FIRST LOVE

NZ Truth, Issue 1207, 17 January 1929, Page 7

FIRST LOVE

— ¥— "■ Return To Former Husband FICKLE^WOMAN (From "N.Z. Truth's" Melbourne Rep.) One of the most sensational incidents m Melbourne crime waa recalled by a divorce case just disposed of by the Chief Justice .(Sir William Irvine), when John Francis Doherty divorced Julia Christina Doherty, for misconduct with George M«cPherson Baker. MRS. DOHERTY was formerly mann ried to Baker and obtained a divorce from him m February, 1924, on the ground of desertion and cruelty. At that time Baker was m gaol serving five years for manslaughter. He had been living apart from his wife, and on the last day of the year he entered her house at Brighton, shot dead Joseph Rainsbury, a bookmaker who was boarding there, and wounded his wife m the head. Doherty, m ' his evidence m the Divorce Court, said that m. 1927 his wife told him she had met Baker accidentally on his release from gaol. He remonstrated with her, but she retorted that Baker was a better man than he was, and that she had only married him for convenience while Baker was m gaol!