CHARGES OF BLACKMAIL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1308, 11 December 1911, Page 5

CHARGES OF BLACKMAIL.

A COUNTESS AND HER LETTERS, 3j Telorr»pli-Pre33 Assocratlon-OoDyriivi Londotii December 8. Francis Henry Page, William Henry Glendining, and Frederick Marshall (an ex-solicitor) were charged, on remand, at Bow Street Police Court with blackmailing the. Countess Hamil Demaiu of .£SOO, the money being obtained under threat that certain letters would be published to her annoyance. The letters were by a Dau O'Connor (late of Sydney) and one Bobbie.

The- prosecuting counsel stated that the Conntes Domain met.John Hamilton Bobbie in Australia and New Zealand in

1830, and also knew Dan O'Connor in Australia. Dobbie, in 1908, was engaged to be married, and O'Connor and the Countess wrote an anonymous letter, which counsel described 03 libellous, to Bobbie's prospective mother-in-law, hoping thereby to prevent the marriage. The prisoners had secured the letters, and

used them as a basis for blackmailing. The prisoners had interviewed O'Connor, and sought to induce' him to, incriminate the Countess, who was afterwards taken to the prisoners' office and terrified into signing four bills of exchange for ,£IOO each, under threat of her's and O'Connor's arrest.

The prosecution stated that Dobbie was now in Australia, and that the Countess was reputed to be worth £12,000 a year.

The Countess Domain denied that she wroto the anonymous letters herself. She did not know that O'Connor wroto them until afterwards. The case was adjourned.