Hi,
In February 2006 after 10 years of marriage my ex-hisband John had left me. I was on 2 weeks business trip then and was about to come back on the following day so only my mom was in our house when he took all his petrsonal belongings and left. Later that day he sent me an e-mail telling me he is going to work abroad and will apply for adivorce on the grounds of my unreasonable behaviour.
On my returm mom told me that juts before his departure John was talking on his mobile several times in early hours of the nights i.e. betweeen 2 and 3 am.
With this information I hired a Private detective and within 3 days found out that John had a year long affair with few women in Ukraine - he travelled there few times on business between 2005 and 2006. He put his ad on Unkranian websites pretending he is single with no children (he has 7 children from previous marriages) and travelled to Ukraine to meet the 'girsl'. I got the telephone numbrers of the ladies and it was not too long to find the address and name of one of them he was living with as husband and wife.
I confronted them on telephone and insisted he to come back to the UK so we could try to sort the things out. 3 months later he came back. He refused to consider reconciliation and I was left with no option but to tell him I have alreday applied for a divorce on the grounds of his adultiery and will pursue my claim.
As I have dual citizenship - Bulgarian and British - I applied for a divorce in my native country Bulgaria, which is a memeber of EU since 01/01/2007.
I insisted Joyhn to sign a self-comfession andwe went to Notary to certify his signature under oath. The Noatry has aslo obtained an Apostile for the document.
The Court in Bulgaria accepted the document, they send all the papers to John's address officialy and insisted in publishing court advert of the divorce procedeengs in Bulgarian state paper.
In May 2007 I was legally divorced. I had to pay all cost for this divorce including legal fees for mu solicitor and other's party solicitor appointed by the Court.
During the following telephone conversation I told my ex-husband that at last we are divorced. As I did not have his address and he did not allow ne to send any divorce papers to his children and ex-wives I assumed that this is an end of it and started my new live.
In May this year I spoke to John - he had jut returned from Ukraine as that relationship did not last. He refused to give me his address - he aw sliving in council housing by then - and he told me he is about to initiate a divorce procedure here - in the UK, as he does not trust me we are divorced. He also gave me a telephone number of his solicitor. I spoke to the lady and told her that as far as I am concerned my legal status for over a year is divorced and I am planning to re-marry someone. I gave her Court Order details so she could verify whteher I am telling the truth.
I have not heart from them until October.
On October 16th this year I recevied a
divorce petition logged wt Slough Court nr. Reading. The petition was dated 14 August 2008 and was sent to my acccountant's business address. The leeetr was signed by receptionist in a building with tens offices where noone knew my name of my company's name - I have a small business. It took 'only' 2 months for letter to circulate between the offices and being opened by knows whom until the accountant completely by chance saw the letter and forwarded it to my home address. These 2 months wrere cruical.
No need to say the John is haveing a legal aid and his claim is paid by taxpayers money. Good for this country.
I wrote to the court expalining the whole situation and attached copis of the court order to dissolve the marriage dated 9th of may 2007. I also attached a copy of John's self-comfession.
I wrote to the Court that the case should have be dismissed as according to Brussels II convention British court should accept court ruling on divorce matters from others EU countries.
I also asked court to keep my private adrress from another party as my ex-husband threatend me on few occassions.
On October 22 the Court send to me a response with aknowledgment of receiving my letter. I received it on 24 October 2008. They wrote to me that I have to pay 40 GBP in order to keep my address hidden however they did not advice on time line or urgency in that matter. I send 40 GBP to the court and they received the letter on 30 October 2008; by this time Court have already send my private address including my telephone number and my mobile number to my ex-husband solicitor.
At the moment Court did not come to any decissison and they pretend that the divorce case here goes ahead.
I think my civil rights were berached as well my right to keep my private data private. I also know that I was divorced in May 2007. I do not have monay to keep pying solicitors all over Europe to divorce ne every year from John .
It seems as harassment I think the Slogh Court helps this to happen.
Can someone advice me what to do? To whom shall I complain?
Moderators note : Surname and Middle name removed from post
