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Satanic ritual abuse (SRA) refers to the purported sexual abuse or physical abuse of children or non-consenting adults in the context of alleged "Satanic rituals." Allegations of SRA remain controversial and have featured prominently in disputes over child abuse, memory and the law in recent decades.

Cases of SRA are unrelated to the official Church of Satan, which forbids causing harm to children in its Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth.

History

A number of psychologists have noted the similarities between modern accounts of SRA, and the disclosures of Emma Eckstein to Sigmund Freud whilst undergoing psychoanalytic treatment. Eckstein described to Freud experiences similar to the ritual abuse survivors of the 1970s, 80s and 90s, which included sexual abuse and ritual bloodletting. Freud was so disturbed by these disclosures that he stated "we may have before us a residue of a primaeval sexual cult".

Accounts of SRA were amongst the first wave of autobiographical literature on child abuse that emerged in the early 1980s. One of the most well known is Michelle Remembers, published in 1980, written by Michelle Smith and her psychiatrist (and later husband) Lawrence Pazder, though the book is now considered to be completely untrue. Since the publication of Michelle Remembers, clinicians, psychotherapists and social workers have documented clients who describe a history of SRA and a body of literature on the treatment of ritually abused patients, much of which focuses on dissociative disorders, has emerged. The existence of SRA is believed by social workers, therapists, members of law enforcement, government and the general public, with varying degrees of proof, corroboration and testimony by individuals disclosing SRA.

The phrase 'satanic ritual abuse' first arose in the mid-1980s to describe the disclosures of some children in child protection cases, and some adults in psychotherapy. In the early 1980s there was an exponential increase in child protection investigations in America, Britain and other developed countries due to mandatory reporting laws and increased public awareness of child abuse. In a small number of investigations, children disclosed alleged organised and ritualistic forms of sexual abuse by parents and carergivers, claims also made by adults in psychotherapy. These disclosures included descriptions of sexual abuse in the context of Satanic cults, rituals and the use of Satanic iconography, garnering the label "satanic ritual abuse" in the media and some professionals.

By the early 1990s, the phrase "satanic ritual abuse" was featured in media coverage of ritualistic abuse but its use decreased among professionals in favour of more nuanced terms such as "multi-dimensional child sex rings" "ritual/ritualistic", "organised" or "sadistic" abuse, that acknowledged the complexity of abuse cases with multiple perpetrators and victims without projecting a religious framework onto perpetrators. The issue is further obscured by the existence of 'pseudo-satanists' who do not believe in the rituals, but use the trappings to coerce and terrify victims.

Evidence

The prevalence of any form of sexual abuse is difficult to quantify, and this is particularly the case in regard to SRA. There is little consensus on a definition of SRA, and its existence is challenged in some quarters.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). These findings are supported by a comprehensive survey undertaken in America in 1996 in which a minority of psychologist members of the American Psychological Association who responded had encountered at least one client telling of "ritualistic or religion-related" abuse, and the majority believed their clients. Over 12 000 cases of clients with a history of organised and ritualistic abuse were reported by respondents, however, where the survey asked respondents to detail empirical or corroborating evidence for such histories, the researchers felt that there was insufficient basis to conclude that these histories were based on factual events.

In the late 1980s, a BBC survey of British police forces found that, of 186 cases of network abuse where either multiple abusers or multiple abused children were known to each other, only five involved claims of ritual or satanic abuse. In another British study, 29% of the 211 cases of organised child sexual abuse reported to researchers by police, social and welfare agencies from the period of 1988 to 1991 were designated "ritual abuse" cases by respondents. An estimated 93% of therapists working with alleged ritual abuse survivors in the early and mid 1990's believed that ritual abuse occurs. Studies have shown a connection between dissociative identity disorder and SRA, and some psychologists describe ritualistic abuse in substantiated cases of day care sexual abuse.Some of this research has, in turn, been criticized for an overly liberal definition of what constitutes a "substantiated" case of ritual abuse.In day care settings, a satanic overtone was often associated with ritual abuse, and ritual abuse coupled with sexual abuse was found to be the most devastating.These effects were found not to be temporary and multiple perpetrator abuse was found to be worse.The failure of center staff to report suspicion of abuse by parents of staff was mentioned as a worry by several researchers.

Some theorists, called "apologists," believe that reports of satanic cult abuse either must or could be true and there is some evidence to support this. Research with clients disclosing abuse has found higher levels of trauma and symptoms compared to both non-abused and non-satanically abused peers; irrespective of the reality of SRA, individuals reporting SRA appear to be traumatized.

