BREACH OF THE MARRIAGE ACT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXI, Issue 7222, 23 April 1884, Page 4 (Supplement)

BREACH OF THE MARRIAGE ACT.

REMARKABLE DISCLOSURES. ■WELLINGTON, April 12. A most extraordinary case was commenced at the Resident Magistrate’s Court this morning. It came up in the simple form of an alleged breach of the Marriage Act. Alice Lynch, a woman of apparently thirty years of age, was charged with having, on Nov. 23, 1881, at Auckland, wilfully made a false statement touching the age and parentage of one Emma Mary Howell, contrary to the provisions of the Marriage Act. Lynch, who was not represented by counsel, is also known as Mrs Howell, alias Tremare, alias Baxter. Mr Shaw appeared for the prosecution, and the circumstances under which the proceedings were initiated will be best understood from that gentleman’s opening, which was as follows: —Tour Worships, the evidence I have to offer is of a somewhat peculiar nature. This lady (indicating the prisoner) is charged with practically mating a false declaration for the purpose of procuring the marriage of her infant sister to a man. named Monckton, with whom she (the prisoner) was then cohabiting. We propose to prove to the Court that the prisoner’s sister, Emma Mary Howell, at the time she went through the marriage form, was only twelve years and two months old. According to the certificate of birth which I have in my hand she was bom on Sept. 17, 1869, at Napier, and we will also prove that her mother left the Colony and that her father, we understand, is dead. The infant sister at the time of the marriage was living with the prisoner, who had deserted her own husband, and was cohabiting with Monckton, who had deserted his wife. In order to keep this little girl in the house, Monckton conceived a plan that he should go through the form of marriage with her, though living, at the time, with the girTs sister. For that purpose the parties presented themselves before the Registrar of Marriages at Auckland, in November, 1881, when the little girl was offered in marriage to Monckton by the prisoner. To accomplish the marriage, the prisoner assumed the role of mother, and she signed the certificate giving her consent to her sister’s marriage, falsely stating her age, moreover, to be over 15 years. Thereupon the Registrar duly solemnised the marriage. The girl was afterwards brought hack to her sister’s house, and remained there, Monckton living alternately with one sister and the other, dividing his attention between the two. The young girl, who is the prosecutrix in this case, will further prove that, sometime after this pretended marriage, her sister and the man Monckton endeavoured to induce her to become a prostitute, and that, fearing violence on her refusal, she fled to Sydney. We will show that the elder couple then swore a false information, charging her with larceny, and upon that she was apprehended in Sydney, and brought back here, and the charge has since turned out to be untrue. She took refuge in Wellington, and her whereabouts was discovered by threatening letters stating that Monckton and the prisoner would arrest her if she did not consent to carry on the business of a prostitute in the City of Christchurch. The present summons was served on the prisoner, and a summons has also been issued against Monckton, and the prisoner then left Christchurch secretly under a false name by the steamship Wakatipn from Lyttelton on her way to Sydney to escape this charge. The police had timely information of the fact, and she was arrested on her arrival in the Wakatipu on Thursday afternoon. When arrested she admitted having made a false declaration as to her sister’s age, and said she “ thought it was for the child’s good.” This morning I only intend to prove the woman’s arrest and admission, and then ask for an adjournment of the case for a week, a good deal of evidence having to be collected and the Registrar having to be brought down from Auckland.

Detective Campbell was thereupon called to prove the arrest, and was the only witness examined at to-day’s hearing. He said: I arrested the prisoner on warrant as she was coming off the TVafcatipu on Thursday afternoon. She said: “ J did make a false declaration about the girl, but she has been with me since a child, and always looked upon me as a mother. I did it for her own good.” The purser of the steamer has possession of a through ticket to Sydney taken out by the prisoner in another name. Proceedings are pending against the prisoner for a charge of bigamy. Prisoner, when asked if she had any question to put to the witness, replied that she made no resistance at the time of her arrest. The case was then adjourned till Saturday next. Prisoner applied for bail, and Mr Shaw asked that hail might be fixed, as she would be represented by counsel during the week, but as she was evidently on the wing, lie applied that it might be substantial. The Bench allowed bail in prisoner’s own recognisance of .£2OO and two sureties of .£IOO each.

The girl Howell, who is now about 15 years of age, is at present residing with her sister, Mrs Lovell, whose husband keeps a barber’s shop in Courtenay place. The man Monckton, against whom a similar summons has been issued, is Charles Henry Monckton, formerly proprietor of a photographic gallery in Manners street. The prisoner Lynch is alleged to have been married twice, once at Opunake and the second time to a jockey now in Sydney, while her first husband was alive. It is likely that further revelations of a similarly extraordinary character will be made as the case proceeds.

[Monckton was arrested in Christchurch on Saturday morning and remanded to Wellington.]