U.K. SPY CHARGES

Press, Volume C, Issue 29509, 10 May 1961, Page 10

U.K. SPY CHARGES

Appeals Dismissed

(N .Z.P.A. -Reuter—Copyrepit) LONDON. May 8 Other prisoners twice tried to bribe the 55-year-old British civil servant, Harry Houghton, to "keep his mouth shut” while he was in prison awaiting trial on spying charges, the Court of Criminal Appeal was told today. They offered him £5OOO arid a business in Dublin if he would not go into the witness box and give evidence and mention a certain name, but Houghton refused. Mr C. Humphreys, appearing for Houghton, told the Court. The prisoner who made t*e offer—a man serving a 15year sentence —was acting as a go-between for another person. Mr Humphreys said Houghton did not know the identity of the men. Houghton, with four others, was convicted of spying in a sensational Old Bailey trial in March. He was applying for leave to appeal against sentence. All five applications were dismissed and the sentences, totalling 95 years, stand. All five were found guilty at the Old Bailey of conspiring to commit breaches of the Official Secrets Act by passing information about the British naval underwater weapons establishment at Portland to a potential enemy. The four convicted with Houghton were Gordon Arnold Lonsdale, Peter Kroger and his wife, Helen, and Houghton’s fiancee, Ethel Gee. The five were not in Court for today’s hearing.