KEY POINTS:
LONDON - A mother of five who entered into a civil partnership with a woman while still married to her husband has been given a suspended prison sentence by a British court.
Suzanne Mitchell had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to breaching the 2004 Civil Partnerships Act, which allows same-sex unions.
She admitted falsely claiming to be single to enter into a civil union with Caroline Beddows in February last year.
The case is believed to be the first of its kind since the civil partnership law was introduced in Britain.
At Shrewsbury Crown Court, Judge Robin Onions said Mitchell repeatedly lied in pursuit of the partnership, and her offence was one of "cruelty and deception", according to media reports.
Mitchell, of Ditherington, Shrewsbury, was handed an eight-month prison sentence suspended for two years.
Mitchell, who is pregnant with her sixth child, was also ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid community service, and was made the subject of a two-year supervision order.
The court had heard that Mitchell and Beddows became close friends after a chance encounter at a bus stop while both were pregnant, according to media reports.
Following the birth of their children the relationship blossomed and became intimate, and in September 2005 Beddows and her baby moved into Mitchell's marital home.
- REUTERS
