THREAT TO BISHOP

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 July 1931, Page 6

THREAT TO BISHOP

YOUNG MAN CHARGED.

MANCHESTER, May 23. At Salford City Police Court to-day, a man, described as Frank Thomas Bentley, was charged with feloniously uttering a letter demanding £5O from the Bishop of Manchester (Dr Frederick Guy Warman), Bishopscourt, Manchester. The Bishop gave evidence that on April 30 he received a letter which was the subject of the charge. He sent it to Scotland Yard on the same day. The Stipendiary (Magistrate (Mr Percy Macbeth) reading from the letter, said that it accused the Bishop of improper conduct with a woman many years ago.

Detective-Inspector G. E. Evans said that with Detective-Constable Howarth he went to Southampton on May 12 and saw Bentley in Shirley Warren Hospital, where he was a patient. “I told him we were police detectives and asked him his name. He told me that he was Frank Thomas Bentley. I cautioned him and said that I was going to arrest him for writing a letter to the Bishop demanding with menaces £5O in money." Detective-Inspector Evans said that in reply Bentley stated that he was desperate and took a chance of getting money. He felt “fed up” and did not care if he got a “lagging.” When Bentley was brought to Salford Town Hall, cautioned, and the warrant read over to him, he made the following statement:— “I admit I wrote the letter, but now, realising the terrible mistake I have made, I would like to say that there is no truth in the statements I have written concerning the Bishop and my sister, and I would like to offer my apology to the Bishop for any trouble I may have caused him and his family.” The Inspector said that whilst in custody Bentley made . a statement after being cautioned. The Magistrate said that in the statement Bentley admitted that there was no truth in the allegations he had made against the Bishop. “He says he was desperate and had seen in a newspaper of a case of blackmail, and thought it would be a good opportunity to demand some money from the Bishop,” added Mr Macbeth. A similar letter, he said, had been sent to a well-kown member of Parliament. The Magistrate decided that, since the handwriting of the statement made to the police and of the letter alleged to have been sent to the Bishop by Bentley were similar, there was no need to call evidence by a handwriting expert. Bentley was committed for trial at the Manchester Assizes. Bail was refused.