HIGHER THAN LAW

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 63, 11 September 1924, Page 5

HIGHER THAN LAW

.DOMESTIC CONFIDENCE

WRONG INQUIRIES FROM WIFE

RECORDER'S ADVICE TO OFFICIALS.

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPYRIGHT.)

(AUSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received ,11th September, 12.15 p.m.) LONDON, 10th September.

That the police should not interrogate a, wife regarding her husband's alleged crime, withtnit the husband's consent, was the opinion strongly expressed by the Recorder, Mr. Wild, in giving judgment in a case in which an official of the Post Office was charged with theft. The evidence showed that the- official's wife was arrested for shoplifting, and was found in possession of a number of postal notes. When asked where she got them from, she. confessed that they were stolen by .her husband, who later acquiesced in her confession.

Although he sentenced the husband to a year's imprisonment, tho Recorder declared that the interrogation of wives without their husband's consent was absolutely contrary to law, and officials must be taught this. It was more important that the confidential relationship of husband and wife should be retained than that a crime should be detected.