APPEAL COURT.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 September 1921, Page 7

APPEAL COURT.

A CASE OF BIGAMY. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Sept. 20. The Court of Appeal was occupied this morning in the consideration of an appeal by Allan Raymond George against a sentence of three years’ imprisonment for bigamy imposed on him at Wellington by Mr. Justice Salmond. The facts of the case were that prisoner had, in 1917, married a woman who, it was alleged, he afterwards discovered to be a prostitute. He then, in 1920, went through the form of marriage with another woman in Napier. Mr. Treadwell, for prisoner, contended that the circumstances of the second marriage were not such as to merit a severe sentence. The character of accused, he said, was not one that showed a settled criminal character. There was, in addition, be maintained, no epidemic of bigamy in New Zealand and therefore no justification for a severe sentence.

Mr. MacGregor, K.C., Solicitor-Gen-eral for the Crown, contended that the crime was one of the worst classes of bigamy. There was nothing in prisoner’s favor in the circumstances of the crime, nor in his character. Prisoner was, he said, one of the criminal class. He stated also that the crime of bigamy was at present very prevalent in New Zealand. The court reserved its decision.