Until
today, she was an attractive blonde known to the world as ‘Woman 7’.
The reason for the rather disparaging description? Unfortunately for her
— and especially for her four children — their father is Michael
Redman. The name might not be immediately familiar, so here is his brief
CV.
Mr
Redman is the 59-year-old bus driver who was splashed across the front
page (and two inside pages) of a red-top tabloid a few days ago under
the headline: ‘My Fare Ladies’.
He was, we were informed, Britain’s most ‘prolific dad’, siring 26 offspring in 37 years: a brood of 13 girls and 13 boys.
In
one shameful year alone, Mr Redman, a former trooper with the Royal
Armoured Corps, fathered three children by three different women — two
of whom were cousins.
He
now lives in a large, semi-detached house in Ash, Surrey, with his
current partner (who, at 39, is just one year older than his first
child) and their seven children, including a nine-month-old girl.
Perhaps the only positive thing that can be said about him is that, at least, he has a job.
Even by the standards of sink estate Britain, the story of Michael Redman is both shocking and depressing.
Not
surprisingly, most of the nine women he bedded and made pregnant that
we know of are too embarrassed or ashamed to be identified.
To date, they have been referred to only as Woman 1, Woman 2 and so on, to denote the order in which they met him.
Now, though, Nicola Redman — Woman 7 — has broken her silence.
You might have thought there were no further shocks she could reveal about Mr Redman. But you would be wrong.
Apart
from anything else, Nicola, 41, an assistant manager of a clothing
store, had four children by him — not two, as previously reported —
which means Mr Redman has at least 28, not 26 progeny.
Moreover, she was just 16 when they met. Redman was 35.
She
carried his surname for six years, but broke off contact with him in
1997. Nicola has now changed her name by deed poll, and refuses to
reveal what it now is. Who can possibly blame her?
‘He
hasn’t changed one bit, which is why I have come forward, so other
women know what he’s like and don’t go through what I did. He hasn’t
paid me a penny in child support,’ she says.
How
different Nicola’s life might have been if she hadn’t boarded the
number 221 bus, travelling from Edgware to Turnpike Lane in North
London, in April 1990.
Redman was at the wheel and noticed the pretty teenager, who was on her way home after a night out.
‘The next time I got on the bus, he obviously recognised me,’ she says.
‘I
was dressed a little more conservatively and he said, “I prefer the way
you were dressed before”, and it went from there. We often had sex at
the end of his route, when he’d have a five or ten-minute window before
his next journey.’
Michael Redman pictured with his family today. The 59-year-old met Nicola when she was 16 and he was 35
Michael Redman, posing with three of his children by Nicola, who he met on a bus, in 1996
Remember,
Nicola was still a schoolgirl and had barely reached the age of
consent. Redman, on the other hand, was old enough to be her father.
Within
weeks of meeting him on the bus, Nicola was pregnant. Although
mortified by her relationship with a much older man, her parents stood
by her and she remained living at home, where Redman would visit her
several times a week. They never lived together.
It
was only during her pregnancy that Nicola began finding out about his
nefarious past. ‘I knew he had other kids, as he had custody of his
second eldest, but I didn’t know just how many he had,’ she says.
‘He
was just a single parent, as far as I was aware. By that stage, I had
fallen head over heels in love with him and I didn’t want to believe
everything I heard. I didn’t want anyone to crush my bubble.’
But Nicola began to unravel more of his lies after she gave birth to her first born, a son, in 1991.
‘It was quite a traumatic birth and I was in quite a bad way,’ she says.
‘But
about six weeks after the birth, Michael contacted me and asked me if I
could do him a massive, massive favour. The favour was that the woman I
later discovered he was living with (Woman 6, in fact) had also gone
into hospital to have an emergency operation.
‘I
knew he had had a child with her before we met, but he assured me that
the woman played no part in his life and that they were no longer
together.
‘The
only contact the two had was when he went to see their child, a little
boy, he told me. Michael said he had work commitments and needed someone
to look after the child. So I did, like the stupid lapdog I was.
‘It
was only when I was at the house with the boy that I noticed there was a
‘mother-to-be pack’ in the kitchen, which gives expectant mums
parenting information and vouchers for your baby. Having recently given
birth myself, I knew you only got these packs when you were pregnant.
‘My
heart sank. I knew the reason the other woman had gone into hospital
wasn’t for an “operation”, but that she must have gone into labour.
‘I
thought, “oh my God, you’ve gone and had another child with someone
else and you got me here under false pretences to look after your
toddler, while the mother is in hospital having another one of your
children.” That’s how I found out.’
Of
course, Nicola should have walked away there and then. But she would
not be the first impressionable young woman — and certainly not the last
— to make the mistake of giving a cheating partner another chance.
But few could be less deserving than Michael Redman.
It is claimed that Michael Redman is
Britain’s most ‘prolific dad’, siring 26 offspring in 37 years: a brood
of 13 girls and 13 boys
In
fact, Nicola, as we know, went on to have three more children with
Redman, a daughter in 1992, and two more sons, one in 1993, and another
in 1996.
During
that time, Redman became increasingly controlling. ‘He wanted to know
where I was 24/7 and insisted I travel with him on the bus,’ she says.
‘If
I didn’t go with him, he’d get angry. My kids spent half their
childhoods going up and down on buses. He was just a control freak.’
Redman
even tried to get Nicola to be friends with his other woman (Woman 6).
‘He used to invite me round to their house,’ she says.
‘The
first time I met her, we went to Pizza Hut with all the kids as he
wanted us all to be friends. Needless to say, she was heavily pregnant
again.
‘I was a complete idiot for going along with it. I can see that now. But, at the time, I was young and very naive.
‘He
even used to take us on the same holidays to the same caravan park near
Frensham, in Surrey. He would take us at different times in the year,
but we stayed in the same caravan.
‘He used to tell me about it and I went along with it. It was almost like he brainwashed me.’
Shortly
before she finished with him in 1997, Nicola even ended up living next
to the mother of one of his other girlfriends (Woman 8).
‘One night, the woman herself knocked on my door after noticing Michael’s car parked outside,’ she says.
‘I was not aware they were even in a relationship.
‘I
later found out we were pregnant at the same time [in 1996]. I used to
see her in the neighbourhood with a bump. I had no idea, at the time,
that Michael was the father.’
There was a final twist to this story, however. After they split up, Nicola received a card in the post.
‘Dear
Nicola,’ it read, ‘Michael and ***** [partner] are very pleased to
announce the arrival of their fifth child [a little girl who cannot be
named for legal reasons] born on the 21/6/99. Time: 10am. Weight: 7lb.’
By then, Nicola was no stranger to such contemptuous behaviour. ‘He’s full of compliments when you first meet him,’ she says.
‘He wines and dines you, and spends money on you, all to get you to fall for him hook, line and sinker.
‘I think he is an absolute disgrace to the male population.’
But
perhaps the most damning assessment of Michael Redman’s character comes
from one of his own daughters, now in her 20s, who says, ‘I’m ashamed
of the blood running through my veins and his genes will always be in
the poisonous part of me.’
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