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Recently, the journalist Jack Walton, writing for the Liverpool publication The Post, claimed that Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) was debunked as a conspiracy theory.
Mr Walton made this unsubstantiated claim despite being sent verifiable evidence to the contrary.
This included an acknowledgment by the MET police as to the existence of SRA, and the summary of prosecutions of multiple defendants in eleven court cases where some form of SRA was recognised. These eleven court cases sent to Mr Walton are listed at the bottom of this page for the reader’s own investigation.
Despite the exceedingly high standard of evidence required in such court cases (beyond all reasonable doubt), Mr Walton’s article suggests not only that the judges and jurors of these cases were wrong, but the experience of the victims of horrific abuse was nothing more than a "conspiracy theory".
Many journalists won't let facts stand in the way of an opinion piece. However, in a time when victims of abuse should be encouraged to speak up, Mr Walton's article creates an even more hostile environment for them to do so.
Previously when journalists have contacted us for our comments on Satanism, abortion and SRA, we have responded in the same way as described above. Almost without exception, once they have reviewed the evidence for themselves, they drop the story, or at least that element of it. It is a great pity that once armed with the truth, these journalists do not use their platform to give a voice to the victims of SRA, and help to expose the horrors they have suffered.
We will continue to listen to and stand with survivors of SRA who contact us to share their experience, which often includes forced abortion. Far from fearing discussion we welcome more of it.
We wrote to Mr Walton for comment, giving him three weeks prior to publishing this response. We followed up with a further email two days later, requesting that he provide clarification for the basis of his claim. Unfortunately he has not responded. We would encourage survivors of SRA to contact the Editor of The Post and politely ask him why he chooses to ignore the evidence, and the voices of those who have every right to be heard.
You can contact the Editor of The Post at this email address: [email protected]
LIST OF SUCCESSFULLY PROSECUTED SRA CASES IN BRITAIN
(Note: this is not an exhaustive list)
1.Ongoing Glasgow abuse ring
Reported in the Scottish Daily Express
More available online.
2. Two members of a Witches’ coven in St. Ives, Cornwall, were convicted at Truro Crown Court in December 2012 for their “ritualistic, sickening” sex abuse of young girls. Jailing Jack Kemp for 14 years and Peter Petrauske for 18, Judge Graham Cottle told them: “The offences range from the extremely serious to the truly horrifying.”
The judge said that the scars left on the victims were so obvious “that it would seem extremely unlikely that either of them have any real prospect of recovery.” Petrauske was convicted of rape, aiding and abetting an attempted rape, and indecent assault. Kemp was convicted of 10 sexual offences.
3. On March 11, 2011, Colin Batley, the leader of a Satanist coven, was convicted at Swansea Crown Court of more than 20 sexual offences against children including 11 rapes. He and other satanists had ritually abused children in Kidwelly, Wales, where their coven was based. The children, some as young as 11, were subjected to “organised and systematic” abuse by Batley, his wife and two women coven members. Jacqueline Marling, 42, was jailed for 12 years for aiding and abetting rape, causing prostitution, indecency with a child and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. Batley’s wife Elaine, 47, was jailed for eight years on three charges of indecency with a child and sexual activity with a child. Shelly Millar, 35, was jailed for five years for indecency with a child and inciting a child to engage in sex. A fifth defendant, Vincent Barden, 70, admitted assaulting an under-age girl.
4. On 3rd July 1992 a 57 year old satanist was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court to 12 years in prison for sexually abusing his niece. He had raped his victim two or three times per week between the ages of 10 and 12. The Court also heard details of a “black magic room” where the abuser kept an altar and ritual equipment. When the child was 12 she became pregnant and was required by her uncle to give birth in that room. The victim was terrified by her uncle’s satanist rituals. He threatened to rape her younger sister and kill her pets if she ever spoke of the abuse. On one occasion he snapped the neck of one of her pets in front of her and drowned another. Judge Dennis Clark told the man: “Your fascination with the occult or devil-worship played a part in impelling you towards this evil behaviour.”
5. On 8 August 1990 Reginald Harris was convicted at Worcester Crown Court after admitting to two specimen charges of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 15 year old girl and her younger sister. Harris told his victims he was a satanist high priest. The children were terrified into submission by Harris’s satanist rituals. He had drawn up a satanist “coven contract of marriage” to the older girl.
6. On February 9, 1989, Winchester Crown Court sentenced a sixty-year-old engineer to twelve years’ imprisonment on two charges of incest with one of his five daughters. The man, who was described in court as a practising Satanist had fathered several children by his own daughter. To one of them, to whom he was both father and grandfather, he later committed acts of gross indecency and indecent assault. He made his daughter pregnant no less than five times. She had two miscarriages, a still-birth and a normal child. Another was profoundly mentally and physically handicapped. He claimed to have been “instructed by the spirits” to have sex with his daughter. When police arrested the man at his home in Fareham near Portsmouth they found a small room in the bungalow that he described as his “magic room”. There were occult symbols on the floor and on the walls, and occult and witchcraft books. They also found a black priest’s robe and an altar. On it were phials of oil used in sex rituals. He pleaded not guilty to charges of incest with his four other daughters.
7. Peter MacKenzie was sentenced at St. Albans Crown Court in August 1989 to 15 years in prison for 4 rapes and 17 other sexual assaults against 13 juvenile girls. His victims were as young as 6. An accomplice, John Baxter-Taylor, pleaded guilty to one charge of indecent assault and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. The court heard how MacKenzie told his victims he was ‘Asmodeus’, an historic satanic name principally associated with 19th century French Satanism, and made them recite prayers dedicated to him. MacKenzie had sexual intercourse with girls aged 6 and 7 by promising them magic powers. MacKenzie said they could become witches in his magic circle. He terrified his victims by warning them that unless they took part in the rituals and kept silent about the abuse they would die. All the children had to undergo counselling and psychiatric help, which was expected to last for several years.
8. On 25 July 1988, Hazel Paul, a 28 year old mother of three, was jailed for 5 years at the Old Bailey. Paul was convicted of falsely imprisoning a 15-year-old girl and inflicting grievous bodily harm on her during satanic rituals. She also hypnotised the girl and encouraged a male friend to sexually abuse her. The jury heard a 15-year-old boy describe how Paul had ordered him to cut and carve the girl during rituals which also involved placing lighted candles on or around the victim’s vagina. Two other defendants were convicted with Paul of the assaults. The jury heard, and accepted by convicting, the explicit details of Paul’s satanic rituals.
9. In 1987, Andrew Newell was sentenced to seven years in prison for killing his best friend in what was regarded by the police as a Satanist ritual. Newell stabbed Philip Booth five times around the heart. A murder charge was later reduced to manslaughter. Books on the occult and occult symbols were found in his room, with the words Lucifer, Leviathan, Satan and Belial. Timothy Barnes QC, told the court that Newell’s record box had been used as a makeshift black magic altar. It was covered with bloody fingerprints and a smear of Philip Booth’s blood. “When police opened the box they found a lot of material associated with the supernatural,” he said, “including candles that had been lit and a white-handled knife.”
10. On 23rd July 1987 Brian Williams was convicted at London’s Central Criminal Court for the sexual abuse of 15 girls and boys. He assaulted his victims on an altar dedicated to Satan and forced them to abuse each other.The rituals were performed with a Satanist pentagram drawn on the floor in blood.
11. On 9th November 1982, Malcolm and Susan Smith and Albert and Carole Hickman, were convicted in Telford, Shropshire for a series of sexual and physical assaults against children during the course of satanic rituals.Malcolm Smith carved an inverted cross on one child’s abdomen and branded her genitals with a red-hot altar knife.