BIGAMY CHARGE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 49, Issue 14878, 16 March 1923, Page 5

BIGAMY CHARGE.

A PATHETIC CASE. A pathetic story of illness and unhappiness was unfolded in the Wellington Supreme Court yesterday, when Margaret Josephine Winders came before Mr Justice Chapman for sentence on a charge of bigamy. Mr 0. C. Mazengarb. who appeared for the prisoner, said that she was married in June, 1907. She had been treated anything but well by her husband, who taunted her with her ill-health, and suggested that the marriage was invalid, as he was already married in the Islands. Her husband had left for the Islands and had been absent for the greater part of a year, having left her nothing. She had then turned to the man by whom she already had a child. The suggestion of marriage with him had come from the man, and not from her. Almost destitute, she was convicted and discharged on a charge of theft before she went to Wanganui to marry him. She had known she was doing wrong, but she had not appreciated the magnitude of the offence she had committed. Though she had met with such a series of misfortunes, she was far from being an adventuress, but was known to be a hard-working woman. The man was in Court and was prepared to stand by her and the child, and to marry her if she got her freedom. His Honour: How is she to get her freedom?

Mr Mazengarb: The man has left her 12 months without money, and has gone to the Islands, where he said he was already married. Both she and the man with whom she committed bigamy are devoted to the child. It was difficult to say what should be done in such a case, added counsel, but he asked that imprisonment be not inflicted, as the shock might prove disastrous to- one in such weakened health.

His Honour: I cannot hand her over to the man at Wanganui. Mr Mazengarb: She must have financial help for both herself and the child. A'll her relatives and friends are in England, and she has no one to turn to His Honour said he could not consider the case as one for probation, and inflicted a sentence of one month’s imprisonment, remarking that the prisoner would be woll looked after. The prisoner collapsed on hearing the sentence and had to be carried out.