'MYSTIFIED Spiritualist' was the baffling headline in the Malvern News 100 years ago.

It was above the report of a court case dubbed "the most extraordinary story that was ever told in a court of justice".

It started simply enough, with one Frank Cecil, aged 25, charged with stealing a bicycle belonging to Francis Ranford of Malvern.

The defendant and a woman hired bicycles from Mr Ranford to visit Cheltenham.

The report continued: "But the woman alleged that her companion deceived her and took her to Birmingham, where they stayed together in lodgings, and the woman said the prisoner threatened her with violence if she made an effort to leave him.

"In Birmingham, he sold the bike for 10 shillings and the couple moved to Welshpool, where they obtained cycles and pawned them.

"The prisoner pleaded that his memory was an entire blank for a year, and he knew nothing about this offence," said the report.

"The last previous thing he remembered was that he was conducting a spiritualistic meeting at Bicton, near Shrewsbury.

"Then he saw 'a lot of devils coming towards him' and the next thing he was conscious of was that he was in a lunatic asylum, where he was arrested.

"He had been mixed up in spiritualism and for a time he was in a mystified state, having been a medium among spiritualists.

"However, this otherworldly alibi did not prevent the jury from finding him guilty, and he was sentenced to four months inside."