ABLE TO FLOUT LAW

Grey River Argus, 27 April 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

ABLE TO FLOUT LAW

LITE-SENTENCE MAN. CANNOT PAY DIVORCE COSTS. Vagaries of the law! How can a life-sentence man pay the costs of a divorce suit? Like Shylock., the. law demands its full pound of flesh —a fact exemplified in the the Divorce Cour; in Sydney last n eck. William Henry Conwell Bottiery, » farmer, is serving a life sentence in Ooulbura Gaol,, for having, in 1921 i, administered poison to Frederick Charles Rothery, at Bowen Park, near Cudal, New South Wales. The Judge iu Divorce, Mr Justice Owen, toward the end of last week granted Rothery’s young wife a divorce Lon the ground that her husband had I been confined in prison for three years under a death-commuted sentence, fo r n capital crime. In granting Mrs Rothery a decree nisi, tli ( . judge added: “And the re spondent (Rothery) must pay the costs.” Lawyers are now asking,, “How can an order for costs be enforced against u ‘lifer’?” Wire the costs unpaid Rothery could be attached for contempt for diso.?ed ience of the order of the court. Tin punishment provided is imprisonment till such contempt is purged. Ro hory, however, is “booked up" for lire in gaol, and. there. fore, O’ course, it cannot be increased. Hence, Rothery is one- of the fev • wh 0 can flout an order for divorc costs with impunity.