Skepticism

There is a diverse body of skeptical literature on SRA. Sociologists and journalists noted the vigorous nature with which some evangelical activists and groups were using claims of SRA to further their religious and political goals. Other commentators suggested that the entire phenomenon may evidence of a "moral panic" over Satanism and child abuse. Skeptical explanations for allegations of SRA have included an attempt by 'radical feminists' to undermine the nuclear family, a backlash against working women, homophobic attacks on gay childcare workers, a universal need to believe in evil, fear of alternative spiritualities "end of the millennium" anxieties, or a transient form of temporal lobe epilepsy.

Skeptics have treated allegations of SRA as 'viral agents' or rashes spread through conferences, seminars, books, television programs and court cases, and professionals who believe in SRA. Cases of SRA have been described as “psychogenic syndromes" or "hysterical epidemics", infectious “memetic” agents, symptoms of a “mediasomatic ailment”, or simply the “madness in the air”. When cases of ritual abuse emerged outside North America, journalists and researchers accused American child abuse researchers of "spreading" the epidemic of SRA allegations by mentioning it at international conferences and training workshops.

SRA in the courts

In America and Britain, defendants in a small number of cases of organised abuse successfully engaged journalists in framing the charges against them as evidence of “moral panic” and “mass hysteria”, whilst child protection workers and social workers involved in the cases were restricted from challenging these claims by professional codes of confidentiality. These criminal trials attracted significant media attention, and they were often characterised by acquittals, hung juries, and successful appeals. The failure of these high-profile cases generated worldwide media attention, and came to play a central feature in the growing controversies over child abuse, memory and the law. Public anxiety that an innocent adult could be subject to prosecution for sexual abuse based on false testimony was inflamed by the bizarre nature of children’s allegations in ritual abuse cases. Some community groups, such as the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, lobbied the press and policy-makers to contest accounts of organised and ritualistic abuse, whilst clinicians, police and healthcare workers struggled to accommodate cases of satanic ritual abuse within their professional practice.

During the early 1980s, some courts attempted ad hoc accommodations to address the anxieties of child witnesses in relation to testifying before defendants. Screens or CCTV technology are a common feature of child sexual assault trials today, children in the early 1980s were typically forced into direct visual contact with the accused abuser whilst in court. Convictions were overturned in one SRA case after a child witness was permitted to angle her chair away from the defendants, which was deemed unconstitutional under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which requires that a criminal defendant must "be confronted with the witnesses against him".

In the McMartin ritual abuse case, children as young as ten were subject to hostile cross-examination for over two weeks. The McMartin case sparked a program of legislative reform in recognition of the harm that children testifying in court and the justice system face. It also catalyzed a broad agenda of research into the nature of children's testimony and the reliability of their oral evidence in court. The findings of this research is somewhat ambiguous, suggesting that neither children nor adults are immune to suggestive interviewing techniques but even extremely suggestive techniques do not inevitably lead to false reports.

Dissociative identity disorder and SRA

In the 1980s, children and adults with allegations of being ritualistically abused demonstrated high levels of distress and trauma-related symptoms. Some of these patients exhibited high levels of dissociation and a portion have been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID). The diagnosis of DID has been linked to one or both parents being involved in a violent cult, with a sizeable population of patients making allegations of ritual abuse. Though still a controversial diagnosis, criticisms of DID have subsided following research that confirms the validity of the diagnosis and the standardisation of evidence-based treatment.

Though DID has become less controversial since its introduction as a diagnosis skepticism about the diagnosis is still significant and there is debate over whether the condition is iatrogenically produced through treatment by credulous therapists though others believe there is insufficient evidence to support this conclusion. Some skeptics claimed that the increase in DID diagnosis on the 1980s and 1990s and it's association with memories of SRA is evidence of malpractice by treating professionals. The reliability of memories of SRA elucidated by clients in treatment for DID has been a major point of contention in the popular media and with clinicians, some of whom continue to express ambivalence over the reliability of narratives of SRA patients. Most acknowledge that such a narrative is indicative of serious victimisation and trauma.

Specific cases

Cases of SRA have been reported throughout the world. Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States have had several incidents of alleged SRA which received national and international news coverage. Other countries have also had isolated events in which abuse or murder took place with satanic ritual elements, including Argentina and Brazil.

