PRISON WARDER’S UNHAPPY BRIDE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 170, 8 October 1927, Page 12

PRISON WARDER’S UNHAPPY BRIDE

SUES FOR SEPARATION ALLEGED THREAT TO SHOOT “If I see you outside the prison walls I will shoot you.” This threat was alleged to have been made by Warder Robert Alexander Hemming, of Mount Eden Gaol, to his young wife, Eva Elizabeth Lemming. The two were married in November 1925, when she was a hospital nurse. They separated after a few months, but came together again for 7J months, separating again last March. In the Magistrate's Court yesterday, before Mr. E. Page, S.M., Mrs. Lemming petitioned for separation and maintenance from her husband. She alleged cruelty and failure to maintain. Mr. R. E. N. Matthews appeared for the complainant and Mr. J. F. W. Dickson for Lemming. Giving evidence the wife alleged that her husband had “thumped and struck her and taken her by the throat until she was black with bruises." He had threatened to shoot her if she ran away from where they were boarding.

“Did you ever try to hang yourpresence of the chief warder?” asked Mr. Dickson, “and didn’t you scratch his face?” She admitted both. “Did you eevr try to hang your-

self?” questioned counsel, referring to marks once on the girl’s throat. “I remember my husband trying to strangle me,” she murmured. Mrs. Lemming’s mother went into the witness box. “Her husband has a dashed bad temper." she informed the court. “Has your daughter not a dashed bad temper, too?” inquired Mr. Dickson. “Oh, no, no,” said Airs. Smith; “a little temper, but she only sulks.” After the lunch adjournment counsel informed the court that a settlement had been reached. The magistrate adjourned the case for a week.