Available Sedative Caused Divorce

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30368, 18 February 1964, Page 13

Available Sedative Caused Divorce

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, February 17. A man whose wife took sedatives to excess has been granted a divorce.

Mr Justice Dovey found that Muriel Brasington, of Strathfield, a Sydney suburb, had been habitually intoxicated for at least two years. In awarding a divorce to Leonard Phillip Brasington, a health inspector, of Hillston, New South Wales, the judge said he believed it was the first case of its kind in Australia. He said the federal Matrimonial Causes Act provided for a decree where a spouse, for not less than two years,

had been habitually intoxicated by taking, or using, to excess a sedative, narcotic, or stimulating drug or other preparation. The Brasingtons were married in 1940 and were separated in 1962. Brasington claimed his wife’s behaviour changed from 1956. She had lost interest and refused to do anything in the home, cried frequently and suffered fits of depression. He told the Court his wife behaved like a person who was drunk, sometimes had been physically violent towards him and once had tried to take her own life.

Brasington said she was taken to hospital at least five times after consuming an overdose of what he said was sedatives. An affidavit from a doctor, read to the Court, said it was common knowledge that people could become “habituated” to sedative drugs of the type said to have been taken by Mrs Brasington. These were freely available from chemists, the affidavit added.

The Judge ordered Brasington’s decree to be made absolute in 21 days instead of the customary three months because of the special circumstances. Mrs Brasington did not contest the suit.