BIGAMY CHARGE WITHDRAWN

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 28008, 30 June 1956, Page 10

BIGAMY CHARGE WITHDRAWN

REHEARING OF CASE (New Zealand Press Association)

HAMILTON, June 29 A charge of bigamy againM/jAcl Ralston Wyllie. of Cambridge, was withdrawn by the police at a rehearing in Lower Hutt recently. This .procedure’ was to expunge a conviction against Wyllie earlier at Hamilton after he had pleaded guilty to the charge.

When Wyllie was originally charged he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. Hig appeal against the sentence was dismissed and the opinion was given that he could not appeal against conviction after pleading guilty. The Judge, however, directed that a solicitor be appointed to advise Wyllie in the matter of applying for a pardon.

After these investigations an application by the police for a rehearing was granted, and Wyllie was brought before a Magistrate at Lower Hutt on May 11.

When the case was recalled the police withdrew the charge of bigamy. Section 224 "(5) of the Crimes Act provides that “no-one commits bigamy by going through a form of marriage if he or she has been continually absent from his or her wife or husband for seven years then last past, and not proved to have known that hi« wife or her husband was alive at any time durin" those seven years.”