Like many people I was horrified by the Hampstead Satanic Ritual Abuse Hoax. This hoax, which may well have been originally inspired by those on the outlying regions of American Christian evangelism, destroyed innocent lives. Those behind this hoax published material that ended up seeing the innocent subjected to constant hounding by deluded arseholes who believe that a church and a school in Hampstead North London was the headquarters of a baby eating Satanic cult.
Now one of the main promulgators of this hoax, Sabine McNeil, 74, has quite rightly been given the lengthy sentence of nine years after being convicted of stalking and breaching restraining orders. McNeil along with a number of others published and republished material that encouraged deranged ‘Satan hunters’ to turn up and shout abuse at churchgoers in Hampstead. These tin foil hat loons inspired by McNeil harassed innocent parents who had been ‘named and shamed’ on various ‘Satan hunter’ forums and even named the children at the centre of this wholly false affair in contravention of laws forbidding the naming of minors who are victims or alleged victims of certain crimes.
What makes her behaviour worse is that McNeil continued with her promoting of this ‘Satanic Ritual Abuse guff online even after the claims were shown to be baseless. After the furore broke out there was a lengthy and detailed investigation by police and a report into the matter by Mrs Justice Pauffley a very senior Family Division judge. Both the police investigation and the judge found that there were no grounds at all to even suspect there was abuse going on with the families named or at the church and school named by the ‘Satan hunting’ lunatics.
Despite there being no evidence at all for any ‘Satanic cult’ operating in Hampstead she still continued to try to ‘uncover’ what has since been revealed to be a non-existent cult. Worse still she continued her stalking and harassment of the four families who have had their lives ruined in defiance of a restraining order not to do so.
Although it’s good that this person is now out of the way and can for the moment do no more direct damage to the innocent, it is a case that shows the real world dangers posed by those who promote groundless conspiracy theories such as ‘Satanic Ritual Abuse’. Those who promote this sort of guff in defiance of any real evidence in their favour are dangerous and should be kept at arms length by sensible people. I have looked on with some alarm in recent years to see that some of the ‘faces’ and organisations on the fringes of Britain’s civic nationalist movement such as the YouTuber Eddieisok and the Democrats and Veterans Party, are treating some of those connected with Satanic Ritual Abuse and similar BS hoaxes such as Belinda McKenzie and Jon Wedger as if they were credible when they are not. McKenzie and Wedger were even invited to speak at a Democrats and Veterans party event, something that appalled me as I know that any involvement with these ‘Satan hunter’ types is a dead cert credibility and reputation killer.
For the record, I do believe that Britain, like other nations, has a problem with child abuse and especially child sexual abuse. This abuse can come from within families, be perpetrated by those in positions of trust and even by organised groups of abusers such as is the case with the Islamic Rape Gangs. All these real problems that need to be tackled. However they will never be properly tackled if people who should know better start chasing the phantom that is ‘Satanic Ritual Abuse’. We as civic nationalists/libertarians/conservatives or whatever similar label we give to ourselves, do ourselves and our political movements no favours by associating with the promoters of this sort of serially debunked guff. By allowing the likes of McNeil et al through the door and treating them as if they have got something worthwhile to say, we open ourselves up to ridicule and failure. I think there are people and organisations in Britain’s civic nationalist movement who need to take a long hard look at themselves and at the sort of people that they are associating with.
Some may say that the sentence that was given to McNeil by Judge Sally Cahill is excessively harsh, but I disagree with that sentiment. The damage that she did to innocent people with her Satanic Ritual Abuse fantasy is immense and the failure to desist from it when it had been proven to be just a fantasy compounds her criminal culpability. Put yourself for a moment in the shoes of one of these innocent families who were baselessly targeted by McNeil and her acolytes, Think how it would be to fear the phone ringing or the doorbell going or to fear being accosted by some ‘Satan hunter’ loon inspired by McNeil whilst taking your kids to school. That is what McNeil put these families through and for no reason whatsoever. This is an exemplary sentence from Judge Cahill but then McNeil helped to promote and sustain one of the nastiest sex abuse hoaxes that Britain has seen in recent years.
