COURT NEWS

Grey River Argus, 16 May 1935, Page 6

COURT NEWS

YOUNG PEER SUED Actress Fails BREACH OF PROMISE CLAIM. (Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assn.) LONDON, May 14. Miss Angela Joyce, the actress, and the Miss England beauty competition winner in 1928, sued Lord Revelstoke for breach of promise. Rupert Barin’, t'e fourth Baron Revelstoke, was born in February, 1911. He succeeded his father in 1934. The same year lhe married Flora, second daughter of Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh. In her evidence, Mss Joyc: stated thait thev met. caiua’.lv ?.» a cockta.- La.in 1931. before Baring succeeded to the title. She was then 24, and Lord RevelStoke was 19. While a Cambridge under-graduate, he broke the College mles and met her thrice weekly in the evenings. They exchanged ardent letters almost daily. He proposed verbally. He subsequently told her that detectives were watching, owing to his

father’s objection to his association with an actress, adding that they had better part until they could shake off the detectives. Later, he again proposed, when he was over 21, but subsequently broke the promise, and married the present Lady Bevelstoke.

The defence claimed that all ißevels'toke’s love letters were written before he was 21. Revelstoke, giving evidence, said that, he never proposed. Mr Justice Swift, summing up, said: “A man does not promise to marry by saying. “You are the sweetest girl I ever knew/’ If it were the modern practice of young sitrangers to meet in a cock-tain bar, and thereafter lunch and dine frequently, is that likely to result in perfect domesticity 1 ? Boys fall in love, but infatuations cool off. Few men marry the first woman to whom they declare love.

The jury, including three women, reurned a verdict for the defendant. Lord Rovelstoke left it he court ac•ompanied by his wife, who was preipiil during the trial.

MURDERESS REPRIEVED. LONDON, May 14. Gertrude De.lamerc, of Jersey who was sentenced to death for the murder (if her employer, has been reprieved, the sentence being commuted to one of penal for life. ESPIONAGE TRIAL. PARIS, May 14. Professor Louis Marlin was acquitted of espionage. SENTENCES PASSBD. PALMERSTON NORTH, May 14. In the Supreme Court, prisoners were sentenced as follows.— Maurice Lucinsky, 20 years of age, for the theft of £240 from his stepmother, was admitted to three years’ probation. Keith Elford Craig, a metal dealer, aged 33, for the theft of metal valued at £2O, at Linton, was sentenced to 18 months’ hard labour. Mr Justice Smith, after referring to the accused’s previous convictions, said that Craig seemed to have embarked on a course of dishonesty.

No Evil Intent WOMAN CHARGED WITH FRAUD. WELLINGTON, May 15. Allegations that the accused had impersonated another woman with a view to obtaining £350 from the Union Bank of Australia were made at the Supreme Courts when Kathleen Jessie Alekna appeared fqr trial on charges of conspiring to defraud the Union Bank of £350, and of attempting to obtain £350 from the Bank by false pretences. After a retirement of nearly three hours, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty on the first charge, and of guilty on the second one. His Honour said he was quite sure that the prisoner really had no intention to be dishonourable in the transaction as far as the shaping of the money, or anything of that kind, was concerned. Prisoner was convicted and discharged. WIDOW’S £1,750' COMPENSATION. WELLINGTON, May 15. Legal proceedings following the death of Senior-Sergeant Martin, fatally injured on March 15. in a motor collision in Crawford Road, resulted in judgment by consent for £1,750 damages and £4O costs, being entered in favour of the widow and son by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to-day, against Andrew Gray, retired Salvation Army officer. Gray was driving a car which collided with deceased’s motor cycle, and the action -was brought by Ibe Public Trustee on behalf of the widow and son. BURGLARY CHARGE. WELLINGTON, May 15. Norman Williams. 24, Maori labourer, was committed for trial to the Supreme -Court on a charge of breaking and entering Mitchell and King’s premises, Cable Street, and stealing goods valued at £2 18s. , WOMAN CHARGED. WITH FIFING AT MAN. CHRISTCHURCH, May 15. At the Supreme Court, before Judge Johnston, Terrie Zuppicich, married, was charged with firing a rifle at Thomas Joseph Sleeman, with intent to do grievous bodily harm, on March 11th, and that on the same date, she assaulted Sleeman. She pleaded not guilty. The ’Crown Prosecutor said that Sleeman and his son owned a house where accused lived. There had been disputes over the rent, and a certain amount of friction developed. Later, certain furniture was seized under a distress warrant. On March 11th, Sleeman called at the house, and it was alleged the woman fired three shots, one of ■which hit him on the finger, not seriously. Previously the woman had said: “I will shoot you.” Tn a statement to the police accused had denied firing the shots. CONVICTION OF ASSAULT. PRISONER NOT IMPRISONED. CHRISTCHURCH, May 15. At the hearing of the# shooting ,

charge at the Supreme Court', counsel for the defence did not call evidence. He suggested that, if the accused had meanT To Itill or to injure Sleeman, she could have aimed correctly. He asked the jury to bear in mind the nervous state of accused at the time, and the circumstances in which she was living. His Honour reminded the jury that it was equally an offence under New Zealand law to point a. rifle at a person as to fire it, and wound him. The jury found the prisoner guilty of assault only, with a recommendation to mercy. She was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence if called upon within twelve months. ) CHINESE FINED. HARBOURED DESERTER. (Per Press Association). DUNEDIN. -May 15. At the Police Court, the Magistrate, Mr Bartholomekv, imposed the maximum penalty of £2O fine on a Chinese resident, George Yat Loe. charged with wilfully harbouring Leong Kam. a Chinese seaman, who deserted from the British ship Oil Reliance and is awaiting deportation. The police stated that accused offered Kam a job in his garden and hid him in the • Chinese Mission Church. Kam handed over £2B to be sent t;o his wife in China, but the money was never sent. Moreover, while the hunt for Kam was on, accused went to detectives, offering to find the deserter for £25, so that he was double-crossing his countryman. A serious aspect of the case was that it would cost the authorities £2OO to send the deserter back to China. TIPSY MOTORIST DISQUALIFIED. BLENHEIM. May 15. Robert Bruce Brosnan, commercial traveller, was fined £4O, and his license cancelled until the end of the present period, for being intoxicated when in charge of a car. The police stated that he had three previous convictions for similar offences.