BIGAMIST GAOLED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 30, 19 February 1937, Page 3

BIGAMIST GAOLED

■Prass Aasoclation.)

Lapse of Time Lessens Grayity 1 1-YEAR-OLD CRIME .

(By Telenrrapb—

j WELLINGTON, Last Night. • "If this case had como , before the Court shortly after the offence was committed it would have been treatedj as a very bad case of bigamy, becausri of the callous manner in which -you leftj your .wife and, children,' 1 said the Chief' Justice (Sir Michael Myers) -in the? Supreme Court to-day before sehtenclng] WRliam Arnold Sinclair, a labodrer* ^aged 41, to six months' hard labpur for bigamy committed eleven yeaTs ago.. . Had the prisoner been brought before, ' ^the Court soon after his offence,- said his Honour, there would have been a .'substantial sentence imposed. Although . the offence did not loom so larg'e 'after eleven years, !t was nevertheless neces-; sary to consider the' case, from the' poiht of view of the - manner in which it w&sdisposed of, acting as deterrent to .other - persons who might be minded to commit • similar offences, Probation was.out of. the question. Mr P. Keesing, who appeared for the prisoner, said Sinclair h^d led 'a very unhappy life with his' real wife. He left her eleven years ago to seek wo'rk in Wellington and boarded with the parents of the woman with whom- -he 'went through a form of m&rriage. He committed the offence about five months after leaving his wife. He had' been extremely happy with his second "wife" and had three children. . . Woman Admits Bigamy. . Remarking that ;t was not often that probation was granted in cases Of bigamy, the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers), in the Supreme Court' to-day,--released on two years ' probation . Mary Isabella'Christina Laloli, a domestic, aged 34, who admitted committing bigamy. The prisouer, he said, would " appear to have had a very • hard • life, . and after reading the r'eport of ,the pro' bation officcr he did. not .think any .good I cbuld be served . by sending her to prison. ' Mr F. J. Foot, who appeared for the prisoner, said her husband, had been addicted to drink, and tliey had parted several years ago. Had she kr.?/Wn of the metliod of obtaining a divorce ' cheaply as a pauper her freedoni wouid . . have been easy to secure. She.ha.d worked as a waitress and a housekeeper, and had had the burden of supportingherself when she had not been in good health. The proposal which liad resulted in the bigamous' liiarriage had bcbn made some twelve riiouths ago. -