Man who married his stepdaughter while still married to her mother reveals he did it to benefit her

A bigamist, John Ingram, has admitted to marrying his 16-year-old stepdaughter while still married to her mother and fathering children with both women.  

Ingram revealed that he changed his name to marry the schoolgirl in a 1988 ceremony, shockingly attended by his wife. Over the years, he had multiple children with both his wife and her daughter, creating a tangled family dynamic where the children reportedly did not know who their biological father was.  

The truth about his secret double life was exposed on February 2020, ending 32 years of deception.

Despite facing potentially severe legal consequences, Ingram was sentenced to just a two-year community order and ordered to pay £450 in costs.  

Speaking to MailOnline from his home in Sheerness, Ingram claimed that avoiding prison saved taxpayers money. He denied personally benefiting from the bizarre arrangement, asserting that his actions were meant for the “good” of his stepdaughter.  

During police investigations, he maintained that his wife was unaware of his relationship with her daughter or that he had fathered children with her. 

He said: “Im lucky I did not go to prison.

“Bigomy seems to be bigger in America. But it can be anything from a suspended sentence to a couple of years.

“I took a bag (to court). I feel lucky. If I had then social services would have had to pick up the bill for looking after my wife. She has Alzheimer’s and is also disabled.

“Not sending me to prison has saved the taxpayer money.

He added: “The misunderstanding, when my step-daughter left school back in the 80s, you automatically had to go on a training scheme. 

“But because she was pregnant we were able to manipulate the situation, where instead of going on to the Youth Training Scheme, she was able to finish early and went straight on to benefits.

“It made it sound like I benefited.

“I did it to benefit her.

“The only people who knew were my wife and my mum.

“It all came out in February 2020. There were a lot of questions. I answered them, truthfully.

‘”And we worked around it.

“The family talk to me. They have forgiven me.

“I have been to prison once and that was back in 1985. It’s one of them things, if it happens, it happens.

When asked if he had a message to the judge, he said: “I did thank everyone on the day.

The court heard how the “manipulative” John Ingram fathered several children with both his wife and her daughter, leaving many of the children unaware of his true identity. His secret life remained hidden for over three decades until his arrest in February 2020 exposed his web of lies.  

Ingram, from Sheerness, Kent, admitted to bigamy during a hearing in May last year. Despite acknowledging his exploitation and abuse of his family’s trust, the judge spared him jail, noting that his deception ‘exploited and abused’ the trust of his family, he had only deceived the institution of marriage.

The court revealed that Ingram had changed his name by deed poll to marry his stepdaughter when he was 32 years old, signing their marriage certificate as “Neil Carr.” In a disturbing twist, his wife also signed the document as a witness under the same surname.  

During police questioning, Ingram confessed that his motive for the illegal marriage was financial. His guilty plea to bigamy in Medway Magistrates’ Court led to the case being referred to the crown court for sentencing last year May given the seriousness of the crime, which carries a potential maximum sentence of seven years in prison.