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From The Times
August 2, 2005

Marriage is for ever, fax warned

By Sean O'Neill
MICHAEL MORTON warned his wife, on the day after she left him, that she had “no justification” for dissolving their marriage.

He sent a typewritten fax to her sister’s house, where Gracia Morton had gone after leaving the marital home. Headed “Read Me”, it said that for her to leave him was immoral, illogical and dishonourable. It continued: “My wife and I have a contract, repeatedly reaffirmed, that the marriage we contracted is indissoluble and forever and that there is no option for one party to dissolve the marriage.”

Morton concluded the fax with what seemed to be a warning: “I offer no semi-detached relationship. I want my wife and daughter to come back and live with me and I will do whatever is necessary for that to happen.

“I can foresee no prospect of happiness, remotely equivalent of the distress I would suffer in the loss of my wife and daughter and my future actions will be directed to minimising distress. This isn’t a threat — it’s common sense.”

Other women who knew Morton disclosed that he made veiled threats about what would happen if they left.

He told Charlotte Fenton, one of his lovers: “People mustn’t do that to me.”

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