Winstanley told the court today (Fri) he had bough

Winstanley told the court today (Fri) he had bought the books at an antiques market.

He is alleged to have torn pages from rare volumes including the first ever Bible printed in Spanish.

But the part time art dealer told the jury he spotted the bargains at a Bermondsey antiques fair in south east London in the summer of 2000.

He said: ‘All the objects were acquired on two occasions.

‘The nature of antique trading is highly informal.

I met a gentleman by the name of Anthony.

He was based in Glasgow.

‘I was talking to him about some objects he had on his table.

There were no prices on them.

‘There was a large pile of prints and I found a set of six maps.

I bought them all for pnds stlg 20 each.

‘They are quite rare maps and I am very interested in the exploration of South America.

‘There was a series of facsimile maps concerning Venezuela which I bought for pnds stlg 30.

I thought it was very unusual.

‘I asked him where he found them and if he had any more material of a similar ilk.

‘

When asked by his defence barrister, Francis Lloyd, if he recognised the books or if he suspected they were stolen, Winstanley replied: ‘There was nothing to identify where they had come from.

‘I had no idea that they had been stolen.

‘

Winstanley said he returned to the market a couple of weeks later and picked up some more rare works.

He said: ‘Anthony produced a brown box from the back of his van which he said he had put aside for me.

‘He opened it up and it was a collection of books – an assortment of antiquarian books.

‘They were in a very bad condition, wrapped in newspapers and tissues.

‘

He said he bought the maps for pnds stlg 750 and sold them to his buyer – David Bannister.

The Crown alleges that Winstanley stole five books from the Middle Temple library.

All that was found of the 1569 Spanish bible at Winstanley’s home was the front page.

Police also found a rare 1897 book containing old maps of Venezuela, and three maps from a 1634 book.

All three tomes were missing from the Middle Temple library, it is alleged.

Two volumes by fifteenth century author Rosaccio, and another historical atlas were found at the home of Cheltenham map collector David Bannister.

Mr Bannister paid Winstanley between four and five thousand pounds for the three books, which he said he had bought in good faith.

Winstanley told the court his father collects opera records and he has always had an interest in historical books.

After working for 20 years as a freelance illustrator, Winstanley decided to turn his hand to art restoration and enrolled as a mature student at Camberwell Art College.

During the summer holidays he helped archive the books in the library.

Following his graduation, Winstanley used the library for research purposes.

He said he was experimenting with the use of eucalyptus oil in the conservation of books.

Librarians allowed him to spend one day a week collecting ‘small particles of old decayed material’ that had fallen out of the most ‘decrepit’ books on their shelves.

Part of the arrangement was that he also worked one paid day a week at the library helping with the archiving of the collection.

When asked by Mr Lloyd if he stole any books from the library during his three stints of employment he replied: ‘No.

‘

Winstanley, of Grove Lane, Camberwell, denies six counts of theft between January 1997 and March 2000.

ends