DECREE RESCINDED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18992, 17 April 1936, Page 13

DECREE RESCINDED

PROCTOR'S INTERVENTION 'ONE OF WORST CASES" LONDON, Feb. 27. A decree nisi granted ill Nottingham Assizes in November. 1934, to Mrs. Mary Alice Baxter K'eogli was rescinded by .Sir P.oyd Alerriman, the president, in the Divorce Court yesterday. sir Boyd Mcrrinian said: "This case is in some respects one of the worst that I have had brought before me by the King's Proctor." Mrs. Keogh's address was given as Langhill Farm, Sudhorougb, near Kettering. The decree nisi hint been granted on the ground of the bigamy and adultery of her husband, Thomas Conlite iveogh, a platelayer, now living at Mansfield, the petition not- being defended. The King's Proctor alleged that .Mrs. Keogll had not only been living in adultcry for many years with a man named William John Short, but that she presented an entirely false case to the court, giving a false address and staling she was' a domestic servant employed by a Mrs. Crosland at Denton, near Grantham. ALLEGATIONS ADMITTED Mrs. Iveogh admitted the allegations and pleaded for the discretion of the court. Her story was that when slit brought her proceedings she acted in ignorance in making the false statements, and to shield Short she did not disclose her own adultery. Mrs. Crosland was • her sister.

Sir lloyd Merriman, giving judgment, said the case showed the wisdom ol Having a public official whose duty it was to investigate these matters, lie added : "Speaking generally, (he necessity for the petitioner proving her own case and not wholly giving it in answer to leading questions by counsel is fairly widely recognised.

"On this particular occasion there was not one single item of the petitioner's evidence which was not put into her mouth by counsel who appeared for her, and she answered with 'Yes' or 'No.' That is not the way in which to conduct divorce proceedings.

"By what must ha-, e bun some extraordinary chance the King's Proctor discovered the real facts and intervened with the answer which sets out the whole store''

The President' said the husband had appealed to him to allow the decree to stand in the interests of the woman with whom he had been living, ami by whom lie had a family. He knew nothing about what his wife was doing.

The petition would be kept alive, and be gave the husband leave to file an answer, in (lie course of which he could make a cross-prayer for divorce. Mrs. Keogh was condemned in the King's Proctor's costs.