MILL GIRL'S ROMANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1919, Page 10

MILL GIRL'S ROMANCE.

SENTENCED FOR BIGAMY WITH VICE-CONSUL. The romance of a farm-laborer'a wife, who, after working as a mill-girl, became a nurse, fell in lovo with an American vioG-consul and went through a form of marriage with him while her husband was still alive, had a prosaic and almost tragic sequel at Bristol. Assizes, where the woman was sentenced to •twelve months' hard labor. Annie May Smart by name, she was 29 years of age, nml pleaded guilty to the charge of bigamy, She had married at 15 years of age, and had four children. Mr G. W. Barclay, who prosecuted, said that in August, 1915, her husband, who was a farm laborer, joined the army. In October, l!) 18, she met Robert Franklin Freer at the American Consul's office in Bristol, and she was married to him in January last in the name of Amy M. Brantford. In defence of the young woman's action, it was stated that she had suffered ill-treatment at the hands of her husband, and had left him. She went to Heywood and worked in a mill, and then took up Red Cross work, which brought her to Bristol, where she met the American vice-consul, Mr Freer, and nursed him during an illness. Then the temptation came and she married him. Mr Freer had been temporarily ordered back to America, but he had formed a sincere attachment for the prisoner, and was desirous of marrying her if, and when, she became a free woman. The judge, however, took a very stern view of the case. He said that at the present time all kinds of people seemed to commit bigamy with absolute indifference. He sentenced the woman to twelve months' hard labor. There were three other bigamy cases before the court, and sentences of one month, three months, and nine months' imprisonment were passed.