ALLEGED BIGAMY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 106, 31 October 1942, Page 8

ALLEGED BIGAMY

ARMY OFFICER TRIED

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, This Day. The trial of a New Zealand Army officer who was alleged to have married a sister of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service in Egypt while his wife was still alive in Auckland, was held when Lieutenant Joseph William Godfrey, Second N.Z.E.F., aged 35, faced a general court-martial on a charge of bigamy. He pleaded not guilty.

The defence did not question the jurisdiction of the Court to deal with the case. Colonel Leary, -who prosecuted, stated that it could not be tried by the civil Courts in New Zealand, as the alleged offence had not been committed in the Dominion. It could be tried by a general court-martial by virtue of the fact that soldiers on service were subject to the provisions of the English Army Act.

Evidence showed that Godfrey married at Auckland in 1930. He went to the Middle East in 1941, and there met a nurse and was married to her.

For the defence the submissions were advanced that the action must fail. The Foreign Marriages Act stated that a marriage in the circumstances of this case must be solemnised by an officer under command of the commanding officer of the British forces abroad. There was no proof that the marriage was solemnised by such an officer. Further, other requirements of the Foreign Marriages Act had not been complied with. The marriage was thus not valid.

The prosecuting officer contended that the marriage was valid.

The finding of the Court will be promulgated.