My psychopathic ex-husband, James Montgomery, died on February 16, 2021, in New South Wales, Australia.
I heard about it a few days later from the woman he married after me. James Montgomery was still my husband when he married her; it was the second time he committed bigamy. But hey, who’s counting?
The news that James Montgomery died had no effect on me. In fact, the same day I learned about my ex-husband’s death, I also saw the obituary in the newspaper for the first man I dated after I graduated from college. For him, I felt sadness. For my ex-husband, I felt nothing.
That’s probably why it took me so long to write that James Montgomery died here on Lovefraud. It simply didn’t matter to me. This is good. I believe it’s a sign of my recovery.
James Montgomery’s obituary was published in the Sydney Morning Herald. For a man who told me he was going to be “the next Walt Disney,” its brevity was an indication of his insignificance. No achievements, no work history, and certainly no mention of his heroism in Vietnam, because he fabricated that. His siblings were named — I knew them. But there was no mention of his two daughters and five wives.
He did, however, have new love — Gabrielle. I can imagine what James Montgomery told her about the rest of us — we were vicious, money-grubbing b*tches, out to ruin him.
Pedophile Bob Montgomery
Interestingly, when the obituary was published, Robert Montgomery, James’ younger brother, was in prison. He had recently pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting four boys back in the 1960s when he was a Scoutmaster and teacher. At the age of 76, he was sentenced to four years in prison, eligible for parole after 12 months.
When he committed the offenses, Bob Montgomery was forced out of Scouting, but no legal action was taken. The man just went on with his life. He became a psychologist, an author and a radio personality known as Dr. Bob. He served as president of the Australian Psychological Society. Eventually he appeared on the TV show Big Brother. After all, he looked like a psychologist direct from central casting.
Most shockingly, Bob Montgomery was considered to be an expert in assessing whether convicted sex offenders should be allowed around children. The government of Queensland, Australia, retained him more than 20 times, paying him almost $70,000, to make evaluations and write reports. According to a child protection worker, his reports always came back that offender presented a “low risk” to children.
Read more about Bob Montgomery in stories from the Australian media:
Psychologist charged with child sex offences given bail
Former Big Brother psychologist Robert Montgomery jailed for child abuse
The Queensland government paid child-sex predator Bob Montgomery to help ‘protect’ children
In another shocking development, the Australian Psychological Society seemed more concerned about the impact of being arrested on Bob Montgomery than the harm he caused for his child victims. Many members of the association were furious.
Read more:
Bob Montgomery documentary podcast
Josh Robertson, of ABC News in Australia, investigated the case and produced a podcast documentary about Bob Montgomery. Robertson interviewed victims, people who knew Bob Montgomery over the years, and authorities.
Robertson also interviewed me. He wondered if it was unusual to have two criminals — a con artist and a pedophile — in the same family. Actually, I explained to him, because personality disorders like psychopathy are highly genetic, it wasn’t unusual at all.
Listen to the ABC podcast here:
While listening to the podcast, I felt terrible for the boys — now men — that Bob Montgomery had assaulted. He ruined their lives, while he went on to be a celebrity psychologist.
When I was with James Montgomery, we traveled to Australia. As part of the trip, we visited Bob and his wife in Queensland. They had a nice, contemporary home on a lagoon, and owned a cabin cruiser. We joined them at a dinner sponsored by the Wine Society. The next day they took us for a cruise in the Pacific Ocean.
On December 6, 2020, Bob Montgomery was sentenced to four years for his crimes, with the requirement that he serve 12 months in prison. He should be released in a few days. His life was disrupted for a year. His victims suffered their entire lives.
When I met him, Bob Montgomery seemed to be a normal, successful professional. He certainly didn’t seem to be a pedophile. Of course, at the time, I also didn’t know that my husband was a psychopath and his only objective in marrying me was to take my money. My experience is evidence of what all of us who have tangled with psychopaths and antisocials now know — they can easily blend in to our society.
If you’d like to know more about my story, it’s all in my book, which is available on this website, Amazon, through other book distributors and as an audio book.
Love Fraud — How marriage to a sociopath fulfilled my spiritual plan
My father married a psychotherapist and pathological narcissist
Donna — I understand how this horrid man’s death didn’t trigger anything for you. And yes, that is a great sign of total healing. I spent ten years in an abusive marriage to an emotionally distant alcoholic but it wasn’t until I could say, out loud and in my heart, “I Don’t Care Anymore” that I could leave him…and I never looked back. Getting to “I Don’t Care” took me a long time, but it was necessary for me to leave and to heal. And in dealing with the narcissist later on, I had to get there, too, even though the leaving was not exactly my choice. Once I did, it was like a HUGE weight off my heart. If he dies, I, too, will probably note it but not let it consume me.
I find it interesting and horrifying that his brother was so disordered, too – truly a sign that sociopathy (and all the related disorders) can be passed down through generations — something that anyone looking for a life-partner should take into consideration.
Thank you for sharing this.
emilie18 – yes, it was kind of amazing – after all the times I cried and pounded my fists over what that man did to me, when I learned he was gone I did not react at all. Like you, I literally did not care.
