CHARGES OF BIGAMY. CONVICTIONS AT SYDNEY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 368, 15 May 1889, Page 4

CHARGES OF BIGAMY. CONVICTIONS AT SYDNEY.

I Our Sydney exchanges contain particulars of the trial of Harriet Corston and William Gieen Hibble, on the charges of bigamy and of being an accessory to bigamy respectively. - In the case of Mrs Corston, the accused in her statement to the jury, said that until she saw Corston in the Court she believed him to be dead. She had made every search her limited means would permit, and she had the additional assurance of Hibble that her husband was dead. Her statement was supported by the testimony of her son and daughter and other witnesses. The Judge, in summing up, directed the jury that they must find accused g'lilty of having contracted a bigamous marriage, and pointed out that the real question they had to decide was whether or not the accused believed her husband dead at the time she went through the marriage ceremony with Hibble. After a brief deliberation the jui-y found theaccused legally guilty of bigamy, at the same time recommending her to mercy on the ground that they believed she had been deceived as to the death of her husband. The verdict was received with signs of appioval in Court, which were immediately suppressed. His Honor considered that the merits of the case would be met by the slight sentence of imprisonment till the rising of the Court. — William Green Hibble, J.P., was found guilty of the charge of being an accessory. His Honor, in passing sentence, said he had no wish to impugn in any way the verdict of the jury in Mrs Cor&bon's case, bub he could not , get rid of his belief that she must have known something of what had happened. He was bound to take this into consideration in sentencing the accused. He imposed, therefore, the lowest punishment allowed by the Criminal Law Amendment Act — namely, 12 months' imprisonment with hard labour. Mr Wallace," on behalf of the accused, asked that the hard labour might bo remitted on the ground that he was too iil to perform it. His Honor said the goal authorities would attend to that. • He would give leave to petition in che event of any new facts coming to light.

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