AN unsuspecting wife discovered her cheating husband of 17 years had secretly married another woman in a lavish beach wedding 4,000 miles from home - after she saw him kissing his new bride on Facebook.

Nurse Yvonne Gibney, 55, went on the social media page and spotted photographs of Maurice Gibney, 49, who gave his address as Bareeq Al Shatti in Muscat but whose family home was in Wirral, cuddling teacher Suzanne Prudhoe during a £45,000 ceremony in Oman after investigating gossip about his love life.

The mother-of-two was to face further distress after learning that he had already been ''married'' to Miss Prudhoe for 11 months.

His family had also attended the wedding held at the British Embassy in Arab state.

She then turned detective to glean all information about the lavish ceremony before going to police.

Mrs Gibney later discovered in the run up to the bigamous wedding, her globe-trotting husband had even cheated on her at Christmas when she went out to Oman see him.

He falsely claimed he had to go away ''on business'' - only to fly back to the UK to be with Miss Prudhoe. He also claimed he too broke to fork out £200 for their son's school trip before stumping up £120.

At Wirral magistrates court, Mrs Gibney gave an emotional statement about her betrayal as the father-of-three, who lives and works as a senior contractor for Oman Oil, pleaded guilty to bigamy.

He was handed a six-month prison sentence suspended for two years.

''I allowed myself to be manipulated and controlled by him,'' said Mrs Gibney. ''At the time of the bigamous wedding we had been married 17 years. I believed in our marriage and shared values, trust, love and respect for each other, a sense of morality.

Earlier Mrs Gibney told the court she had met her husband when she was deployed to Nigeria almost two decades ago.

But unbeknown to her, over the years Gibney had spun a web of lies claiming he had divorced her, telling his family and Miss Prudhoe they had kept it secret for the sake of their children.

In Christmas 2011 she visited Oman with their son to see Gibney, but he said he had to leave them due to business commitments.

He then left his wife and son in Oman to travel back to the UK to spend Christmas with Miss Prudhoe in Stourbridge, near Birmingham.

He did not rejoin his family until December 27 at which point they opened their Christmas presents.

Mrs Gibney said the couple eventually agreed to divorce but last February a week before details were to be agreed she spotted comments about her husband on Facebook and traced them to Miss Prudhoe's profile - to discovered he had illegally married Miss Prudhoe on March 20, 2013.

Mrs Gibney added: "I found out about the wedding by a few comments on Facebook that led through to other comments. I clicked on Suzanne Prudhoe's profile and saw as her Facebook profile her wedding day, kissing my husband in their wedding finery."

She added: "I had no knowledge of Suzanne Prudhoe's existence or relationship with my husband.

"It appeared she announced her engagement to my husband on Facebook in May 2012 To initiate into that bigamous marriage, my whole marriage became worthless.

"If he had wanted a divorce we could have started proceedings years ago.

She told the court the wedding had cost £45k after she made making inquiries at the celebration venue with the wedding planner.

In court defence lawyer Kieran Fielding for Gibney said his client left school at 16 and became a joiner but qualified as a quantity surveyor after returning to university at 21.

He said: "After two years he was working on the Channel Tunnel and commenced to work off-shore. By that time he had a child with a lady and that relationship broke down. He has worked across the globe, that may be at risk because of the conviction.

But District Judge Michael Abelson told Gibney: "You initiated into a bigamous marriage, you knew precisely what you were doing at the time you did it, there was no hiding it.

"You can tell just how bitter she is about it, I'm not here to sentence you because she feels bitter I'm sentencing you for what you have done.

''I'm not to rehash the details of the divorce settlement. You entered a bigamous marriage.

"There are plenty of marvellous testimonials on your behalf, they can't save you. the appropriate sentence is custodial. I find myself able to suspend such a sentence of six months for two years."

Gibney was also ordered to pay £85 costs and £80 victim surcharge.