PSYCHOLOGIST PROFESSOR CONVICTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 180, 1 August 1925, Page 36

PSYCHOLOGIST PROFESSOR CONVICTED.

DEFENDED BY A BISHOP. Lady Betty Balfour, the Bishop of Liverpool, a son of the late Earl of Warwick, and women pupils from the West End of London were called to Bow Street recently for I the defence of tbe American "cou- ; 6ultlng psychologist,'' Homer Tyrell Lane. j Lane, who had been described by the prosecution at the previous hearing as "a I charlatan and an adventurer," was sentenced to a month's Imprisonment and recommended for deportation for falling ,to notify the police with his change of address. A man of 49, Lane was once head of "The Little Commonwealth," a well-known children's colony In Dorset. Lady Balfour said nil her knowledge of Lane had increased her veneration for him. Tbe Bishop of Liverpool described Lane ns a "natural genius" In diagnosing mental i troubles. | Mr. Muskett said that In 1913 Lane ; became superintendent of the Little Comi monw. alth, which was licensed as an industrial Bchool by the "Home Office. Early in 101S complaints wore received by the police alleging that certain of the youn^ I female inmates had been assaulted by defendant. As n result of a Homo Office I inquiry the Homo Office demanded that the managers should surrender the license. They did so and the children were all ; 6ent to other Institutions. | Lane came to London In 1020, Mr. Muskett said, and took an elaborately furnished I suite In Ckirdon Square, tbe rent of which was £.173 a year. Last year the Inland Revenue authorities obtained Judgment against defendant for £O."S in respect of income tax for 1919-1020-19'21-in23. Messrs l'eat, who acted as Line's accountants, got the authorities to consent to payment of £000 down and the balance in a month. The £."00 was paid but not the balance, j and the amount paid was the proceeds of n cheque a young Ir.dy client had given to defendant. ' He called attention to two letters written by—-he would call her "A. B.''—a single young lady of 24, who drew the cheque for £rioo in favour of defendant, and later gave bim another cheque for £1000. From one of these letters, Mr. Mußkett said, It was evident the young lady paid the cheque as she feared Lane would be sent to prison. Subsequently, on Lane's behalf, tbe same young lady gave an order to agents for a motor car costing £1104. but fortunately the cheque was not mot and the car was still with the agents. Mr. Muskett added that some gross and vulsar prints were fouud at defendant's establishment. Detective-Inspector Collins said, in reply to Mr. Travors Humphreys, who defended. that the young woman who supplied defendant with the sums mentioned might be a little abnormal. One of her letters was Ptsned "The Devil," and another wns signed with her name "Otherwise God."