THE DAILY INDEPENDENT

Sheffield, Yorkshire, England

26 July 1934

(page 4)

AUTHOR “GUILTY.”

RECEIVED LETTERS OF WOMAN.

COMMENTS IN LIBEL ACTION QUOTED.

BOUND OVER.

Edward Alexander Crowley (58) was found “Guilty” at the Old Bailey yesterday on the charge 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.

Crowley was bound over and ordered to pay an amount not exceeding 50 guineas towards the costs of the prosecution.

It had been alleged that the letters disappeared from Mrs. Sedgwick’s attaché case, and were later produced during the hearing of a libel action 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 in the action.

Giving evidence yesterday, Crowley described himself as an author and poet writing under the name Aleister Crowley. This was the first time there had been any charge against him in any place in the world.

“PREPARING PERJURY”

In December, 1933, Mr. Mather told him that Mr. Cruze knew all about the projects of Mrs. Sedgwick and would disclose the whole affair to him.

“Mather told me,” said Crowley, “that Betty May was preparing to commit perjury. That I already knew from several sources.

“I wanted to know whether these letters did prove the plans of Mrs. Sedgwick that she was going to commit perjury.”

He did not at any time suspect that the letters had been stolen.

Mr. Melford Stevenson (prosecuting): Are you representing yourself as a respectable person whose word is to be trusted?—Yes.

I want to read what Mr. Justice Swift said about you. He had listened to your libel action and the history of your activities for several days?—Yes.

Did he say this:

I thought that everything which was vicious and bad had been produced at one time or another before me. I have learned in this case that we can always learn something more if we live long enough. Never have I heard such dreadful, horrible, blasphemous, abominable stuff as that produced by the man who describes himself to you as the greatest living poet.

Is that the view Mr. Justice Swift, having listened to your activities for several days, expressed about you?—The quotation, as far as I know, is accurate. He was referring to his book.

SUBJECT TO APPEAL

Mr. Gallop: Are the observations of Mr. Justice Swift in your libel action subject to an appeal?—Yes.

After the jury had returned their verdict, the Judge said he would bind Crowley over for two years to be of good behavior, and added that he understood that the litigation was still going on.

“If anything of this kind happens again,” added his Lordship, “you will be brought to this Court and you will be sentenced to six months for this offence.”

Crowley: Nothing of this sort will happen again.