DENIAL OF IDENTITY

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 120, 23 April 1925, Page 9

DENIAL OF IDENTITY

ALLEGATION QF IN ENGLAND. P*r Frui Aiiociation. AUCKLAND, April 21. Tho case against John William Hope (aged 53) for default of £53 15s in respect of an order for maintenance of his wife in England, was continued 10-day in the Magistrate’s Court. The defence was a denial of identity. The maintenance officer said that accused nas sentenced to six months’ imprisonment last year for breach of an order obtained against one John William Ilopo ill England in 1921. Mr Sullivan (counsel for accused) said that Hope had been allegedly identified by a photograph from England. The Magistrate (Mr Boynton) said it was too late to raise th it question now. A year ago he was centenced, and the Court was then satisfied that he was tiie man mentioned in the order.

Accused entered the witness box. He said that ho was married at the Bolton Registry Office in July, 1923, and sailed for New Zealand the next month. lie had not been married before. Two months after arrival his wife received a letter from a sister in which a previous marriage was hinted at. A cablegram was sent denying that there had been a marriage in 1916. He assumed the name of Lane after discharge from Mt. Eden because of difficulty in obtaining employment. tie had always been aware of iiis likeness to the other man, Hope. The Magistrate: You ask the Court to believe that you two men, of tho same name nnd similar appearance and age, worked at the same place as electrical wiremen ; also that your fathers followed the identical occupation? The coincidence is too remarkable. Edith Alice Hope, the wife of accused, said that she did not know the man in an English photograph with a strange woman. , Two photographers gave evidence that they were of opinion that accused was not the man. The Magistrate said that there was so much public interest in the case that he would give a written judgment.