MERCY TO BIGAMISTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 April 1939, Page 2

MERCY TO BIGAMISTS

• JUDGE’S ADVICE TO ACCUSED. j LONDON, March 1. In. two bigamy cases at Glamorgan Assizes. Cardiff, yesterday, Mr. Justice Cassels, -the newly-appointed judge, advised the accused to go and live happily fvii.li the bigamous partner. In cue case lie bound over for 12 months Mrs. Elizabeth Ellen Pritchard. 35. She bigainously married a Cardiff engineer who said that he would remarry her if she were free. "You have had an unhappy life. It is up to you to livi a happy life with one who has impressed me as a very; good man." said the judge.

Mr. R. M. Bell, proseenung, said the a ci-uscd married her legal husband. Edward Pritchard, in Caernarvon in 1927. They parted after a tiff three years later. Referring to a statement; by a detective that. Mrs. Pritchard was rather vain, weak willed and easily led. the judge said, "You are getting on in rears now. and it is about time you left off being rather vain." In tlie other case, in which Noah Emlyn Davies, 41, a collier, was charged with bigainously marrying Annie .John, 39. a widow, who pleaded guilty io aiding and abetting, Mr. Justice Cassels sentenced them both to three days’ imprisonment. This, he said, would mean their immediate release.

It -was stated that Davies 1 separated from his wife in 1922 and went to [Canada. As he was boarding a train at Bridgend his wife's sister handed I him a. label bearing the word “cowjard.” Attached to the label was a white feather. Mr. Wyndham Jennings, for Davies, said he tried to find his wife after his return from Canada, but failed. Later he discovered that she was living with a man at Woking, Surrey. “You are more to be pitied than blamed in the circumstances,” said the Judge to the couple. “I hope you will be able to containue that happiness in life which I am informed there is between you at the present time."