BIGAMIST PLEADS GUILTY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3772, 27 March 1928, Page 2

BIGAMIST PLEADS GUILTY.

BUT SAYS CONSCIENCE IS CLEAR.

Blenheim, Last Night. Pleas of guilty on both charges were entered by Albert Beard, alias Harry Carr, aged 31 years, charged with having committed bigamy by going through a form of marriage at Tuamarina on January 26 last, when he was a person already married, and having made a false declaration to the Registrar of Marriages at Blenheim on January 23, when, for the purpose of obtaining a marriage certificate he described himself as a bachelor when he was in fact a married man. The prosecution stated that both charges arose out of the same set of circumstances. In February, 1925, the accused married m Miss Bilderbeek, at Dannevirke. They lived together for three months and there was one child of the marriage. He was then known as'Harry Carr. The accused came under the notice of the police in Blenheim in January last wh.en he went through a form of marriage at Tuamarina, this time under the m®e of Albert Beard, the second “wife” having died in hospital on 15th inst. after miscarriage. The police evidence was to the effect that accused after his arrest said his second wife was of a very excitable nature, which'would lead to her 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 I thought that I was doing the right thing and even now my own conscience doesn’t tell me I am guilty of doing wrong. That’s all I have to say.” Accused formally pleaded guilty to both charges and was to the Supreme Court at Wellington for sentence.