SUPREME COURT.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 December 1925, Page 3

SUPREME COURT.

[UY TELEGRAPH—PER PRESS ASSOCIATION. INVERCARGILL CASES. INVERCARGILL. Dee. I. Al the Supreme Ciiurl Albert Edwards Collet, a married man with a family, lor an unnatural olfenee upon a hoy was sentenced in ten years hal'd labour. Ilis Honour said the offence was very serious and the maximum sentence was imprisonment for life. In eases where a Iki v was the victim, il nas usual to impose ten years. Albert Cyril Crofts, aged twenty, fur breaking, entering anil theft on Iwo charges was sentenced to two peals on each charge, the sentences (o he cumulative, the prisoner having a bad record. A HEARTLESS WO.AI AN. CHRISTCHURCH. December 1. " I think it is the first ease that has ever conic under my notice in which a woman has abandoned a seven and alialf months’ old baby,” slated .Mr Justice Adams in the Supreme Court, when hearing the petition in which Ronald Alnltlicw Thompson, plumber, sought a divorce from his wife. The petitioner stated that they had one child, and that his wife left him in February, 1922. They got on well up to that time. About the time of her leaving there had been trouble between them, which the petitioner pul down tu his wife's had temper. Ilis Honour: Were there sparks living on both sides? Air Thomas: The wife brought him before the Court in February, hut she was advised to go back to him. The petitioner: Vrs ; and, after leaving the Court, when crossing Armagh Street bridge, she turned round and said, "Aon can have baby!” I have never seen her since. “ Astounding,” said his Honour. " It seems as if a mother can lorget her first-born child.” A decree was granted, his Honour stating that the petitioner had legal custody of the child.