A FATHER-OF-SIX who claimed the IRA forced him to leave his wife in Northern Ireland was yesterday convicted of bigamy after twice re-marrying in England.

Former Irish Guard Robert Hutchings was accused of marrying twice in Newcastle, despite having never divorced his first wife, Violet, who he left in Belfast in 1978.

Teesside Crown Court was told that the unemployed 53-year-old had married a 31-year-old civil servant in 1988. And, when that ended in divorce because of his alleged adultery, he married an 18-year-old who was living in a Newcastle hostel he was managing in 1995.

A jury of nine women and three men took less than 40 minutes to deliver unanimous guilty verdicts on both counts, at the end of a two-day trial.

Hutchings, of Clavering Road, Hartlepool, who denied two charges of bigamy, involving Jean Thompson and Samantha Bone, told the court: "I left Belfast because people were threatening me and the house was petrol-bombed and bullets had come through my windows because I was ex-Army and Protestant.

"I was on a death list from the Provisional IRA and another organisation."

Hutchings claimed that he thought he had been divorced after telephone conversations with his first wife, who had approached a solicitor about a legal separation.

The jury heard that, during his second marriage, Hutchings left his wife claiming he was going to join the Foreign Legion but later rang her asking for money to come home because they would not take him.

In court, Hutchings was told that he lived in a fantasy world.

Michael Bosomworth, prosecuting, told him: "You have never told the truth about yourself and have pretended to be something you're not.

"You told Jean Thompson your father was an importer and exporter to impress her and you told Samantha Bone your father was a barrister to impress her also."

Hutchings' first wife had told the court she had never thought about divorce. However, in 1988, he married Jean Thompson, in Newcastle.

They divorced, and, in 1995, he married teenager Samantha Bone, after she fell pregnant at the hostel she lived in.

It was only when she later filed for divorce in 1998 that his matrimonial background was revealed.

Judge Tony Briggs adjourned the case for three weeks for pre-sentence reports to be prepared and bailed Hutchings on condition that he lives at his home address.