RUNAWAY MARRIAGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 714, 13 July 1929, Page 7

RUNAWAY MARRIAGE

bridegroom thrashed IRATE FATHER'S REPRISAL Percival Douglas Reeves, aged 38, manager o£ a Newmarket cinema, was charged at Cambridge, England, recently. with making a false declaration to the registrar of marriages concerning the age of Eclua May Mercer, only daughter of Mr. S. Mercer, trainer of racehorses, and Mrs. Mercer, of Red House, Newmarket. The charge was that Reeves declared that Miss Mercer was 21, whereas she was IS last December and therefore required her parents’ consent to her marriage, which had been refused. A licence was issued and the couple were married. Mrs. Mercer said that her daughter worked at the cinema where Reeves was mauager. He said to her (Mrs. Mercer): “My directors wish me to get married.” She asked, “Who is the person?” and he replied, “Your daughter. One of my directors think I may as well get married and says it is only a question of 24 hours.” She asked him: “Do you think you are taking out a dog licence?” and said the consent of her husband and herself would not be given. The girl was taken from her employment at the cinema and was forbidden to speak to Reeves, who was ordered not to communicate with her. On May 9 Mrs. Mercer missed her daughter from the house and drove after her and Reeves to Cambridge. When she returned she received a telegram telling her that her daughter was married. She went to the house of Reeves at Ashley, near Newmarket, and asked her daughter to return home. The girl refused and Reeves smacked her (Mrs., Mercer’s) face and said: “What I want I have, and I have taken your daughter and mean to keep her.” Mr. Reeves said he was so angry when he heard of the marriage that he gave Reeves a thorough good thrashing. He had idolised his daughter and lived for her. The Bench convicted Reeves of perjury and finked him £2O and £2l costs. The prosecuting solicitor said that as fraud had been proved in obtaining the licence, the father of the girl could, if he chose, go to a higher court and obtain annulment of the jnarriage.