Australia

Perth, Western Australia

In 1991, police in Perth linked Scott Gozenton, a self-professed Satanist, with organized child sexual abuse. His lawyer claimed 13 satanic covens existed in the area, holding bizarre orgies involving children, and that Gozenton had been followed and threatened by "coven" members throughout the court proceedings.

Mornington Peninsula, Victoria

In the late 1980s, a number of children at a daycare centre in the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, began disclosing experiences of organised and ritualistic sexual abuse to their parents and the police. Their disclosures included instances in which they were taken in a car from the creche to a nearby house, undressed by adults and sexually assaulted, video-taped and filmed while naked, and urinated and defecated upon by adults. The children disclosed that some of the abusers wore police uniforms, masks and costumes.

In 1992, a government inquiry ordered that the daycare centre be shut on the basis that there was significant evidence that the owner of the centre had either participated in the abuse or facilitated it. This include forensic evidence that some of the children had been sexually penetrated. The police never pressed charges against the couple, who later fled to Queensland and, in a serious breach of privacy laws, published the names and addresses of all the complainant children online.

In 2002, Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon refers complaints about the mishandling of the case by police to the Victorian Ombudsman. An officer from the Ethical Standards Department was stood down a year later from the Ombudsman's investigation for "incompetence" after failing to pass on information from two key witnesses, and claiming that he never spoke to them when phone records proved that he had. One of the witnesses referred to a tape of child pornography showing men in police uniforms sexually assaulting children from the daycare centre, however, this lead was never followed up by the police. Another witness identified the house in which the children had been assaulted as being owned by a police officer.

The principal of a private college on the Mornington Peninsula repeatedly told the Department of Human Services that a 12-year-old boy disclosed ongoing sexual abuse by an organised group of men wearing police uniforms. According to the principal, all records of the child's complaint vanished. A Victoria Police spokesman said he was not aware that files had disappeared. The police declined to press charges, saying the boy had been "too well groomed" by the pedophiles and probably would not testify in court.

In 2004, the Office of Police Integrity found that the police investigation into the abuse of the children at the preschool had been inadequate and ordered a re-opening of the investigation.

Melbourne, Victoria

In 1998, Robin Angus Fletcher was jailed for eight years after pleading guilty to the sexual and ritual abuse of two children. Fletcher had extensive involvement in a satanic cult, and previous convictions for false imprisonment, indecent assault, managing a brothel and living off earnings of prostitution. Along with his wife, he was found to have used hypnosis and ritualistic abuse to sexually abuse and prostitute two children in the mid-1990s. Whilst in jail, he attempted to have the two children murdered in order to prevent them from testifying against him.

In 2001, the Melbourne diocese of the Catholic Church acknowledged as "substantially true" allegations that a Melbourne priest took part in Satanic ritual abuse in which a number of deaths occurred in the 1960s, and paid compensation to a surviving victim.

Central Coast, New South Wales

In 1999, two journalists from the Sun-Herald claimed to have seen evidence of the ritual abuse of children. They interviewed six mothers whose children had disclosed experiences of SRA and organised abuse in New South Wales. The children's disclosures were corroborating, although they had never met one another, and they had been able to draw 'satanic' ritual sites which were similar to ritual sites uncovered by police on the central coast of New South Wales. One mother stated that her sons remembered being drugged and hypnotised. "He said they dressed in black robes and had eye and mouth pieces cut out," she said. "I know they're pretty dangerous people. I have had warnings outside the house telling me to stop investigations. We're fearful for our lives. The boys never want me out of their sight.".

Belgium

During the investigation of the very high profile Marc Dutroux case, a number of women approached police claiming to be adult survivors of a network of sexual offenders. The disclosures of these women, known as the "X Witnesses", became the infamous "X-Dossiers", and they included accounts of SRA, child murder, child pornography and child prostitution by a number of men, including Dutroux. The X-Witnesses were widely dismissed by the Belgian media, although they solved a number of missing person's cases by directing the police to the bodies of murdered children and women and they knew unpublished details about a number of unsolved murders.

In relation to SRA, Regina Louf (Witness X1) stated in interview, "When they received new victims into their network, it was extremely important that they shouldn’t speak to anyone about what had happened to them. That’s why they organised ‘ceremonies’. They took the victim to a heavily guarded house and convinced her that it was ‘her’ party. There would then be a great performance with masks, candles, inverted crosses, swords and animals. Rabbits were disembowelled, the blood was poured on naked girls, and some men and women worshipped the devil ... The only aim of these rituals was to totally disorient the victims. They plagued these kids with a load of nonsense - ‘Now you are the wife of Satan’ – and also gave them coke, LSD or heroin. I can assure you that after that you feel completely outside the real world. That was the aim – that the victim herself should begin to doubt the fact that all this had really happened. The result was that the victims didn’t dare speak to anyone."

