A HEARTLESS CASE OF WIFE DESERTION AND BIGAMY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1212, 22 May 1885, Page 4

A HEARTLESS CASE OF WIFE DESERTION AND BIGAMY.

A heartless case of wife d. sertion find subsequent bigamy was heard on May 1 at the City Police Court occupying the Bench the gicater part of (he clay. The accused was Joseph Francis Kinggate, formerly ot Dunedin, and late 1 } of Mary Street, Bichmnnd, where he was arrested on the 7th ult. On the 10 January, 1882, he married a girl named Norah Smith, who was then chambermaid in the Union Hotel, kept by Charles Clarke Armstrong, Dunedin. The latter attended the wedding, and signed his name in the book of the registrar. Some time afterwards Ki negate brought his wife and one child to Melbourne, and took lodgings in a house in Ilokeby street, Colbngwood. Mere it. was observed by Mrs Kinggate’s sister, who went to stay with them, that the married pair did not appear to live very happily together. Un more than one cccassion Kingga e told his wife and her sisiev that he would destroy the marriage certificate and seek another wife. Some time last year Kinggate and Irs wife and < hi'd were living at Footscray, and whilst there ho became acquainted with a gi 1 named Johanna Fvederici Mehrten, who was employed as a servant at the Station Hotel To this girl, who was about twenty, he intro* duced himself as a single man, and to in event her knowledge that he was already married he removed his wife to Hot-ham Then lie gave out his intention to proceed to Sydney, telling his wife ihithcwon’d shortly after his arrival send for her. He gave her on his departure Hie sum of ss, saying it was all he had; and, although the unfortunate woman was approaching; her confinement, Kinggate left her without any means of support what«ver, and proceeded secretly to Foots* ot iv For several months Mrs King* gate could get no t dings of her hu,band’s ".’hereabouts. As she wi\ totally destitute and it qtvries we e

set on foot to asceitain what had become of her husband. It was then discovered that he had gone through the form of marriage with Johanna Mehrten before the Presbyterian clergyman a Hichmond, wheie he was living with this girl as man and wife When arrested on a charge of deserting his wife he had the effrontery to deny his former marriage, foolishly believing that in the absence of the certificate it could not be proved. The po ice authorities sent to Duredin, and brought over Charles C. Armstrong, the hotelkeeper, who was present at the marriage. A copy of the registrar’s certificate was also produced, and his injured wife, although in very ill~health and scarcely able to stand, gave her evidence yesterday to prove the marriage which the prisoner repudiated. The Rev. Andrew Hardy, Charlotte Smith (sister to the prisoner’s wife), Mary Jane Reid, and Isabella Gertiude Grabam, the two last named being witnesses of the second marriage, were also examined. The prisoner, in the most impudent way, sought to damage the character of his second wife, and likewise her sister*, a respec» table domestic servant, by putting a series of abominable questions ; and be sought also to add to the injury he had already inflicted on his own wife. He was committed for trial on both charges — Age.