OLD CRIME LINK

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 473, 6 March 1933, Page 2

OLD CRIME LINK

prince worth millions helped to leave asylum. confederate punished. London, Saturday. William Pilbeam, who, in 1925, helped Prince Self-ed-Din, brother-in-law of King Fuad, of Egypt, to escape from a mental hospital, has returned to England, and has been punished for the offence. Prince Self-ed-Din was one of the richest men in the world with an income of £150,000 a year. His sister, Prineess Chivekar, had married Prince Fuad, some day to be King of Egypt. Thirty-ftve years ago, when Prince Self was 18 and at college in England, his sister, only two years married, told him something about her husband which so enraged him that he went in seareh of Fuad with a revolver and 'shot him. The wound- was not serious, but Prince 'Self-ed-Din was arrested and sentenced to seven years' pafial serviture. 20 Years His Attendant. Four years later he was certified insane and taken to Tieehurst House, a private mental home near Hastings, where he remained for more than 20 years. During practieally the whole of that time Pilbeam was his personal attendant. In the later years of his detention the Prince was allowed considerable liberty, and he became a familiar figure in his drives around the Sussex countryside with Pilbeam as his fcompanion. Then the Prince began to plan an escape. It took seven months to complete the arrangements, and on three occasions attempt to get the Ptince away fell through. Then one day Pilbeam accompanied his charge to Hastings and they just walked aboard a pleasure excursion steamer to France, and took train to Turkey, where the Prince settled down in Stamboul. During his long absence his vast estates had been seized by the Egyptian Government. Four years ago they were valued at £16,000,000, though a United States syndicate had once offered £40,000,000 for them. Pilbeam was fined £20 for his share in the escape — and the Prince? He was restored to his right mind and to his own country, and, like the Prince in the fairy story, he has lived happily ever after.