CHARGE OF BIGAMY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 35, 21 November 1934, Page 4

CHARGE OF BIGAMY.

JURY ACQUITS ACCUSED. (Per Press Association.) BLENHEIM, Nov. 20. In' the Supreme Court, Charles Calloway, charged with bigamy, was acquitted. Evidence was adduced that last April the accused went through the form of marriage at Wellington with a widow named Harriett Stevens. In 1922 at Blenheim he had married a supposed widow named Elizabeth Robson. The evidence showed that Robson, husband of the accused's first wife, went to the war and had never been heard of since, but ehe thought she recognised him in a newspaper reproduction of a photograph of a soldier named Robinson who was killed at/ tho front. The defence argued that there was no evidence to show that Robson was dead, and therefore the accused's first marriage was invalid and the second marriage was not bigamy. The jury acquitted the accused. . When the sessions opened Mr Justice Blair complimented Blenheim on keeping up its reputation as a lawabiding district. There were only two cases, and only one of these involved dishonesty, the accused being a stranger to the district.