BIGAMY CHARGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17410, 12 December 1924, Page 9

BIGAMY CHARGE.

MAN GOES FOR TRIAL. William Robert Cooke, aged twentyseven. appeared at the Magistrate’s Court to-day on a charge of bigamy. He was further charged with having made a false declaration to the Registrar for the purpose of obtainin'- .a marriago certificate. Air Hunter appeared for accused. Sergeant J. R. M'Holm, clerk of the Magistrate’s Court at Lyttelton, stated that the accused was before the Court there on Nveomber 14, 1923, when he applied for a variation in a maintenance order made in favour of his wife in England. The variation was made, and Cooke, on oath, stated that he had married Margaret Mary Greenfield, Exeter, England. Detective Sergeant Connolly said that when the accused had the. warrant read over to him he replied: “ I thought when a person was separated from his wife for three years he had a right to get married again.” Albert Leslie, deputy-registrar of Births, Deaths and Slarriages, at Lyttelton, said that Cooke had applied to him for a marriage license. Christopher David Thompson, a wharf-labourer living in London Street. Lyttelton, stated that the accused mar, ried Elizabeth Norton at his house on October 7, the ceremony bein" performed by a Salvation Army captain. The accused pleaded not guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial.