THE LEICESTER EVENING MAIL

Leicester, Leicestershire, England

25 July 1934

(page 1)

ALEISTER CROWLEY BOUND OVER

LETTER RECEIVING TRIAL

The hearing of the case for the defence was continued at the Old Bailey to-day, when the trial of Edward (Allister) Crowley, aged 58, described as an explorer, was found guilty as the Old Bailey to-day on charges of receiving four original letters and one copy said to have been stolen from Mrs. Betty Sedgwick, professionally known as “Betty May,” an artist’s model of South Hill Park-gardens, Hampstead.

Crowley was bound over for two years and ordered to pay a sum not exceeding 50 guineas towards the costs of prosecution.

Mr. Melford Stevenson, prosecuting, said that the letters disappeared from Mrs. Sedgwick’s attaché case and were later produced during the hearing of a libel action in the High Court in which Crowley was the plaintiff.

The letters referred to the payment of certain expenses by a firm of solicitors to Mrs. Sedgwick, who was a witness for the defence in the action, and she was cross-examined upon them.

Crowley, in the box to-day, said that £5 was paid for the letters. He did not at any time suspect that they were stolen.

Judge Whiteley, summing-up, said that Crowley had not been previously charged with any criminal offence at all.