A WARNING

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 108, 3 November 1923, Page 8

A WARNING

SENTENCED FOR BIGAMY

PHILLIPS RECEIVES TWELVE MONTHS.

Found guilty of bigamy, Charles Edward William. Phillips appeared before Mr. Justice Reed at* the Supreme Court to-day for sentence.

Mr. D. S. Smith said that he had boen instructed by the second wife to address the Court on behalf of the accused. His client felt that if possible the utmost leniency should be extended to Phillips, who had been a good husband and a good father. The second wife did not feel vindictive in any way.

Mr. Justice Reed: "Phillips frankly told her that he had reason to believe that his first wife, was alive, but that he would get her in any case. That practically amounted to rape by a trick." Mr. Macassey said that the woman's attitude had certainly changed. Mr. Justice Reed said that no doubt the woman was very fond ot the accused, but he (his Honour) had a public duty. Was it not his duty to pass a sentence as a warning to men who came from the Old Country and married New Zealand women under false pretences? Mr. Smith: "Certainly you have to consider the public viewpoint, sir, but I would again like to point out that this woman has come forward of her own accord in order to state that she bears no ill-will towards the man. There is one point to consider, sir, and that is that as long as the man is incarcerated the woman will have the children to care for."

Mr. C. A. L. Treadwell, on behalf of the accused, urged that Phillips could not be regarded "as a man who .had deliberately led a woman astray. Phillips *as an industrious man, and was as model a husband and a father as cou»d be desired. He had been careless on Account of his ignorance. The second wife had overlooked the wrong that had been done to her.

Bigamy was a crime, said his Honour, ihat varied in the point of view of gravity. Had it not been for the recommendation of the jury for mercy and the fact that the wife would suffer from his , long detention, he would have p'assed'a longer sentence than that which ho intended to pass.. The accused had "wilfully made false statements, and it U-as his duty to protect the public \gainst men who were likely to marry '■Women under false pretences. Taking jnto consideration all the facts, the least *ie could do was to pass a sentence <>f . twelve months' imprisonment.