UNUSUAL STORY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 288, 31 August 1929, Page 24

UNUSUAL STORY

ALLEGED BIGAMY WOMAN COMMITTED FOR TRIAL Dominion Special Service.

Auckland, August 29.

An unusual story was unfolded at the Magistrate’s Court this morning during the hearing of a bigamy charge brought against Minnie Clamest Horrocks, a middle-aged woman. Accused appeared before Messrs. Stratford and Michaels, J.P.’s. , The charge alleged that as she had married William Arthur Meredith at the register's office at Monmouth, England, on October 9, 1912, and had subsequently gone through the form of marriage with George Earl at the registrar’s office, Auckland, on December 21, 1921, she committed bigamy. William Arthur Meredith, a master tailor, at present residing at Christchurch, said that when a widower he married accused at Monmouth, England, on October 9, 1912. Shortly after the marriage he and his wife left for New Zealand and went straight to Christchurch. Witness subsequently enlisted and joined the Third Reinforcements. He went to the war and returned about 18 months after the Armistice. On his return he tried to trace his wife and accused, but failed to do so. He had not seen her until this morning. The last he saw of her was when she saw him off at the wharf at Wellington as he left on the Tahiti about November, 1916. Meredith added that accused was his second wife. He married his first wife just before the South African War. Witness left her to go to the Boer War, but after returning from active service there he could not trace her either. Subsequently he found that his first wife had died. Accused told witness when he married her that she was a widow prior to her marriage to him. Accused was employed by witness as a talloress. , , Madeline Ann Heffernan, a married woman residing at Auckland, was the next witness. She knew accused prior to her marriage with George EarL Witness was present when accused was married to Earl at the Auckland registrar’s office on December 21, 1921. Detective White, of Hamilton, said he interviewed accused at Ngaruawahla on June 29 last, when she made a statement which she afterwards signed. Accused was shown a copy of the marriage certificate concerning her marriage to Meredith in England in 1912 and admitted that she was the person mentioned and that the particulars were correct Accused was also shown the certificate of her marriage to Earl and made a similar admission. In her statement accused said she was first married at Plymouth, England, to a man who afterwards died in Pretoria, and that she was a widow when she married Meredith. Accused said she did not consider she was married to Meredith, as he had told her that he was married before be married her. After she had finished drawing Meredith’s pay while he was at the front, she said, she went to various towns in New Zealand, keeping herself by going out washing and cleaning. Meredith, she said, took her marriage lines with him when he went away, as he said it was necessary to do so if she was to draw his pay. Afterwards accused came to Auckland and worked at a city hotel. Later she met Earl and became friendly with him She admitted marrying Earl on December 21, 1921. “Meredith wrote me several letters,” said accused. "In several of them he said he was having a good time with his first wife. After that I stopped drawing his money and wrote telling him I would have nothing more to do with him. I had not heard of him since and did not know that he had returned to New Zealand from the war. I thought I was free to marry, as one of his relatives in Christchurch told me once that I was not his wife. If I had not thought I was not married to him I would not have married Earl.’ Mr. Ray submitted that a prima facie case had not been made out by the evidence. No evidence had been called or given that Meredith’s first wife was dead. Counsel submitted further that Meredith had no legal right to marry accused in 1912. Mr. Ray added that accused for some time kept the letters written her by Meredith stating that he was having a good time with his first wife, whom he met while in England. However, she had since lost them. Accused pleaded not guilty, reserved her defence, and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. Bail wasallowed.