GRETNA BIGAMIST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23139, 10 September 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

GRETNA BIGAMIST

AMAZING BEHAVIOUR "ATE" HIS SUSPENDERS MAN OF VIOLENT TEMPER "Married" over the anvil at Gretna less than a fortnight before bus appearance at the Assizes, Richard Idris Huklh-s, aged .*52. committed from Alfreton, in Derbyshire, was sentenced at' Birmingham for bigamy and attempted suicide. & According to Mr. Douglas Uenkins, for the prosecution, Hughes married in 1932, and there were three children. In February this year he fell out of Avork, and telling his wife he was going to draw his pension from the Army and his unemployment pay, left home apd did not return. : '-v.

Hughes formed an association with a young woman named Rene Stone, told her he was single, and, after meeting her parents, became "engaged" to her. Helving on the assurance that he war

a bachelor, she agreed to a Gretna Green marriage. ■%? They travelled to Scotland and went; through a form of marriage on the following day. Hughes signed a declaration to the effect that he had resided in for 21 days, and that the marriage?' s should bo registered within three months.

The couple spent the night in Glasgow, and before returning Hughes borrowed £2 from Miss Stone. Shortly afterwards Hughes met his wife in Chesterfield and told her he had married another trirl.

Hughes, Mr. Jenkins added, was a man of violent temper. When seen by a police officer in Clav Cross- he remarked, "I know what yon want. I am going to get a, gun to-night and shoot them. 1 love liene and I am going to have her."

Superintendent Campbell of Alfreton, stated that Hughes appeared to be moody and while in custody attempted to commit suicide by swallowing a buckle off his waistcoat, his suspenders, and other small articles. Telling Hughes that his was "a bad case," Air. Justice Wrottesley sentenced him to six months' hard labour.