WAR CRIMINALS

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 December 1945, Page 5

WAR CRIMINALS

LONDON CLERK CHARGED. (Rec. 10.40 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 7. Alleged to have fought with the Adolf Hitler Division on the Russian front, Thomas Heller Cooper, 26, clerk, of Brook Green, made a second appearance at Bow Street, charged with high treason. The prosecutor said that Cooper was born in London of an English father and German mother. He went to Germany in July, 1939, .acting as a tutor until February, 1940, when he enlisted in the Waffen S.S. After fighting on the Russian front, he was sent to the Genshagen prisoners-of-war camp, which apparently was used as the propaganda centre for British prisoners. According to witnesses there, he showed himself anti-British and anti-Russian at first, but after D Day, a new light appeared to have dawned on Cooper, who said he had been a fool. England would win and Germany would lose. Accused was further remanded until December 20. POLE CONDEMNED. (Rec. 10 a.m.) COLOGNE, December 7. A British military court sentenced to death Michael Rdyk, a Pole, for illegal possession of firearms. Rdyk had threatened a cripple with a pistol and stolen his bicycle. The President of the Court said that for the illegal use of firmarms there was only one sentence, death, whether the accused was German or any other national.