Bigamist's mistress forgives man who ruined her life
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NEWMARKET — Her lover’s litany of lies destroyed Jennifer Packwood’s career, circle of friends and good name, but she has forgiven James Cooper Morton “so that she could move forward with her life.”
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. For him, it was love,” said Packwood in reading her victim impact statement.
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“We are friends, best friends for seven years before we started out personal relationship, but he works on our friendship every day.
“Everything we had was lost but that does not mean it cannot be rebuilt. I have forgiven the mistakes he has made, but that doesn’t mean I accept his behaviour or trust him.”
She detailed the devastating impact the publicity of Morton’s bigamy and forgery had on her.
Her family supports her move to legally change her name “because it is tarnished … degrading and discreditable.”
“To this day, I feel blamed and re-victimized by something I didn’t do,” said the woman who divorced her husband so she and Morton could wed.
Yet she feels overwhelming sympathy for Morton, driving him to his psychologist’s and lawyer’s appointments.
“I watched James lose everything: His profession, his friends, his reputation and his respect. What took a lifetime to build took seconds to destroy,” she said.
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A month after her May 2018 wedding to Morton, her honeymoon ended with a catastrophic crash.
York Regional Police phoned her to come in for an interview and Packwood asked Morton why.
He revealed he and his wife “never got divorced,” she said.
“You need time to deal with this,” she quoted Morton as saying before he grabbed his bag and departed.
“James’ divorce papers were forged … he was never formally legally separated. In a single moment … that detective unleashed two years of lies, deceit and betrayal. Everything was a lie.”
“I grieved a husband I did not have. I grieved the loss of my job that I was deeply passionate about, lost two friends and colleagues who were more family than friends. Because of the lies, deception and betrayal, I lost everything that mattered.”
Yet she begged the court to impose a discharge — the lowest possible penalty — upon the deceitful lover who ruined her life and his.
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