CHARGE OF BIGAMY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17064, 17 August 1917, Page 7

CHARGE OF BIGAMY.

A RETURNED SOLDIER'S EX-

PEKIKNCE

ACCUSED REMANDED FOR

SENTENCE.

A charge of bigamy came before Mr. Justice Hosking in the Supreme Court at Wellington on Wednesday, in which the defendant was Charles Thomas Luxon a man of thirty years cf age. Mr V. R. Meredith appeared for the Crown, and Mr H. H. Cornish for the defence.

It wa« alleged for the Crown that Luxon was married in July, 1916, to Lilian Thompson, a widow, in Wellington, and the following year he went through th© form of marriage with Amy Lydia May Barker. On his arrest he said h© had heard that his first wife was already a married woman. Th& accused, giving evidence, stated that one day he was at the Returned Soldiers' Club with several men who had advertised with the object of meet* ing ladies with a view to matrimony. One of hie companions passed osesr to him a letter which he answered, and that iras how he got' to know Lilian Thompson. He met her by appointment and a month afterwards they got married. One night when he wettl home h© found a note on the table, and found that his wife had son© away with all available funds. Then he got letterß rrom her, offering to come hack, which she eventually did. Her age was a matter of ancertainty. She had first of all said she was 37, and afterwards conJessed to 47. Finding that he had been deceived in this matter, he was led to the conclusion that the woman was really not his wife. She left him again, and when he found her in another man's company she said she could please herself as to what she did. Witness afterwards met Miss Barker and married her. He had been led to believe three times by Lilian Thompson that sne was not his wife. His Honour: Did you ask her why «hes aid she was not your wife? Accused: I did not get a chance to ask her. She told me at Featherston. that she was already a married woman. Mr Cornish: You asked her about ncr former husband, and got no satisfaction?

Accused: I got no satisfaction. His Honour, in summing up, said the circumstances of the case showed that the two marriages had been entered into in a very careless fashion. The prisoner was represented to be lacking m normal judgment, but it would never do "to offer a premium to imbeciles to commit bigamy." Th© jury returned a verdict of guilty, and the prisoner was remanded until Saturday for sentence.