Jilted wife awarded £300

Miss Minne Maud Junk, a boarding house keeper from Dungannon was engaged to marry Thomas Ross Bell, a dentist from the same town, in May this year. The engagement was well received by Miss Junk’s family, as they believed that Mr Bell was a solid and respectable man with a good profession. The wedding was fixed for 29 September at the Presbyterian Church in Portstewart. On the morning of the wedding Mr Bell left the hotel where he was staying shortly before the wedding was due to take place, and stated he ‘was going for a walk’. In the event he boarded a train to Coleraine. Since that date he has only contacted his intended bride once when he sent her a telegram asking her to forward on his bag of dentistry tools.

Today in court, Mr Justice Molony awarded Miss Junk £300 in damages for a breach of a promise to marry, and acknowledged that Mr Bell’s actions had made her a public laughing stock.