Last year, Chris McBrien, from Aberdeen, set out to discover for me some more about a hitherto unheard of Second World War murder in Portslade and wrote to my web site www.findonvillage.com for assistance.

More than a million Canadians served in the war and Canadian soldiers trained in England throughout most of 1940 and 1941.

To the Findon girls, they all seemed to have loads of money and like children.

The opening line when meeting a Canadian soldier for the first time was "Got any gum, chum?" and I am told they would inevitably hand out chewing gum or sweets.

The Canadians were anxious for battle, having spent extensive time on exercises meant to prepare them for combat. More than 45,000 gave their lives and 55,000 were wounded.

But it seems the Canadian troops stationed in the South of England acquired the worst wartime record as violent lovers.

Six were hanged as a result of trials in the British Isles during those years and Chris started on the trail of one of these, Charles Gautier.

My Sherlock Holmes succeeded when he discovered an article from The Times of August 27, 1943, which read:

"A French-Canadian soldier, Private Charles Eugene Gautier, aged 25, was found guilty at the central criminal court yesterday of the murder of Mrs Annette Elizabeth Frederika Christina Pepper, aged 30, wife of a British Prisoner of War in Germany, by shooting her with a

Bren gun at Portslade, near Brighton, and was sentenced to death.

"The jury added to their verdict a strong recommendation to mercy. The motive for the crime was alleged to be jealousy. This was a retrial, a jury at Lewis Assizes having failed to agree on a verdict."

He also found an article stating: "A young regimental policeman named Charles Eugene Gautier was less fortunate. He had taken up with a Brighton housewife whose husband was a prisoner in Germany.

"When he discovered Mrs Annette Pepper had taken another Canadian into her house, he blasted his way in with a Bren gun, wounded his rival and then sprayed his mistress' body full of bullets as she pleaded with him at the top of the staircase.

"Gautier was found guilty of murder and hanged at Wandsworth prison on 24 September 1943 after his appeal had been refused.

"The publicity given to the case had served to inflame the concern many British servicemen overseas had begun to feel about their wives back home.

"Reports were being received from field commanders that the morale of men at the fighting front was being badly undermined by stories of rape, violence and illegitimate births."

Thank you, Chris, for your painstaking work.

-Valerie Martin, Findon