HUSBAND DENOUNCED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23689, 22 December 1938, Page 5

HUSBAND DENOUNCED

MEAN-SOULED AND SPITEFUL COURTSHIP ON PROBATION CFrqjw Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, Nov. 25. A husband was described by Mr Justice Langton, in the Divorce Court yesterday, as " mean-souled," " spiteful," and "possessed of a fantastic imagination." The judge also commented on a pre-marriage document dealing with a " courtship on probation." The judge granted a decree nisi of divorce to Mrs Mabel Annie Margaret Davies, of Crown street, Moriston. Swansea, who accused her husband, David Ellis Davies, of cruelty. Alternatively, she had asked for a decree of nullity, alleging that he had wilfully refused to consummate the marriage. The husband denied cruelty and pleaded, alternatively, that his wife had condoned it by living with him He charged her with cruelty towards him and denied that he had refused to consummate the marriage, alleging that his wife had refused. Mr and Mrs Davies were married in March, 1934, at Swansea. The case for Mrs Davies was that her husband assaulted her, and she left him in May, 1934. A separation agreement was entered into on September 18 of that year. Giving judgment, Mr Justice Langton said that Mr Davies, in answer to evidence by impartial witnesses, had alleged that this was all a tissue of lies and that he was a victim of conspiracy . between a Mr and Mrs Lawrence, neighbours of his. His lordship was perfectly sure there was no plot at all. Mr Davies had written a number of letters to his wife which were a disgrace to any man. "They have no reason in them, and I am sure they have no truth in them." said the judge. "They constitute a mere farrago of rubbish. "MISERABLE SHOW "The uncontrolled fury with which he flings charges about, without any evidence at all to substantiate them, against all and sundry, shows that he is mean, spiteful, vindictive, and very malacious. " I regard his conduct as really beyond excuse. He is a school teacher and a religious teacher, and with all these advantages he seems to me to have made a miserable show." During the period of courtship Mr Davies received, as he said, the following certificate from his fiancee: " This is to certify that my fiance and I resume our courtship on probation as a disengaged couple from the beginning of April, 1932, and that my retention of the engagement ring is by no means an indication that I am engaged until I receive some other definite evidence from him to this effect." It was not surprising, remarked Mr Justice Langton, that Mrs Davies said she did not write this of her own accord. It was not easy to imagine that any man would have been so mean-souled as to ask the girl to whom he was engaged to sign such a document. " I am satisfied," said the judge, " that he concooted this document so that he might have something in his favour in case he wanted to break off the engagement. I think that is an excellent indication of Mr Davies's character. After he had been separated from his wife, Mr Davies persuaded her to write a letter expressing sorrow for what she had said and done. It was clear there was nothing genuine in his mind when he suggested to the wife that she should resume married life. "MEAN MANOEUVRES" "It is again a manoeuvre —one of that class of really mean manoeuvres 1 of which Mr Davies seems to be a master," the judge added. "He hoped to manoeuvre her into a position in which he would be able to get some financial advantage. " The correspondence shows that he is possessed of a most fantastic imagination. He apparently goes about the world under the impression that people are plotting against him. He uses his pen to slander' other people; he should be warned that this is a dangerous method of procedure." Because of some freakish imagination of his own, Mr Davies had utterly refused to consummate the marriage Upon that decree alone Mrs Davies was entitled to a decree of nullity. As to the cruelty, Mr Justice Langton observed: " I believe this man did kick his wife and injured her shins. I find that this lady left her husband and never went back to him after he was cruel to her."