JIRA breaks with retrieveUserMetaProperties NPE after adding user in Crowd

After discovering that a user didn't have a Crowd account, I added a principle for the user, and added them to the relevant group.

The user then tried to log into a Crowdified JIRA. JIRA broke with an exception. I then logged in, went to the user browser, and got the same exception when selecting the user:

System Error

A system error has occurred.

If this problem persists - please notify your JIRA administrator of this problem.

If you are an administrator, please try submitting this problem via the Support Request Page

Else, please create a support issue on our support system at http://support.atlassian.com with the following information:

1. a description of your problem
2. cut & paste the error and system information found below
3. attach the application server log file ( /opt/j2ee/domains/atlassian.com/extranet/jira/resin-pro-3.0.19/atlassian-jira.log )

Cause:
java.lang.NullPointerException

Stack Trace: [hide]

java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.atlassian.jira.web.action.admin.user.ViewUser.retrieveUserMetaProperties(ViewUser.java:78)
at com.atlassian.jira.web.action.admin.user.ViewUser.doExecute(ViewUser.java:55)
at webwork.action.ActionSupport.execute(ActionSupport.java:153)
at com.atlassian.jira.action.JiraActionSupport.execute(JiraActionSupport.java:54)
at webwork.dispatcher.GenericDispatcher.executeAction(GenericDispatcher.java:132)
at com.atlassian.jira.web.dispatcher.JiraServletDispatcher.service(JiraServletDispatcher.java:209)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:92)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.ServletFilterChain.doFilter(ServletFilterChain.java:106)
at com.atlassian.jira.web.filters.AccessLogFilter.doFilter(AccessLogFilter.java:73)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.FilterFilterChain.doFilter(FilterFilterChain.java:70)
at com.opensymphony.module.sitemesh.filter.PageFilter.parsePage(PageFilter.java:119)
at com.opensymphony.module.sitemesh.filter.PageFilter.doFilter(PageFilter.java:55)
at com.atlassian.jira.web.filters.SitemeshExcludePathFilter.doFilter(SitemeshExcludePathFilter.java:38)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.FilterFilterChain.doFilter(FilterFilterChain.java:70)
at com.atlassian.seraph.filter.SecurityFilter.doFilter(SecurityFilter.java:182)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.FilterFilterChain.doFilter(FilterFilterChain.java:70)
at com.atlassian.seraph.filter.LoginFilter.doFilter(LoginFilter.java:181)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.FilterFilterChain.doFilter(FilterFilterChain.java:70)
at com.atlassian.util.profiling.filters.ProfilingFilter.doFilter(ProfilingFilter.java:132)
at com.atlassian.jira.web.filters.JIRAProfilingFilter.doFilter(JIRAProfilingFilter.java:16)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.FilterFilterChain.doFilter(FilterFilterChain.java:70)
at com.atlassian.jira.web.filters.ActionCleanupDelayFilter.doFilter(ActionCleanupDelayFilter.java:43)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.FilterFilterChain.doFilter(FilterFilterChain.java:70)
at com.atlassian.jira.web.filters.RequestCleanupFilter.doFilter(RequestCleanupFilter.java:50)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.FilterFilterChain.doFilter(FilterFilterChain.java:70)
at com.atlassian.johnson.filters.AbstractJohnsonFilter.doFilter(AbstractJohnsonFilter.java:72)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.FilterFilterChain.doFilter(FilterFilterChain.java:70)
at com.atlassian.jira.web.filters.gzip.GzipFilter.doFilter(GzipFilter.java:72)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.FilterFilterChain.doFilter(FilterFilterChain.java:70)
at com.atlassian.core.filters.AbstractEncodingFilter.doFilter(AbstractEncodingFilter.java:37)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.FilterFilterChain.doFilter(FilterFilterChain.java:70)
at com.atlassian.jira.appconsistency.db.DatabaseCompatibilityEnforcerFilter.doFilter(DatabaseCompatibilityEnforcerFilter.java:39)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.FilterFilterChain.doFilter(FilterFilterChain.java:70)
at com.caucho.server.webapp.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:178)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.ServletInvocation.service(ServletInvocation.java:229)
at com.caucho.server.hmux.HmuxRequest.handleRequest(HmuxRequest.java:419)
at com.caucho.server.port.TcpConnection.run(TcpConnection.java:389)
at com.caucho.util.ThreadPool.runTasks(ThreadPool.java:507)
at com.caucho.util.ThreadPool.run(ThreadPool.java:433)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)