BIGAMY AFTER FEW MONTHS’ MARRIAGE

Evening Star, Issue 24321, 9 October 1942, Page 6

BIGAMY AFTER FEW MONTHS’ MARRIAGE

YOUNG WIFE GETS PROBATION NAVAL STEWARD SENT TO GAOL (P.A.) AUCKLAND, October 8. “ 1 draw the inference from the report that they went through the form of marriage to enable her to obtain a wife’s allowance from the Navy and be also allowed to draw her husband’s Army allotment,” said Mr Justice Fair in the Supreme Court to-day, when Donald Edgar Alexander Fraser, a naval ship’s steward, aged 24, and Mrs Lesley Joyce Mitchell, aged 18, came up for sentence as parties to a 'bigamous marriage. His Honour said the accused had met on a train when Mrs Mitchell, who had 'been married a month or two previously, was travelling to join her husband, who was in camp near Wellington. Fraser knew this, and persuaded her —and no doubt she was not unwilling—to go to Auckland instead, where they lived as man and wife. He went through the form of marriage with her in April last. The least sentence the court could impose on Fraser was 12' months’ imprisonment. Mrs Mitchell’s conduct, His Honour added, reflected no credit on her judgment or character; hut, in view of her youth as well as her condition, she would be admitted to probation for three years, on the condition that her place of residence remained under supervision. She might live with her parents or with Fraser’s parents, provided her conduct was satisfactory, and there would be no objection by the court to her marriage to Fraser in duo course.