A DEVOTED wife whose husband left her for a woman he met through the Internet has been left to pay thousands of pounds worth of his unpaid debts she says.
Heartbroken Carol Ellson and her two teenage children now face an uncertain future after her husband Neil ended a seemingly perfect 20-year marriage to flee to El Paso, Texas - leaving her with a crippling loan and a high mortgage.
Love cheat Neil left their Accrington home in May to fly out to America to live with his computer sweetheart Kari Coons - a woman he had never met apart from keeping regular contact on the Internet 'chat room' using his home computer. In her desperation to bring her estranged husband to justice Carol has pleaded to Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Princess Diana for help and has also written to the American Embassy to get him extradited from the country.
But so far no one has been able to help the 39-year-old assembly line worker.
Carol, of Park Road, Accrington Road, said: "Nobody seems to want to help me. The American Embassy said he can stay in America because he does not have a criminal record. But as far as I am concerned my husband committed fraud by taking out loans with no intention of paying them back.
"Why should he get away with this crime and why should I and my two kids have to pay for his debts. I trusted him entirely. When he stayed up until the early hours working on his computer he told me he was doing his book-keeping. All along he was contacting that woman in America."
Carol, who has had to sell personal possessions to repay some of her husband's debts, fears she may lose her home. Her children, Steven, 19, and Suzanne, 17, are giving their distraught mother all the financial support they can.
She said: "This whole episode is tearing us apart. The children have been magnificent but they shouldn't have all this pressure.
"I just don't know what went wrong. Apart from the last few months we had a beautiful marriage and were inseparable. I was devoted to my husband and loved him so much. Now I am at my wits end.
"Where can I turn if I can't turn to my own legal system or indeed the leaders of our country. I desperately need to keep my good name but because of what someone else has done I'm probably going to lose it."
Neil, who proposed to Kari on the Net back in February and plans to marry her once he can obtain a divorce, claimed that Carol had cheated on him.
But she said: "I have never cheated on Neil and I would be willing to take any lie test in the land to prove it."
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article