A Judge Sentenced to Im prlsonment for Life.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 242, 18 February 1888, Page 8 (Supplement)

A Judge Sentenced to Im prlsonment for Life.

On the Stji of September last (says the Paris Correspondent of the " Times ")M. Delgove, aged fifty, a juge de paix, of Pont Sainte Maxenca, about nine o'clock at night went to the house of M* Potoncier, a processserver with whom he was on friendly terms. Mdme. Potencier was in the house alone, and was on the point of taking a large sum of money to a place of safety in her bedroom. She tried to conceal the bank-notes and silver, but they were seen by Delgove. It was not till after ten o'clock that he left. M. Potenoier came home about half-past eleven, and entered his house by a garden door which led into a dark passage. While he was walking through the passage he was attacked by a man who sprang upon him and struck him a violent blow with a heavy instrument, which cut his clothes and bruised him severely on the left shoulder. A fight followed, the noise of which awoke a clerk living in the house, who fired a rovolver. The report brought the neighbours to the spot. Delgove escaped, but was recognised. The weapon irhich he used was found to be a heavy chopper belonging to Potencier. Delgove returned to his nouse, took a portmanteau, and started by a goods train for Creil. He was seen in it, and a telegram was sent ordering the railway officials to stop him, which was done when he had got into a train about to start for Beauvais. It had been found that the boll of the garden door had beon tied with a shred torn from a pocket-handkerchief, and on Delgove when arrested a pockethandkerchief was found from which a strip had been torn. In defence Delgove asserted that ho had long been a lover of Mdme. Potencier, In the course of his trial he said that" he had been with her on the night in question, and had met her husband in the kitchen, who rushed on him, with a poker, and a fight took place. Evidence was given to prove that no improper intimacy had ever existed between the accused and Mdme. Potencier, a woman of twentysix or twenty-eight. She swore that all his assertions wore abominable lies. The blood in the passage proved that the fight took place there, and notin the kitchen, as stated by the accused. It waa shown that he had debts amounting to 16,000fr. He owed M. Potencior 880fr. He had a small property, but its value was only B,Boofr. He had boon pressed for money by a midwife in Paris, who had an account against him for attendance on a young woman whom he had seduced. Another creditor, from whom he had obtained a sum of 600fr. on false pretences, was demanding payment. Before being appointed a juge de paix, Delgove had been & farmer for twenty-two years. He had received a new appointment as a juge de paix at Villiers Bocage ; but ho had not the means of paying for the removal of his furniture. He knew that on the sth of September M. Potencier had received a large sum, and the general belief is that his object in getting into the house was to steal the money. He was found guilty by the jury, and condemned to imprisonment with hard labour for life.