Jailed 007-wannabe surgeon who staged burglary bedded string of women behind wife’s back
Debt-ridden surgeon Anthony McGrath, 46, was jailed yesterday for faking a burglary to make a bogus £180,000 insurance claim
STYLING himself as an Irish-born James Bond, Dr Anthony McGrath bedded a string of women behind his GP wife’s back.
The 007 wannabe — who posed in a bow tie in his £50,000 Maserati sports car — sent tens of thousands of texts to his lovers while his hard-working spouse brought up their kids.
Calling himself “Paddy Bond”, he even pursued one sweetheart while trying for a fourth baby with unsuspecting Anne-Louise.
She only learnt of that betrayal while sitting behind him, supporting him, in court.
Anne-Louise, 44, wept when he was asked when he had first admitted the affair with his own voice and he replied “today”.
He also confessed he was unable to remember how many women he had cheated with.
The prosecuting lawyer Charlene Sumnall told McGrath he obviously thought “monogamy is something to do with furniture, not marriage”.
RAT TRIED TO EXCUSE ADULTERY BY CLAIMING HE WAS 'STARVED OF LOVE'
The wheedling love rat, jailed yesterday for eight years for fraud and other offences, tried to excuse his adultery by suggesting he had been starved of love at home.
He also claimed he was unable to stop himself falling in love with one mistress — a married colleague known only as XXX.
Over 12 months between 2013 and 2014, they swapped a staggering 13,500 texts and enjoyed many dinners and weekends away.
One date was at the swanky restaurant on the 28th floor of London’s Park Lane Hilton.
McGrath obviously thought ‘monogamy is something to do with furniture, not marriage’
Prosecuting lawyer Charlene Sumnall
In October 2013, when Anne-Louise texted Anthony: “R u coming home today?” he replied: “Finished teaching. Coming soon love.”
But later that night, while at home in St Albans, Herts, with his wife, he messaged XXX: “Hey, thank you for another wonderful evening.” She replied: “Hope you got home ok. I had an amazing time. XXXxxx”
McGrath, 46, even used his aunt’s illness as an excuse to take XXX away to Manchester for a weekend.
After returning home, he texted her: “Love you my beautiful angel . . . No problems whatsoever here.”
By February 2014, his wife was pregnant with their fourth child but McGrath continued to see XXX. By then Anne-Louise was starting to suspect his adultery.
She had already told him how unhappy she was in a series of texts months earlier.
In one she wrote: “You didn’t marry an amoeba but that’s exactly what you need.”
In others she said: “Stop chasing the clever girls, they don’t match your idea of an ideal world.”
She also texted: “You are single-handedly ruining this marriage.”
In another message she said: “I can’t ignore the lack of love you show me any longer and the constant criticism you deliver.”
And when he told her he wanted to go to a conference in Swansea on February 14, 2014, she texted back: “What is the exact name of the course and the location so I can look it up and verify that you are genuinely up a course rather than heading off on some Valentine bonk with another.”
Next month she texted him: “I’ve lived my whole married life in isolation. You are happiest out with other people.
“When we go out together you behave as if my comments are stupid.”
'ONE BLOODY AWFUL RIDE'
In August 2015, she messaged: “You obviously will not rest till you’ve ruined the last of my life. Was it your intention when you met me at 18 to turn me into a stressed and overburdened workhorse? . . . You have brought me on one bloody awful ride.”
That same month she told him via text to contact a divorce lawyer, writing: “Ask her to raise the divorce papers. I’ll happily sign.”
She also claimed her father had been “ruined with grief” for letting her marry him. She wrote: “He died in anguish knowing I was still with you and blamed himself for encouraging the relationship.”
You didn’t marry an amoeba but that’s exactly what you need
Anne Louise, Wife
The couple’s messages also reveal their spiralling debt — and how he had discussed faking a break-in.
In 2014 McGrath was struggling to afford his “millionaire” lifestyle, meaning Anne-Louise was having to work flat-out, despite being pregnant and having three kids.
He told her to use credit cards only after she texted: “How is our loan/mortgage progressing. Accounts looking vv low.”
In August that year, she messaged McGrath: “I just tried to pay for Sainsbury’s shop and was declined. V embarrassing as second time today that happened.”
Their money worries became so extreme that Anne-Louise accused him of stealing her iPad from her unlocked car in early 2015.
TRIED TO FAKE A ROBBERY
She texted: “You have tried to fake a robbery.”
McGrath told her to call the police but she replied: “If you wish to manufacture a robbery you do so, but you don’t lie to me.
“You can lie all you want to the police but I want no part in it.
“If you bring the police to the house I’ll say I believe it was you unless you tell me the truth and return the iPad.”
Told by her husband she should call the police because the burglar could return, she replied: “No second hit unless you are planning a massive burglary in all your finery.
“You want to generate an insurance scam. I will tell on you. I will tell. Tell-tale tit. Unless you return my iPad.”
MOST READ IN NEWS
In fact the device was taken in a genuine raid at their home on the Luton Hoo estate in Bedfordshire. But in April that year, McGrath staged his fake break-in at the couple’s house in St Albans, telling cops a marble fireplace had been taken — along with £182,612 of heirlooms swiped from the cellar.
The “loot” included a white diamond, a blue diamond and a valuable oil painting.
But McGrath had taken the “stolen” goods to his family’s sprawling Irish home — Somerville House in Co Meath.
McGrath had been disciplined by the General Medical Council in 2012 for forging another doctor’s signature on a job reference — but was not struck off.
During the trial, prosecutor Ms Sumnall said: “We are all brought up to believe what doctors tell us but he hid behind the veneer of his status.”
- GOT a story? RING The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL [email protected]