Sir Arthur Conan Doyle murder tale finally laid to rest

London, Sept 14 : Claims that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes, helped murder a journalist have finally been laid to rest - by a church court.

The Exeter Diocese Consistory Court has blocked a bid to exhume the remains of Devon journalist and writer Bertram Fletcher-Robinson who died on January 21, 1907, reports the Scotsman.

At the time of his death, it was recorded that Fletcher-Robinson died at the age of 36 from typhoid fever and peritonitis following a visit to Paris.

However, claims had been made that Fletcher-Robinson had been murdered by an overdose of laudanum administered by his wife Gladys, who was engaged in an affair with Conan Doyle and to hide the fact that the author stole the plot of the Hound of the Baskervilles from the journalist.

The accusations were the results of research carried out by former driving instructor Rodger Garrick-Steele who wanted to exhume the corpse from its place of rest at Ipplepen near Newton Abbot and test it for traces of poison.

Now, Sir Andrew McFarlane, the chancellor of the ecclesiastical court, has ridiculed Garrick- Steele's research.

McFarlane blocked Garrick- Steele's bid and ruled that the body must not be disturbed.

ANI