I was, however, quite surprised to learn of his brother’s history. I saw no indication at all when I was around him. Of course, it was only a few days, but still. I never would have guessed.
Donna, I am really happy for you that you had none of those attachments/feelings when he died! 😄 You have been through the ringer in so many ways. How did Mr. Montgomery become a psychologist? Did he actually attend school for it, or did he just fabricate his credentials? Horrible that he used the science of psychology as a cover–clever on his part so that his true nature would less likely be discovered!! I will have to take a look at your book, I am sure it is eye opening! 👍
It never ceases to amaze me how these disordered individuals always seem to land on their feet and find an unsuspecting woman to love them again and again. Meanwhile, it can be quite tough for a good woman to find a decent man.
Hi Donna, I’m glad you were unaffected by his death. I often wonder how I would feel if I heard my ex husband died or went back to prison. He lives a life of crime and has severe addictions to alcohol and cocaine so it’s very possible he could die or go back to prison. I don’t know how I would feel about it.
Sept4 – Yes, I felt nothing. It was a sign of my healing. I hope you get there as well.
I just came across this post, I’m not sure if you’ll see this, but I feel this needs to be said.
I worked alongside James back in the mid 2000s at a dodgy marketing firm, just after he was fired from his university radio position. When I met him he was a super charming person, full of lurid stories about founding and working at the E network. I distinctly remember him telling stories about Paulie Shore and the misadventures he went up to.
Despite all the charming stories, I remember thinking with all your experience, why are you here working at this shitty, almost scammy firm. After that I googled him, and came across your site and the site that existed to expose military frauds that existed at the time.
He did not last much longer there.
My last memory of him was him being let out of the building with the boss of that firm assisting him down the stairs because his swollen diabetic legs couldn’t descend the stairs.
It was a sad sight.
I wish you the best for the future.
greggy – wow – thank you for the update.
Also, after he left I googled the username he used which was ozscreenwriter or something like that. He tried to scam on Gay dating sites. I saw his nude photos. I’m sorry you had to endure that.
omg- horrors!
I was studying master of clinical psychology at the time when Bob Montgomery was working as the head of department at Bond University. This experience was extremely traumatic. I remember that when I joined Bond University, it was pretty normal. As I was an overseas student, my mother had to pay her life saving to support my study there. I was a young, active, lovely Asian boy when I studied there. Bob Montgomery kept giving me the trouble, harassed me and kept annoying me when I studied there. I suffered a lot of pressure. I kept complaining to the university, however the university just ignored my complaints. As I was reluctant to see him in his room, he gave me the lowest mark in his counseling course. As my family does not have additional money to support my study as an overseas student in case any course would be failed. I was forced to quit my study in psychology (after 5 years of training in psychology) and forced to abandon my profession. This has changed my whole life and my mother died two years ago. I will never forgive this evil and his wife. I hope this evil will die and go to the hell forever and his wife should apologize to all the people what her husband has done to us.
skleu5 – I am very disturbed by what happened to you. Can you tell me what year it was?
Also, do you know the wife’s name? I believe Bob Montgomery had 3 of them.
feel free to reach out to me privately if you want – donna@LoveFraud.com
Hi Donna
Thank you for sharing your story.
I would be very surprised if the brother Bob did not continue his offenses later during his whole life, and not only when he supervised Scouts. Especially being a psychologist, and overseeing sex offenders… he put himself in the right position to help his “peers”. Pedocriminals (I prefer that word because there is no love “phile” in rapping a child. It is a crime) usually do not stop themselves and only improve their art of trapping new victims into their net. There must be more victims…
Having two criminal and disturbed people in one family makes me think what kind of upbringing these two brothers had. what kind of parents, great parents, great great parents….
Trauma, especially family trauma very often passes from one generation to the other.
Some would react as being long time victims (marrying into abusive relationship, marrying pedocriminals…), others would become criminal (small and big as serial killers), and some will break the circle of abuse, violence, mask… and become great people in life.
thank you again for sharing your story and opening the eyes to others.
It is only with eyes wide open that the circle of violence can be finally broken 🙂
I actually spent time with James Montgomery’s family when we got married. His father was deceased, but I met his mother — she reminded me of my grandmother. A bit befuddled. His sisters were ok. Bob was living an upper middle class life.
My ex never reported any abuse, but his father did cheat on his mother and they divorced. Sociopathy is highly genetic, but genetics is a crap shoot, so maybe the males got the gene and the females didn’t.
Thank you Donna for sharing.
My sociopath ex husband is a convicted criminal and continued his criminal activity after a long prison sentence. He is also a drug addict and alcoholic and obese. His lifestyle of addiction and crime puts him at very high mortality risk so I often wonder how I will feel if one day I received news that he is dead. He seems to be too evil to die though.
His sister by the way is a lovely and kind person. She started her own family and focuses on them and has ended contact with her brother. We are still in contact and she is still like a sister to me. Funny how two kids from the same parents can be so different.