them money, they would kill the kids. I was living in abject error." The three-part ITV series is out now.

Chiara Fiorillo