BIGAMY CHARGE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 32, 2 November 1942, Page 6

BIGAMY CHARGE

>Army “Marriage” In Middle East

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, October 31. The trial of a New Zealand Army officer who was alleged to have married a sister of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service in Egypt while his wife was still alive in Auckland, was held when Lieutenant Joseph William Godfrey, Second N.Z.E.F., aged 35, faced a general court-martial on a charge of bigamy. He pleaded not guilty. The defence did not question Ute jurisdiction of the Court to deal with Godfrey. Colonel Leary, who prosecuted, stated that he could not be tried by the civil Courts in New Zealand, because the alleged offence. had not been committed in the Dominion, but he could be tried by a general courtmartial by virtue of the fact that soldiers on service were subject to the provisions of the English Army Act. Evidence showed that Godfrey married at Auckland in 1930. He went to the Middle East in 1941, and there met a nurse and was married to her. For the defence it was submitted that the action must fail because the Foreign Marriages Act stated that a marriage in the circumstances of this case must be solemnized by an officer, under command of the commanding officer of the British forces abroad, and there was no proof that the marriage was solemnized by such an officer. Further, other requirements of the Foreign Marriages Act had not been complied with and the marriage was thus not valid. The prosecuting officer _ contended that the marriage was valid. The finding of the Court will be promulgated.