A LONDON SCANDAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17597, 9 October 1920, Page 7

A LONDON SCANDAL.

.- ■■ ■ — ♦—-—: : . , ~-_ ~ . . ... , t -, ;,- (. . .j . i MRS. BAMBERGER'S CASE.

PERJURY IN- DIVORCE COURT.

!' SENSATIONAL DEFENCE. .'.',."•■-' '. LONDON, Sept." 24. - The conviction of Mrs. Bamberger, who was sentenced to nine months* imprisonment for perjury in a divorce case, has not' finished the public interest in her case. There are leading articles in the morning papers regarding her perjury in the divorce case, and the news column's of the evening papers are filled with additional particulars of her remarkable career.

Legal circles are agitated by the wonderful defence, emotional and French, rather than legal and English, made by Mr. Cecil Hayes, the defending counsel, instantly raising him to the forefront of the criminal bar.

No case has stirred London so since that of Billie Carleton, owing to the prisoner's numberless intrigues with various men, including Australian and Canadian officers, and Londoners of the highest position and. great wealth, and especially owing to the mystery surrounding the concealment of a name, on .the ground of its. importance, on the application of the prosecutor.

Mrs. Bamberger was the daughter of an evangelist, Taylor, who died in South Africa. The girl returned to England stage-struck, and when she was 13 deserted her home for the theatre. She became a Gaiety girl, and was apparently leading a fast life until* her marriage to Mr. Bamberger. Subsequently she resumed her old ways. Evidence was given that she received thousands of pounds from her admirers, one giving her £6000. Nevertheless, _ she was arrested and charged with complicity in the robbing of a strange Frenchman, who was invited to her flat. The Frenchman alleged that while seated on a couch with Mrs. Bamberger, a second woman entered, kissing him, while Mrs. Bamberger rifled his pockets. Both women were acquitted, Mrs. Bamberger swearing later in the civil proceedings that the other accused was her twin sister. Thic was • part of the perjury to which her present conyiction was due. The evidence proved that she was twice married, and a third marriage has since been revealed. Witnesses also swore that she had' committed misconduct with at least three other men, but Mrs. Bamberger made an affidavit that this was false.

The methods of the defence were ultramodern, and were reminiscent of a cinematograph production. The accused sobbed at the right time, and shrieked at the climax of the prosecutor's address, her anguish being aimed at the jury. Mrs. Bamberger was daily photographed in dozens of positions, and movie operators were. busy during each luncheon hour. She gave the widest publicity to her youth and beauty, with the evident intention of influencing the public. Mr. Hayes, tho defending counsel, asked the Court not to throw on the scrap-heap this, dainty piece of Watteau china, and contended that her alleged purity was consistent with stories of sex matters, which were always without logic. He bitterly denounced Symonds, the accused's former fiancee, who gave evidence that Mrs. Bamberger was his mistress, especially the fact. that Symonds occupied a flat decorated with her money. He held that Mrs. Bamberger was being made the scapegoat for all divorce perjurers, and if everybody were treated the same, the witnesses in 40,000 defended cases in- 40, years would also have been sent to gaol. Mrs. Bamberger is 29, but looks younger.: She is an unquestioned beauty, possesses sty ley and, .is a wonderful dresser. Her acquaintances assert that she has a great personality, and her intellect charms women, as well as 'men. Her admirers were untiring, and were apparently ready to convert a mistress into a wife. The Times states that the third marriage announced by the prosecutor took place at Gretna Green before the blacksmith Nugent. Mrs. Nugent, in an interview, said that she remembered the couple, and the bride was the most beautiful she had seen. The bridegroom Was Michael Wyne, son of a wealthy Dublin man. " Both were stylishly dressed," said Mrs. Nugent, " and I have never seen higher heels. They said that they had lived for 21 days in Scotland, and my husband performed the ceremony, and I signed the certificate.''

A message received last week stated that Mrs. Bamberger had been sentenced to nine months' imprisonment for perjury. She was arrested in April on a charge of perjury, in consequence of the condemnation made by Sir Thomas Duke, President of the Divorce Division, in rescinding a divorce decree made in 1917. The warrant charged her with committing perjury by falsely swearing in the Divorca Coirt that she had never committed misconduct with Robert Webster bymonds; that she had never committed misconduct with Ernest Stein; and that she had never been arrested in her life.