VILLAGE SCANDAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22986, 15 September 1936, Page 11

VILLAGE SCANDAL

CHARGE OF CRIMINAL LIBEL A story of a village poison-pen scandal was told to the magistrates at Watlington, Oxfordshire, recently. A middle-aged woman, alleged to have written anonymous letters about herself, was committed for trial on a charge of criminal libel. She was Mrs Mildred Davis, of Kingston Blount, Oxfordshire, and she was accused by Mrs Mary Turner, wife of a gardener in the village, and Mr Frank Preston, butler to the squire’s mother, of writing and publishing a defamatory libel concerning them between November, 1935, and January, 1936. The summons arose out of a number of letters which circulated in the village concerning Mrs Davis. Mr R. Castle-Miller said that on December 11 last year Mrs Hill, secretary of the Women’s Institute in the village, received an anonymous letter containing allegations against Mrs Davis. Mr Castle-Miller suggested that the letter was written by Mrs Davis, who then tried to throw the blame on Mrs Turner. Other letters were sent, and on them Mrs Turner’s name or initials appeared.