"SHAMED BEFORE THE WORLD"

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 98, 27 April 1935, Page 25

"SHAMED BEFORE THE WORLD"

A married life lasting ten weeks,between a woman of 31 and her husband aged 73 was revealed during the hearing of a suit of-nullity which came before the Divorce Court in London recently. The wife petitioned for a decree of nullity on the ground of the incapa-' city of her husband, a wealthy building contractor, alleging the non-consum- . mation ■of ths marriage; This was denied by the husband. .. ■' -'■; During the course of 'his judgment, Mr.-Justice Langton termed :the wife "a liar of no common calibre." When the couple .married, he.Said, the husband gave his age correctly as 73, while the wife gave her age incorrectly as 26, whereas her real a"ge was 31. They lived together for ten weeks, when the husband left the flat in London. He left a letter in which he said he could not stand the strain of mar- . ried life and that his wife had made married life between them quite impossible. ' ■•■ His Lordship said that the wife appeared to be a completely and utterly unreliable witness. "I' judge her, after seeing her for a day.'Mie said, "to be a liar of no common calibre. I am satisfied that her evidence was a tissue of -falsehoods Irom beginning to end, and that she lias shown' herself to be ci versatile, Shameless, and practised liar.

"She has admitted falsifying public I documents, two passports,. and an entry in a marriage certificate. Two of them were with1 regard to her age, and one must feel towards that she was. a woman who was endeavouring to preserve the legend of her age. "When confronted with this she sought to put the blame, not on her own vanity, but on her husband, assigning to • him the most' trivial motives." Some of the statements by the wife, said the Judge, were "grossly and wildly untrue," while the husband was "an honest and reliable witness." In his Lordship's view the marriage had been consummated, and the petition of the wife failed and would be, dismissed. "I have been considering, in view of the wife's flagrant perjury," added his Lordship, "whether I should send .the papers in this case to the Public Prosecutor. '■ I should not be at all sorry! if the Foreign Office took action in connection' with her passport applications. "■''■*'■„ "I have. decided that, so far as I am concerned, it is probably sufficient punishment for her to know that she is shamed before the world as a malicious liar, who has endeavoured to fasten on. her. weak, kindly, and harmless husband the burden of her own disreputable conduct." .