An Elstree man has been charged with killing a Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard academic while drink-driving.

Raymond Czechowski, 50, of West View Court, was due to appear at Brent Magistrates yesterday, to face the charge of causing the death of 74-year-old American professor Dr John Mack while under the influence of alcohol.

Dr Mack, 74, was visiting Britain in late September to speak at a conference on Lawrence of Arabia, and was staying with friends in Totteridge. He was crossing Totteridge Lane on September 27 when he was hit by a car Mr Czechowski is alleged to have been driving. Dr Mack later died in hospital.

A professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, Dr Mack was considered a leading authority on alien encounter experiences.

His conclusions from a decade-long study that the abductees' were probably telling the truth, led to television appearances on shows like Oprah Winfrey, and alienated him from the academic community.

He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1977 for a biography of Lawrence of Arabia entitled A Prince of Our Disorder.