Ireland

In 2006, a jury at Dublin Country Coroner's court unanimously ruled that the infant found stabbed to death over three decades ago belonged to Cynthia Owen. The court found that the infant, Noleen, was fathered by Owen's father and murdered by Owen's mother shortly after birth.

During the trial, Owen detailed her childhood history of incest, organised abuse, and satanic ritual abuse orchestrated by her parents involving at least nine other men and her account was supported by her psychologist. She claimed that her brother and sister Michael and Therese were also abused, a charge that was denied by her older brother and father. Michael and Therese both committed suicide in 2005, and Therese's detailed 37-paged suicide note corroborated Cynthia's account. A friend of Therese's testified at the trial, stating that Therese had spoken to him at length about her sexual abuse in childhood. It also emerged in trial that Therese was the child of one of Owen's older sisters by Owen's father.

Following the findings of the Coroner's Court, Owen has raised questions regarding the disposal of her daughter's body and the failure of the police to investigate the murder. In particular, she has highlighted the fact that no blood or tissue samples were kept, that the bag and sanitary towels found alongside the murdered child have gone missing, that the records of the first inquest into the murder have gone missing, and that her daughter was buried in a mass grave alongside other infants that, it has recently emerged, were subject to illegal experimentation.

Italy

In 1998, six adults in Emilia-Romagna were arrested with allegations of prostituting their children and the production of child pornography. The children were also reported to be involved in satanic rituals. In 2002, four people were arrested for "satanism and paedophilia" in Pescara. Police believed that the group may have abused dozens of children in rituals involving bodies stolen from ceremonies. In April of 2007, six people were arrested for sexually abusing fifteen children in Rignano Flaminio. The suspects were accused of filming the children engaged in sexual acts with 'satanic' overtones.

The Netherlands

In 1989, a group of parents reported suspected abuse in a school in the town of Oude Pekela, The Netherlands, with some individuals reporting Satanic abuse. Authorities investigated and found no proof of abuse and the original allegations and their analysis by researchers have been disputed by scholars. Unrelated allegations in 1991 resulted in a workgroup to study the existence of SRA in the Netherlands, which concluded it was unlikely SRA occurred in the manner described and that the stories were not wholly true. The report suggested the allegations served as a defence mechanism against other types of psychological trauma, produced in part by suggestive questioning by 'believing' therapists.

South Africa

Van Rooyen case

In 1990, Gert van Rooyen and his accomplice were accused of murdering several young girls, ultimately committing suicide while running from the police. One of the accused's stepson was later himself accused of murdering a Zimbabwean girl in 1991; the same son claimed his father's victims were invoved in international child pornography rings, slavery and Satanism ritual, claims which were partly corroborated with further investigation. The case was so similar to crimes committed by Marc Dutroux that multiple agencies investigated a possible international smuggling ring in prostituted children and body parts.

United Kingdom

There have been a number of cases in the United Kingdom in which SRA has been alleged. Some of these cases have garnered significant media attention, and they are listed below.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children affirmed the reality of ritual abuse in 1990, with the publication of survey findings that, of 66 child protection teams in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 14 teams had received reports of ritual abuse from children and seven of them were working directly with children who had been ritually abused, sometimes in groups of 20.

Rochdale

In 1990 there was a case in Rochdale which around twenty children were removed from their homes by social services who alleged the existence of SRA after discovering 'satanic indictators'. No evidence was found of satanic apparatus' and charges were dismissed when a court ruled the allegations were untrue. The children who were removed from their homes sued the city council in 2006 for compensation and an apology.

Orkney

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In 1990-1991 nine children suspected of being sexually abused by their families and an alleged pedophile ring were removed by social services in Orkney. The abuse was also alleged to involve "ritualistic elements". The parents approached the media and made the case national and international news. In April 1991, a sheriff ruled that the evidence was seriously flawed and the children were returned home. In June, social services successfully appealed the sheriff's ruling, but the case was not pursued to the criminal courts.

In 1992, the case was subject to an official inquiry which was very critical of professionals involved in the case. The report found that the conduct of the workers during the removal was proper. However, a 1994 government report based on three years of research found that there was no foundation to the many claims of Satanic abuse.

