PURDY TREASON TRIAL

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 149, 21 December 1945, Page 8

PURDY TREASON TRIAL

EVIDENCE FOR THE DEFENCE Rec. 1.40 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 20.

When his trial for treason was resumed at the Old Bailey today, Walter Purdy said that his whole intention in whatever he did while in Germany was to get back to England so that he could continue activities against the Germans.

Purdy's mother gave evidence .that she received mysterious letters from her son while he was in Germany. They contained a code and bits of poetry. She took them to the Red Cross and later received acknowledgements of them from the Air Ministry and the War Office.

Private F. H. Maton, of the Commando Regiment, who arrived in Court under a military escort, said that he met Purdy in Berlin. They were both broadcasting for the Germans. Purdy told him that he was trying •to perfect a code for getting information to England by radio. Purdy said that he would try giving his "Good nights'* after talks in different ways. Maton agreed that he himself had been charged under the Army Act and sentenced. Margaret Weitemier, a young German woman who was brought specially from Germany, said in evidence that she lived with Purdy in Berlin from November, 1943. She believed he was working secretly for the British Government. In March, 1944, the Gestapo came to her house and arrested Purdy because, according to them, he was becoming dangerous.