An alleged bigamist living in Bermuda has been exposed by a national British newspaper.

Roderick Petty had already been married for 21 years and had a son with his first wife, when he married a second woman in Bahrain in 2007, according to the Daily Mail.

The newspaper reported on Saturday that at the time of his second marriage, US-born Mr. Petty was also planning to wed a third woman in Florida and was conducting an affair with a fourth. His first wife Diane Petty — who met him in Bermuda in 1985 — told the Daily Mail that she reported him to Police in the States and Bermuda but was advised that any prosecution would have to take place in Bahrain.

It is understood Bermuda Police Service told her that prosecutors did not have the power to charge him with bigamy as the offence was not committed in this jurisdiction.

Mr. Petty, a former oil company executive, works for Daisy and Mac children's store, which is owned by The Royal Gazette's editor Bill Zuill and his wife Dawn.

The Daily Mail reports that he "rents an apartment in a colonial-style mansion in acres of rolling parkland".

Back in 1985, when he met then BA air hostess Diane Petty, from Windsor, England, he was an operations manager at a construction firm here.

She told the British newspaper that he proposed the day after they met and she said yes.

Their son Kiel was born in 1987 and a year later the couple married in Mr. Petty's hometown of Titusville, Florida, before moving to Britain and settling in Slough, Berkshire.

In 1997 they emigrated to Dubai, where Mr. Petty started working for a petrol company. After a decade there, he accepted a job working for a supermarket chain in Saudi Arabia and his wife stayed behind in Dubai.

At the end of the year, Mr. Petty told his wife he would return to his parents' house in Florida to "tie up some loose ends" before heading home to Dubai.

She then typed his name into Yahoo to find out more about his job and instead discovered details of his marriage to a Czech woman called Marie Kaminavasova in Bahrain.

After obtaining the marriage certificate from the cathedral in Manama, Mrs. Petty confronted her husband.

He admitted an affair but said it was a sham wedding so he could move in with Miss Kaminavasova.

In March 2009, Mrs. Petty received an e-mail from Lorinda Stirling, an old Florida school friend of her husband.

Miss Stirling revealed she got engaged to Mr. Petty after meeting up with him when he returned to Florida to arrange a Saudi Arabia visa.

She had no idea about his other two wives and was planning a life with him but broke off the engagement when she discovered a text message from yet another woman.

She later discovered he already had two wives.

Mrs. Petty, 55, said: "This man has ruined my life, and that of my son, who refuses to speak to him. He's a coward and a liar and he should be punished for what he's done."

Mr. Petty refused to comment to the Daily Mail.

Bermuda Police Service did not respond to a request for comment from this newspaper by press time last night.

Mr. Zuill said yesterday in relation to Mr. Petty's work: "He has been completely professional and acted with total integrity. It is a private matter."