Broxtowe

In Nottingham, a Broxtowe family was charged with multigenerational child sexual abuse and neglect. A 600-page report on the incident concluded that there was no evidence of the claims made by children or corroborating adults. Though the children may have been 'sadistically terrorized', allegations of organized satanic abuse were found to be baseless and the indicators used by the Social Services department were without validity.

Lewis

In 2003 allegations by three children in Lewis, Scotland resulted in the arrest of eight people for sexual abuse occurring between 1990 and 2000. A 2005 investigation by the Social Work Inspection Agency found extensive evidence of sexual, physical and emotional abuse and neglect. Police investigation resulted in allegations of an island-wide "Satanic paedophile ring", though charges were dropped nine months later following an inconclusive investigation.

A key witness who had implicated her family in the abuse and whose evidence was "vital" to the case of satanic abuse recanted her testimony in 2006 and the media raised questions about the nature of the police interviewing techniques. with a police spokesperson replying that the witness was questioned appropriately and that allegations were made by numerous witnesses.

United States

In the United States, major allegations of Satanic ritual abuse occurred in the Kern County child abuse cases, McMartin preschool trial and the West Memphis 3, which garnered world-wide media coverage. Other high-profile court cases involving allegations of SRA dominated coverage on child abuse throughout the 1980s to 1990s.

Jordan, Minnesota

The first such case occurred in Jordan, Minnesota, in 1983, where several children made allegations against an unrelated man and their parents. The man confessed and then identified a number of the children’s parents as perpetrators. Ultimately twenty four adults were charged with child abuse though only three went to trial with two acquittals and one conviction. During the investigation, the children made allegations of manufacturing child pornography, ritualistic animal sacrifice, coprophagia, urophagia and infanticide, at which point the Federal Bureau of Investigation was alerted. No criminal charges resulted from the FBI investigation, and in his review of the case, the Attorney General noted that the initial investigation by the local police and county attorney was so poor that it had destroyed the opportunity to fully investigate the children’s allegations. Supreme Court Justice Scalia referred to the Minnesota case in his summation on a later case, and stated, "here is no doubt that some sexual abuse took place in Jordan; but there is no reason to believe it was as widespread as charged," and cited the repeated, well-intentioned but coercive techniques used by the investigators as damaging to the investigation. The bizarre allegations of the children, the ambiguities of the investigation and the unsuccessful prosecutions were widely covered by the media. A number of accused parents confessed to sexually abusing their children, received immunity, and underwent treatment for sexual abuse, whilst parental rights for six other children in the case were terminated.

Hosanna Church, New Orleans

In 2007, a state district court jury in Amite voted unanimously Monday to convict Austin "Trey" Bernard III in the rape of his 2-year-old daughter, and 11 of the 12 jurors found him guilty in the rape of a 12-year-old boy. Ten votes were needed to convict. Bernard had pled not guilty, however, he had previously confessed three times, and written about the ritualistic sexual abuse of the children in a detailed 230-page diary supplied to the jury. There are currently six remaining defendants awaiting trial in relation to the case, and they have been accused of organised and ritualistic abuse of three children at Hosanna Church.

The activities at the church became known when one of the defendants walked in to the local sheriff's office, and described to investigators how he and other church members had molested children, taught them to have sex with each other, as well as with a dog, and engaged in SRA. He told the detectives that he drank cat blood and poured it on the bodies of his young victims.

At Bernard's trial, Federal prosecutor Lisa Marie Freitas testified to the fact that Bernard had confessed to the sexual abuse of the complainant children in Satanic rituals. "According to Bernard, the rituals took place in what was called “the room,” which was the church's youth room ... The rituals had a Satanic theme, including a Pentagram, the use of animals and animal parts such as chicken feet and the use of animal blood ... The youth room was pitch black when the lights were out, said, but the room was equipped with a black light. When Bernard turned it on, the light revealed writings on the walls from ceiling to floor. “Every inch, from top to bottom, was writing,” Freitas said. The writing consisted of songs, lyrics and Biblical verses. Some of the words were inverted or changed, she said. Using a special chemical, a search team found signs of body fluids all over the carpet, she said."

See also

• File 18
• Pace memorandum

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External links

• Kenneth V. Lanning: Investigator's Guide to Allegations of Ritual Child Abuse (1992 report by FBI agent)
• Ritual Abuse Bibliography - Articles from periodicals and journals

• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from December 2007
• Mind control
• Satanism
• Crimes involving Satanism or the occult
• Urban legends