From: David.Rice@ofa123.fidonet.org
Newsgroups: alt.atheism
Subject: Religion & Crime / "Satanic Conspiracy"
Date: 5 Oct 92 13:12:36 GMT
X-Sender: newtout 0.02 Oct  1 1992

Religion & Crime / "Satanic Conspiracy" Series #010
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               WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE UK????
 
 
Yes, the fundies are active in the UK too. The following  is 
taken from the Times Newspaper of Tuesday 13 March 1990:
 
             NSPCC says ritual child abuse rife
 
               By Libby Jukes & Richard Duce
 
 
Children  as young as five are being forced to take part  in 
bizarre  sex and satanic rituals, the National  Society  for 
the Prevention of Cruelty to Children said yesterday.
 
Satanic  rites  involving drugs, animal sacrifices  and  the 
drinking  of urine and blood are causing "great anxiety"  to 
the  NSPCC.  It says there is widespread evidence  of  child 
pornography and  sex rings.
 
The charity is calling for the Government and police to  act 
after  seven  investigating teams has  reported  ritualistic 
abuse.
 
Mr Jim Harding, the NSPCC child care director, said that  in 
many cases of ritual abuse "threats are made to the children 
to  control them and to try to keep them silent  about  what 
has happened".
 
He  described a horrifying catalogue of reported  ceremonies 
in which urine and blood were drunk while children aged only 
five and adults wore masks and costumes.
 
"Sometimes animals are abused and killed. Sometimes there is 
sexual activity between adults in view of children. Drugs or 
alcohol  are often used, and the children are made to  drink 
the alcohol or administer the drugs."
 
Ritualistic  abuse  "has  connotations  with  some  kind  of 
supernatural symbolic behaviour," he said.
 
The society and the Department of Health are wring  together 
to  tackle the problem and will hold a meeting in  the  next 
few  weeks  with  police, social  services  departments  and 
churches to "try to make some sort of early estimates  about 
how common this behaviour is, and also consider how best  to 
deal with the problems of organised abuse".
 
A  spokeswoman for the charity said: "There may well not  be 
any  evidence  in  terms of the police being  able  to  make 
prosecutions  - in such cases you frequently only  have  the 
childs'  evidence and sometimes that child is too  young  to 
give evidence in court.
 
"Children involved in organised abuse may be frightened  and 
even under questioning find it difficult to express what has 
happened to them.
 
"However, we are absolutely sure that we are dealing with  a 
problem  that's  happening  and that  the  children  we  are 
dealing with are telling us the truth."
 
Seven  NSPCC  teams reported finding  evidence  of  children 
being  caught  up  in  ritual  abuse,  while  another  seven 
expressed  fears  that they had found youngsters  who  could 
have been involved in similar activities. Scotland Yard says 
it has no firm evidence of satanic or ritualistic abuse, but 
concedes that young victims might be terrified into silence.
 
The  spokeswoman said police were working closely  with  the 
charity in the areas where the first seven teams operated.
 
"We  cannot  identify  those areas because to  do  so  would 
endanger  the lives of the children and the  social  workers 
involved."
 
A survey of the 66 child protection teams in England,  Wales 
and  Northern  Ireland  found that  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.
 
Presenting  the  society's  annual  report,  Mr  Christopher 
Brown,  the  director, said that the year  ending  September 
1989,  in which income rose 33 per cent to 26 million,  had 
seen record activity for the society. About 54,000  children 
were  helped, 12.5 per cent more than in the previous  year. 
The  society  saw more than 5,000 cases of  physical  abuse, 
4,500 of neglect and 3,600 of sexual abuse.
 
 
                   **** END OF QUOTE ****
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--- Maximus 2.00