CRUEL LETTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 193, 15 August 1936, Page 4

CRUEL LETTER.

JUDGE'S STRICTURES.

AGED WOMAN MENACED. BLACKMAIL ATTEMPT FAILS. "You wrote a letter which not only contained a cruel and untrue accusation, but you wrote it in circumstance which rendered it an especially brutal act.'" With a frown', Mr. Justice Hilberv, at Maidstone Assizes, addressed these remarks to a slightly-built, dark-liaired, clean-shaven young man, Leonard Ward Davies, 27, manservant, who in a faint voice, pleaded guilty to having uttered a letter demanding money with menaces from a 70-year-old widow —refevicd to as "Mrs. X."—who lives at Heine Bay. "The woman to whom you wrote, continued the judge, "was elderly and had been recently bereaved. The threat contained in the letter might well have made the most serious results 011 her. That letter at her age might have unhinged her mind, and you will go to prison for twelve months." The circumstances in which the offence came to be committed were outlined by Mr. B. 11. Waddv, prosecuting. In a few brief phrases he described how Davies was engaged as a medical attendant for "Mrs. X's" invalid husband, who died on January 10 from pneumonia. Having no further' use for the services of Davies, "Mrs. X" discharged him four days later, and on March 11 she received the letter which formed the substance of the charge. Counsel read it as follows: — "Dear Madam, —I think there is a matter which we should discuss regarding your husband's death, and I am 'making certain conditions about that very suspicious death.

"i ou know (the dead man's name was given) did not die a natural death, as I was his attendant, and I know all about that affair. You fibbed up the doctors and the nurse with a pack of lies. But you cannot shut me up.

"You are directly responsible for his death; in fact, you are a murderess, as lam quite sure you poisoned him. lam giving you a chance to save you from a scandal.

"You must sfend me £20 by return of post. Don't forget, or I shall ruin your reputation. So you had better send me £20, and I will keep silent. It is no good going to the police. If you do, I shall kill you." "I Wrote It." Ignoring the warning about going to the police, "Mrs. X" handed the letter to them, and inquiries led to the arrest at Deal, of Davies. Accused of being the author of it, Davies replied, "I wrote it. I did not mean it. I did not know what I was doing." Afterwards "in mitigation,' he made a statement excusing his conduct on the ground that at times he suffered severely from mental trouble. "I had 110 intention of doing anything criminal," he pleaded. "These things come over me at times, and I can't control myself. Whatever I wrote I clid not honestly mean it."

Davies, it appeared from the evidence of Detective Robert Jays, was at Carmarthenshire Assizes in 1926 sent to Borstal for three years for shopbreaking and larceny. Subsequently he went on service in India with the Suffolk Regiment, but was invalided out of the Army because of feeble-mindedness. Follow.ing that, in March, 1934, he was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment for sending menacing letters to three people. "He wrote to the deputy-governor of the Borstal. Institution, whore he hact been," stated the officer, "and. to a mail and woman to whom he had applied for 1 ' employment. On _ each occasion lie threatened to the recipients injury if they did not send him some money."'

On- behalf of Davies, Mr. Gerald Thesinger, defending, elicited that while ill the Army he suffered from brain fever, and urged that in this condition, at times, took a wrong outlook.

"But for what your counsel has put before me," the judge remarked to Davies in dealing with him, "and the conviction I have in my own mind that you.are not normally mental, I should have dealt with you very severely indeed." His lordship passed sentonce as stated.