AN ATTEMPT TO RUIN HER HUSBAND

NZ Truth, Issue 1193, 11 October 1928, Page 3

AN ATTEMPT TO RUIN HER HUSBAND

Vindictive Eva Russell Shows Passion and Heat In A Suit For Separation "YOU ARE EATEN UP WIThIeAWUSY," SAYS COUNSEL

OUSSKLIi, a dlsiX abled soldier on a pension, was emphatlo that things bad become so intolerable that he would not dream of returning to Eva. He oo n eidered that he was doing enou g h towards her support by giving her a goodly

(portion of .his pension, paying 1 her rent, and also settling occasional acoounts. And with Alf.'B contention Magistrate Lawry agreed when Eva brought an action m the Christchurch maintenance court last week for separation, maintenance and guardianship orders on the grounds of failure to maintain and persistent cruelty. • Eva, though able to engage a private detective to watch her husband, said she could not afford the expense of engaging counsel, and she conducted her own case. \ ■ Ever since her Alfred Ernest had returned from the war he had treated her unkindly, she said, and his most violent moods were when she reproached him for his associations with other women. : Only recently he had oracked her across the head, made her nose bleed, and bruised her all over the body because she had dared to accuse him of infidelity m connection with "the girl he la going about with at present." Apparently Alf. realized that he was not the master of his own "crow" and left Eva to it, for he had not been home since. Since June, Alf. had sent £4 to her, and m addition to this she received £8 18s. 4d. a month by way of pension. A totally different complexion was given the case when Lawyer R. A. Cuthbert rose to cross-examine Eva. He confined himself mainly, towards her attitude to her husband and extracted an admission from the woman that though she had been as liberally provided for as " Alf. could afford, she resented his present mode of living. . Lawyer Cuthbert: For two years you have not been getting on very well together — m fact, you have made life as miserable for him as you possibly can? Eva's Resentment _-_■___——————————— To thiß statement, Eva offered a stout denial. She said she had at first declined to listen to his suggestion that they should separate and he would maintain her on the grounds that she believed a husband's place Was at home. Now, however, she did not want him back, as she resented the way he was living as a single man at Fairlie and carrying on with the daughter m the house where he was boarding. * Counsel: You get £8 13s. 4d. a month and he gets £14 Is. Bd., and he has paid your rent of £1 a week for your house •m Colenso Street, Sumner, for the paa,t year? — Quite so. And he has sent you money each time you have asked for it? — I have only asked for it when I needed it. He only started to pay a few bills when he heard this case was coming on ,and was afraid - that certain disclosures would be made about him and the way he has been carrying on with another woman. An argument then developed between counsel and the woman as to What amount Alf. had paid her since they had separated. It was learned that approximately 10/- a week, m addition to the rent, had been parted up by Alf. More fuel was added to the fire by a statement from Eva, to the effect that her pension had been stopped for a while because of Alf.'s conduct. She admitted, however, that m the last three months Alf. had paid accounts of hers amounting to £11, m addition to keeping up the rent payments. ■■ . , An attempted reconciliation, m which Alf. was temporarily saved by the Salvation Army, but apparently did a hurried backslide, was then described by Eva, who effected a dramatlo climax by bursting into tears. "He came home when the summons was Issued," she said, "and tried to ooax me over as he was afraid things might come out. '

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Christchuroh Representative.)

Was it with a spirit of out and out vindtctheness that Eva Grace Gertrude Russell dragged her husband into the maintenance court m Christchurch? Was she so stirred up with jealousy that she wished to break her husband and strand him on the rocfe of penury ? Eva went so far as to intimate to the court that she had 'attempted financially to injure her husband m order to ma\e him less able to support her, because she resented the manner of his living after he had left his home m Sumner. Well, some women are really hard to please.

"I eventually decided to do bo. but was so 111 that I had to go to bed. "He went out and stayed at the People's Palaca for the night. Then he oame home again and said , the Salvation Army captain ' had saved him, and told him that his place was at home with his wife and family." Eva broke down under the strain,' and with great emotion told the. court that after Boftening her heart towards him and taking him back into the fold, her only thanks was the admission from Alf. that she was a — *— melon, for all her friends were laughing at her for doing It. Lawyer Cuthbert: In your first application to the court you mentioned nothing about cruelty, yet it Is m your petition to-day. Why did you not ■iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiitiiMiiiiiiiiiiiin

ttiiimiiiimmiimmiiiiiiimiimiiiiimiiiiiiiimiimimiiiim iiiiimiiHiiiiminn mention it before ?—I relied upon it being brought out m evidence. Well, give us some instances or tne cruelty you allege. Eva replied that it had become an every-day occurrence.. Every time he was home he had struck her.. But m her attempt to deal the legal body blows to Alf., EvasUd not get away herself unscathed, £ttd she was spared nothing •by Lawyer Outhbert m his effort to show her up as a ruthless woman, anxious, to damage her husband and injure his means of suocour and livelihood. Counsel reminded BJva of an incident shortly before the attempted reconciliation In March or April, when ahe reported Alf. to the Oddfellows' Lo4s« for his conduct. The substance of the , matter wai merely a little gossip between Hva, and a lady friend of hers.

