ADELAIDE BIGAMY TRIAL MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES. KENNEDY SENTENCED.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 182, 1 August 1923, Page 5

ADELAIDE BIGAMY TRIAL MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES. KENNEDY SENTENCED.

VnGATTITG CIRCtJMBTAHCEi. KEHMUDT BEHTEHCES.

(Received 11 a.m.) ADELAIDE, this day. .Reginald Kennedy, convicted of bigamy, teas sentenced to six weeks bard labour. The judge in saying he I imposed a light sentence referred to the exceptional nature and circumstances I of the case. Four weeks having elapsed I since the beginning of the Court sessions Kennedy would only go to gaol for two t weeks.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.)

,-. ;Kennedy, convicted of bigamy, aph -~ pealed to the Full Court against a conviction. The evidence disclosed that Kennedy married his first cousin. Both

were Roman Catholics, and Kennedy's

priest informed him that under the laws 1 of consanguinity of the Catholic Church, first cousins could not marry, and that the ceremony therefore did. not constitute .a manage. The parties never lived together, and Kennedy, believing himself to be unmarried, subsequently married another ! woman. The Court held that Kennedy's mistaken belief that hie first marriage was invalid was based on an erroneous view of the law, but that was no defence. 1 Marriage between first cousins -was lawful and binding, therefore the conviction .oust stand.