SCENE IN A CHURCH

Evening Star, Issue 22447, 18 September 1936, Page 7

SCENE IN A CHURCH

WOMAN’S STATEMENT TO MAGISTRATE REMANDED FOR MEDICAL EXAMINATION. There was an echo of a scene that interrupted a Good Friday service in Laindon, Essex, parish church _ when Mrs Alice Bessie Brady, of Laindon, was before the Billericay magistrates. She was charged with creating a disturbance during the service, and with damaging window’s at the Rectory and Church Hall, Basildon. The Rev. M. V. Lake, vicar of Laindon and Basildon, gave evidence that he and Mrs Bray were perfectly friendly up to the last time they spoke, but recently it had not been safe for his wife to move about Laindon. The Rev. W. T. Hickson, curate at Laindon, stated Mrs Bray entered the church, walked up to the pulpit, and said to the preacher, the Rev. M. A. Morgan, rector of Hockley: “ Are you taking this service? You have come to the wrong place.’’ PACE-SMACKING THREAT. She then began to shout and turned to the congregation, to whom she addressed remarks to the effect that the church was full of adulterers. The warden told her she must not make a disturbance, and she threatened to smack his face. Mrs Bray finally went out with the warden, and after disturbance lasting five or 10 minutes the service was resumed. ' Miss Margaret Hughes said she was conducting a Girl Guides’ meeting in Basildon Church Hall when Mrs Bray entered and threw three stones through the windows, saying: “ That is for Mrs Lake, for her faith, hope, and charity.” Addressing the Bench, Mrs Bray declared: “ I am ostracised by everybody. They turn up their noses at me because 1 am married to an elderly man. They say I am a bad woman. I am not- I am a good woman.” Turning to the rector, she said: “You were in my bedroom, and I defy you to say you were not.” _ Mrs Bray was remanded in custody for medical examination.