[ She thought she was justified m conMing with her friend m her hours of trouble, but the friend, rather significantly, was the wife of a Past Qrand Master of the lodge. The sum total of the friendly talk, however, was that inquiries were made and Alf. was expelled from the lodge, thereby forfeiting all benefits for either himself or his family. "purely with the idea of hurting him, you complained ' and deprived him of these benefits," commented JJawyer Cuthbert. S.M.: You realize now that you have made him less able to support you.] He has not as much money now? "He has money to go to the races and take other girls about," Eva hurled back indignantly at the bench. Lawyer Cuthbert: Though you are

luiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiMiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiif being adequately maintained, you resent him living away from you, and you are prepared to cruel him and deprive him of hia resources so that ne can live nowhere but at home? — I won't have him at home now m consequence of what I know about him. Up till this Btage m the hearing, three young women sitting m the back of the court,, had taken little apparent interest In the proceedings. But as the home truths were extraoted slowly, but surely and painfully, like back teeth, they evlnoed a lively Interest m every exchange between the woman In the box and the defending counsel. A tew muffled chuckles wafted up from the trio when Lawyer Cuthbert, taxing Mrß. Russell with saying a number of unpleasant things about her husband and his friends, handed up a

letter written by the complainant to the man In whose house Alf. has been boarding m Patella. Prior to the mag* istrate reading It. counsel mentioned that it made some malicious aUegatio n a concerning Russell and the daughter of the

house In Fairlle, and the whole letter was a, tissue of mis-statements and lies. Counsel: Who is the detective you mention on page 1? Eva (after some hesitation which caused a direction from the benoh to answer the question): A man named J. Hepburn. How much do you pay him? — I have paid him 10/- a week for eight weeks. Yet you have the impudence to come here and say he has failed to maintain you, while you go and spend money on private detectives to watch him? — I could hardly afford it. That is why I have no solicitor' to-day. As if to give a further line on the casual manner m which Eva regarded her husband, counsel put m two telegrams. The one, described by counsel as a thoroughly decent and honest communication, was from Alf. at Fairlie to his wife. It read as follows: Will not he coming till morning train. Arrangements more suitable and some of my things not ready. Hoping you are better.— Alf. To this, Eva replied: Thanks for Joke. Don't disappoint your friends, only your wife and children. Eva (cuttingly): Oh, he wanted to stay and go with his girl to the pictures for the last time. The magistrate, having completed reading the letter: This seems to be only your imagination. There 1$ nothing here about pictures. Eva (with stirring passion and heat): He was at the pictures with the whole family of them, and they showed that they were guilty m sneaking out of one door of the theatre, leaving him to face me alone. Lawyer Cuthbert (aside): Anyone seeing you come m one door would naturally go out of the other. Nothing To Wear Counsel: I suggest to you, Mrs. Bussell, that you are eaten up with hatred and jealousy? — Possibly, but I have had just, cause. S.M.: How much more do you think he should have given to you. He seems to have done ac much as he possibly can?~l don't know. He can go to races and take other women about. S.M.: Do you know how much he spends on races and on other women? —No. S.M.: Well, don't talk about things you know nothing of. If ha offered to take you to the races would you go? This was a bitter shaft for Eva, who proceeded to unload a complaint about Alf. refusing to take her into the enclosure because she had no clothes to wear. . In response to the magistrate's query, Eva said she thought Alf. should provide at least 16/- a week towards her support. .She was at a loss, however, to suggest anything further when the court told her that*she was now getting £1 a week for rent and that if an order was made Alf. would have to pay no rent. Lawyer Cuthbert pointed out to the court that Alf. had been doing more voluntarily than the court would make him. Eva had made things absolute-, ly intolerable at home and Alf. was determined that he would not live with her again. . The magistrate deollned to make an order, and Eva stepped down from . the box with a dejected and disappointed look, which developed to one of anger as she shot a swift glance ot Alf,, reclining comfortably beside his counsel. Mrs. Russell joined the trio Of friends, and as a parting shot she hurled some Inaudible remarks at Lawyer Cuthbert and left the courtroom.