A BIGAMOUS COUPLE

Shannon News, 5 October 1926, Page 3

A BIGAMOUS COUPLE

“BIT OF A MESS OF THINGS.”

Before the Common Serjeant, Sir Henry Dickens, at the Old Bailey, lately, Walter Henry Hayes, aged 47, a labourer, and his wife, Louisa Emily Hayes, aged 45, pleaded guilty to contrasting bigamous marriages. Counsel stated that the parties -were married in 1899 and parted in 1906. During 1914 they saw each other on one occasion, but there was no reconciliation. In 1919 Mrs. Hayes went through a form of marriage with a widower, named Frederic Newmeir, and during the same year her husband ••wedded” a woman named Elizabeth Pegram. In June last both the accused surrendered to the police and admitted having committed bigamy. The woman, R seemed, had been very unfortunate in her association ;wit,h NcAvmeir, and she al'leged that he had treated her very cruelly , The man, on the other hand had lived happily with his second “wife.” ■ The Common Serjeant: Well, I do not think 1 would have gone to the police if I had been the man. (laughter.) : . . Addressing- the accused. Sir Henry Dickens said they seemed to have made a bit of a mess of things. Undoubtedly they were both fools,, but it happened some years ago, and he would only sentence them to one day’s imprisonment, which meant that they would be released at once.

The couple thanked Sir Heniy warmly and left the court smiling.