On Wednesday seven women and one man - all from Derry - were sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to involvement in cross-border sham weddings to non-EU nationals in registry offices in Derry, Coleraine and County Donegal in 2004.

Speaking after being sentenced, two of the Derry women said they were "vulnerable" when approached by the ringleader, Nigerian Alexander Success and his accomplice, Dublin resident Akeem Shittu.

One of them, Corinna Murray (21), from Barrs Lane, who married a Chinese national, said that both Success and Shittu seemed like "nice fellas" at the time. However, she added:"They promise you the world and tell you everything is going to be alright but, looking back, all they wanted was money for themselves and they treated us like crap. They just landed us in it and didn't care."

Melissa McShane (23), from Distillery Close, who also married a Chinese man, said: "We were vulnerable at the time. You would be surprised by the amount of people out there that do get it hard and don't know how to cope with their problems. Whenever somebody comes a long like that - and you've a lot on your mind, you really need help - and says he could help you out and coaxes you into it and says everything's going to be ok, you do end up falling for it. I'd two young kids and at that time, I was going through a rough patch and I thought it would be alright."

McShane said she met Success and Shittu twice before the day of the marriage, which she described as "nerve wrecking". "You don't know the people, you don't know if they know you're lying." And she warned: "If anybody out there is going to do this, never do it because its not worth it. We never thought anything bad would come out of it.
"We thought we could just do it and nobody would find out about it. But we were harmed by it - it's always going to be lying over us now."

Both women said that they wanted to put the experience behind them and get on with their lives. McShane said she was "happy" not to go to prison over the matter. "I do have a background history and I thought it was the one going away but I'm definitely happy, I'm glad it's all over. Its been hanging over us for a year and a half.

"Now that this is over and done with I can get on with my own life, put this behind me and look after my two kids."