THE LINCOLNSHIRE ECHO

Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England

13 April 1934

(page 1, 8)

ALEISTER CROWLEY LOSES LIBEL SUIT.

Judge's Scathing Comment.

"HORRIBLE STUFF."

Judgment for the defendants with costs was entered against Mr. Aleister Crowley in the King's Bench Division to-day, at the conclusion of his libel suit against Miss Nina Hamnett, an authoress, and the publishers and printers of her book, "Laughing Torso."

"Never have I heard such dreadful, horrible, blasphemous, abominable stuff as that produced by a man describing himself as the greatest living poet," said Mr. Justice Swift in his direction to the jury.

Stay of execution was refused.

Mr. Crowley complained that Miss Hamnett's book imputed that he practised "black magic" which, he said, was a libel on him.

Messrs. Constable and Company, Limited, publishers, and Charles Whittingham and Briggs, printers, were joined as defendants.

The defence was a plea of justification.

Mrs. Betty Sedgwick [Betty May], who yesterday described alleged rites in Crowley's villa in Sicily, was further cross-examined to-day.

Mrs. Sedgwick, whose former husband, Raoul Loveday, died at the villa in Sicily, stated yesterday that on one occasion a cat was sacrificed in the course of a magical ceremony. Her husband then drank a cup of the cat's blood.

CAT STORY TRUE.

Mrs. Sedgwick agreed that on the day of her arrival in England from Sicily she supplied information to a Sunday newspaper.

"I am suggesting," remarked Mr. Eddy, "that you are the source of all these stories about 'the worst man in the world.' "

Asked if there was a word of truth in her evidence about the "terrible sacrifice of a cat," she replied, "Absolutely true—everything about the cat is true."

Mr. Eddy: Are many of the cats in Sicily wild and destructive animals?—I only knew two and they were very charming cats.

Mr. Martin O'Connor, for Miss Hamnett, referring to Mr. Crowley's refusal to accept his challenge to try his magic in court said it was appalling that "in this enlightened age a court should be investigating magic which is arch-humbug, practised by arch-rogues to rob weak-minded people."

"I hope this action," he added, "will end for all time the activities of this hypocritical rascal."

WISH TO INTERVENE.

Seeing two jurymen talking together, Mr. Justice Swift stopped Mr. O'Connor in his address.

One of them said: "The jury wish to know whether this is a correct time for us to intervene."

Mr. Justice Swift: You cannot stop the case as against the defendants. You may stop it against the plaintiff, when Mr. Eddy has said everything he wants to say.

In his direction to the jury, the judge said: "I have been over 40 years engaged in the administration of the law in one capacity or another. I thought that I knew of every conceivable form of wickedness. I thought that everything which was vicious and bad had been produced at one time or another before me.

"I have learnt in this case that we can always learn something more if we live long enough."

He asked the jury if they were still of the same opinion as they had intimated earlier?

JURY UNANIMOUS.

The foreman said that the jury were unanimous. They found a verdict for the defendants.

Judgment was entered for all the defendants with costs.

Mr. Justice Swift said that there was no reflection upon the solicitor for the publishers and printers.