CHARGE OF BIGAMY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 8, 9 July 1931, Page 14

CHARGE OF BIGAMY

A SECOND OFFENCE

MAN PLEADS GUILTY

Convicted of bigamy in Glasgow in 1020, George Gillies, a resident of Lower Hutt, was charged in the Petone Court yesterday, before Mr. J. Kerr and Mr. A. Coles, J.P.s, with having committed a similar offence at Dunedin in 1022. He pleaded guilty, and was committed to the Supreme Court. \f or sentence. , Mr. C. R. Barrett represented tho accused. Gertrude Helen Walter said that she Lad gone through a form of marriage with Gillies at Dunedin on 26th s December, 1!)22, Gillies describing himself as a bachelor. She had lived with Gillies ever since, and there had been one child of the marriage. Gillies had been a very good husband. Evidence of the validity of the accused's first and legal marriage in Scotland was given by James Adamson, Professor, of Law, aiid a member of the Scottish Bar. , . Detective AY. M'Lcnnan said that he had interviewed the accused, who had admitted that at the time of his marriage in Dunedin he had known that his real wife was alive. In a statement, he explained why he had left her. He had married her, he said, in 1913, and in 1914 he went to the war, returning later to live with her for a few weeks. Thero were two children by that marriage. His wife took proceedings against him for separation and maintenance on the grounds of cruelty and because he had failed to pay the maintenance, as he was out of work, he left Scotland in 1922. At this stage, Mr. Barrett objected to tho statement alleging cruelty, which Gillies denied. Continuing, Detective M'Lennan produced a copy of a certificate of marriage between the accused and another woman in Glasgow in 1920, together with a record of the conviction of the accused, in Glasgow, for bigamy in connection witli this form of marriage. . Gillies pleaded guilty and was committed to the Supremo Court for sentence. Renewal of his bail was refused.