STRANGE BLACKMAIL STORY

Evening Star, Issue 21931, 18 January 1935, Page 7

STRANGE BLACKMAIL STORY

A dramatic turn was given to the libel action by Police Inspector Bony against a weekly newspaper which accused him of complicity with the swindler Stavisky by the appearance of Mjne Catillon, an attractive woman fashionably attired (says the ‘ Daily Telegraph ’).

She said that she had run away from home at the age of fourteen, and was taken into custody by the police at Nevers because she was a minor and had no identification papers. She continued:— “In 1931 a scoundrel who knew these facts extorted' £2,500 from me. He had certain photographs of mine, and by threatening to publish them he extorted from me altogether about £IO,OOO, which 1 paid him in the presence of a notary. Then one of his accomplices, since condemned, extox-ted another £2,500 from me, and it went on till I had paid altogether £40,000. But they did not destroy the photographs as they promised.” “ What Were those photographs?” inquired the presiding judge. The witness, who remained calm, although her voice was from time to time broken by sobs, did not answer the question, but said, “ I can tell you the truth to-day. 1 can cry it aloud, for I have proofs of all the payments. I can produce them immediately.” Turning towards Inspector Bony, the woman exclaimed in tones of bitter reproach: “ Bony, it was you who brought me together with these crooks —first in a bar of the Bois de Boulogne, and then in a restaurant in the Champs Elysees.”Inspector Bony: It is false. You ai-e lying. You ax - e perjuring yourself. You are being paid to do so. Mme Catillon; Tired of being squeezed I at last entered a charge. Then the gang published the photographs in a blackmailing paper. 1 withdrexv the charge in consequence of the terrible threats mad© by the gang against me. Inspector Bony declared that he had only seen Mme Catillon once before. That was when she was confronted, with him, by the examining magistrate and failed to identify him as one of the men who had blackmailed her.

This impassioned dialogue worked the public in court into a state of great excitement. Mine Catillon’s accusations were greeted with applause; Inspector Bony’s denials with hooting, hissing, and jeering. Finally the State prosecutor, ainid an impressive silence, asked the court to give special- 'atention *te Mme Catillon’s evidence, and to consider whether it was not advisable to/reopen the inquiry against Inspector Bony in connection'; with the blackmailing case. This request was the signal for a prolonged murmur of approval from the public benches. Counsel for the defence subsequently made the announcement, “ We are going to bring before you 345 victims of Bony.” [Bony was dismissed the force, but has appealed.]