LONDON, ENGLAND — Eric James Brown, 19, a private in the Suffolk Regiment, was charged at Southend yesterday with the murder of his father, Archibald Brown, 47, a miller, of London Hill, Rayleigh.

He'd placed an anti-tank mine under the seat of his father's wheelchair.

Mr. J.F. Claxton, prosecuting, said it was murder by somewhat extraordinary means, and alleged that an anti-tank mine had been placed under the seat of Mr. Brown's invalid chair by the accused, and that when it exploded his father was blown to pieces.

The dead man had suffered from paralysis for four years and for the past two years had been unable to walk. On July 23 Nurse Mitchell took him out in his invalid chair, and when he made an effort to get a cigarette out of his pocket he moved his weight. Nurse Mitchell lit the cigarette and went to the back of the chair, when there was a most violent explosion and she remembered little more, as she was badly injured. So far as she could say her charge and the chair disappeared into the air.

The hearing was adjourned until to-day.

AFTERWORD:

Pvt. Brown, who had nursed a long loathing for his "tyrannical" father, was convicted of murder and later committed to an asylum for life.