A serial lover
with four wives, seven fiancées and five girlfriends has set
Austria's record for bigamy.Sonko Tijan was finally caught in a honey
trap at Vienna Airport after two of his wives realised they were married to the
same man and complained to police.
The seducer had picked up women all across the country,
using them for room and board whenever he was nearby and borrowing money from
them which he never returned.
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| 4 wives,7 fiancées and 5 gf |
His downfall came after he met Sonja Maier, who believed she
had found love at first sight when she was swept off her feet by
Tijan after meeting him in a bar.
The 28-year-old from Gambia told her he felt the same, and
after a whirlwind romance - and against the advice of her family - they were
married a month later.
According to
Dailymail, after a year of happy marriage she was pregnant
and browsing Facebook when she happened across somebody with the same surname
and a strikingly similar-looking husband.
Curious, the delved into the woman's profile. Then she
realised this woman's husband was not only similar looking, but actually
identical. The fact he had the same surname as her own spouse convinced her
something was wrong.
'I thought that either he had a twin I never knew about or
he was cheating on me,' she said.
Ms Maier got in touch with the woman to compare notes. Soon
they realised that when he was with one of them, he was never with the other,
and together they made a complaint to police after he vanished when they
confronted him.
That complaint led to the unravelling of a web of intrigue
that has so far revealed 16 different women all of whom believed they were in
an exclusive relationship with Tijan, including three who were married to him.
The youngest of his women was 22, and the oldest 44; there
is also another woman he is married to in his home country, where he also has
children.Tijan used the women to provide him with a place to stay and food
whenever he was in the area, and also borrowed tens of thousands of euros
promising to pay it back later. He never did.Some also complained he had taken
their jewellery to use as a security on loans he needed. And if a woman became
too demanding on his time or for her money back, she suddenly found that he had
vanished.
Police have now found that he kept a network of women across
Austria from the western state of Vorarleberg to the capital Vienna. As well as
the 15 active lovers, they believe there were many others who he used, then
dumped.
Police have also found four children Tijan has fathered with
different women in Austra. Two of his currentgirlfriends were pregnant.
Detective Patrick Maierhofer, who has made an appeal for
other women to come forward, said:
'He always used the same tactics. He would look at
women in bars and was always charming and attentive.
'He would also fascinate them with fanciful stories about
his homeland in Africa and how he had fled horrific wars leaving his family
behind - and later he would ask for financial assistance for them.'
He went under various names and we have released his picture
at some of his names in the hope that we can contact other victims.
'They included the names Sonko Tijan, Bojang Tijan and Crang Junior.
'He claimed the money was for business ventures to help his family in Gambia.
We have found that he is actually also married to a woman in Gambia where he
also has a family.'
Police put out an arrest warrant for him and
eventually tracked him down using Facebook after discovering he was on the hunt
for fresh victims. Officers arranged for a honey trap with the cooperation of a
young woman he had been communicating with online to persuade her to lend him
more money.
In reality though she was working with police and he was
arrested.
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