Officer Blames Poison Pen

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 105, 5 May 1937, Page 6

Officer Blames Poison Pen

Court-martialled at tTie E.A.F. station at Boscorabe Down (Wilts) on several charges, a flying officer blamed a campaign of anonymous letters and postcards. The officer, Robert Charles-Auckland, produced 47 anonyomus letters and postcards he received following convic tion on a charge of kicking a dog to death in a Salisbury hotel. In a statement submitted to the court-martial, Charles-Auckland declared he did not kill the dog. The court acquitted the officer on charges of drinking in company with corporals and aircraftsmen in the corporals’ room, and flourishing a loaded pistol in the officers’ mess. Findings will bo promulgated oo charges of drunkenness at the R.A.F. station and attempting to commit suicide with a Verey pistol. Group Captain the Rev. G. A. Davies said he did not agree with the decision of the Salisbury magistrates. CharlesAuckland had been abnormal since the Squadron Leader L. de Leder (for Charles-Auckland) said there was no clear-cut case against Charles-Auckland at Salisbury. The evidence that the officer injured the dog rested on one eye-witness with some corroborative evidence of some interested parties. Squadron Leader de Leder urged that the sense of injustice which CharlesAuckland felt, and the receipt of anonymous letters, led him to get into a very depressed state of mind which would cause an otherwise normal amount of alcohol to have the effect it did.