A BIGAMIST

Hokitika Guardian, 27 March 1928, Page 2

A BIGAMIST

(By Telegraph -Per Press Association.) BRKNHKIM, .March 2G. pleas of ‘‘Guilty” on both charges were entered by Albert Heard, alias Harry Carr, aged 31, charged with having committed bigamy, by going through a form of marriage at I unmai'ina. on January SJGIh. last, when lie was a person already married, and with having made a. false declaration to the Registrar of Marriages at Blenheim on January 23rd. when, lor the purpose of obtaining a. marriage certificate, he described himself as a bachelor, when he was in fact a married uuiil. The prosecution stated that both charges arose out ol the same' set of circumstances. In February. 1025. the accused married a .Miss Rilderbeck at Daiinevirke. They lived together for three months, and there was one child of tile marriage. He was then known ‘as Harry Carl’. The accused came under the notice of the police in Blenheim in January last, when he went through a form of marriage at Tanmarina. this time under the name of Albert Beard, the second “wife” having died in the hospital, on the loth, j nst. after a miscarriage. The police evidence was to the effect that the accused, after his arrest, said his second wife was of a very excitable nature, which would lead her to committing suicide if he did not marry her. He decided he had better marry her to save her life. The accused elected to give evidence. He said: “I plead guilty to the charge of bigamy under the circumstances. At the time I got married T thought that 1 was doing the light thing and even now my own conscience doesn’t tell me I am guilty of doing wrong. That’s all I have to say.” The accused formally pleaded guilty to both charges and was committed to the Supreme Court at Wellington for sentence.