
M.V.M.O. SATANIC RITUAL ABUSE (SRA) HOAX
ISLAND OF LEWIS, SCOTLAND
About the Island of Lewis
Accusations of ritual abuse

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About the Island of Lewis:
The FreeDictionary describes Lewis as the "northern part of the main island
of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland." 1
It has a population of about 25,000 people. The FreeDictionary states
that: "Religion is particularly important on
Lewis, with much of the population belonging to the Free Church, which observes
the Sabbath very strictly, to the extent of chaining children's swings on
Sundays to ensure kids do not play." 2 The Free Church is "an evangelical, Presbyterian Church"
in the Reformed tradition. It "accepts the Bible in its entirety as the
Word
of God." They teach that Satan, "one of these devils speaking in a serpent,"
enticed Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. 3 They believe that vast majority of humans
--
those who are not among the elect of God -- are not saved.
They serve Satan and are destined to spend eternity in Hell. Satan's role on
Earth is to
tempt people into sin.
The Google search engine reports about 689 pages matching the search string
scotland "free
church" satan. With beliefs in the existence of Satan playing such a
major role in the denomination, it is quite likely that many residents of the
island of Lewis believe in the existence of widespread networks of Satanists,
and in extensive Satanic Ritual Abuse of children. Conditions
were ripe on the island for accusations of SRA even as late as 2003 even though
the "Satanic Panic" had burned itself out elsewhere in the English speaking
world.

Accusations of SRA:
On 2003-OCT-3, Police executed "Operation Haven." They conducted
pre-dawn raids on four houses on Lewis Island and three houses in
Leicestershire.
 |
Peter Nelson, 59, and
his daughter Mary Anne, 38, were awakened and taken in for questioning. Their house
was searched. A police officer asked Nelson where his robes were. He thought the
officer was referring to bath robes; actually, the police were referring to
robes that Satanists use during rituals. |
 |
Ian and Penny Campbell were told that their children -- aged
approximately 11,9, 4, 3 and 8 months -- would be taken away. She recalled
later that: "No explanation was offered to the children. I cannot recall
being given the opportunity to hug them or say goodbye before they were
whisked away." |
A total of seven adults were arrested. Most were charged with "rape and lewd, indecent and
libidinous practices" against three young girls under the age of sixteen. A
75 year old grandmother was just charged with ''lewd, indecent and libidinous
practices.'' The News.Telegraph reported that the charges against them
included: "...allegedly engaging in devil worship, group sex with children,
and the ritual sacrifice of animals..." This may be at least partly in
error, because it is doubtful that Satan worship would be considered a criminal offense in the
UK. Because of guarantees of freedom of religion, a person can worship any God,
Goddess, demon, Nature herself, or any other entity.
An unspecified number of children
had their lives disrupted by being taken in to care. They ranged in age from a
few months, to primary school age.
Some islanders assumed that the charges were valid. Some of the adults who
were charged found their homes painted with graffiti and windows smashed in. One
car was torched; a garden wrecked. Bleach was poured around trees.
A total of seven to nine adults were charged; media sources differ on the
exact number. Some of the adults arrested (or spouses of those arrested) were:
 |
Peter Nelson: He commented on the reign of terror to which he and his daughter
had been subjected to. He is reported as saying: |
"These men came from
surrounding areas and destroyed my house and car. They smashed the CCTV system
erected to protect my house, and eventually burnt out my house. We were living
in complete fear - lying awake every night waiting for the next attack...I did
not know the people that I was charged with but the police would not listen. I
was sent to Inverness Prison for nine days and faced constant threats and
dangers." 4
 |
Ian Campbell: During his initial interview, which lasted for four
and a half hours, the police asked him a series of probing questions. Some relate to
religion. The Sunday Herald obtained transcripts of the interrogation. When
asked what his "religious beliefs" are, he responded: ''I wish to
remain anonymous on my beliefs because at the moment I'm not sure what I
actually believe in.'' The police asked if he had an interest in the
occult. He said that he was curious about it.
A portion of the interview has been published. It shows a profound
confusion in the mind of the officer about the occult,
Religious Satanism, Wicca,
Paganism, etc:
|
Police Officer: "Do know anyone else who, or have you heard of anyone
else who, practices the occult?"
Ian Campbell: "No. I don’t know of anyone who practices that kind of
religion."
PO: "Have you any knowledge of the use of statues in practicing the
occult? What about the ritualistic killing of animals? Ritualistic
dress, as in gowns, that type of thing? Do you have any books about
witchcraft?"
IC: "Umm, Wicca witches and things like that? Yes in the kitchen?"
PO: "Wicca witches? What’s that?"
IC: "Well paganism, you don’t know about paganism?"
PO: "I don’t."
IC" "It is not against the law. Paganism is basically about people
who believe in mother Earth. It’s not witchcraft as in, you know,
flaming voodoo sort of things."
PO: "I have information that you were involved in devil-worshipping
ceremonies. Have you ever been into devil worship?"
IC: "Not at all."
PO: "The information we have is that it has taken place and that you
did use it to dress up in a long white gown and wore masks, as did your
wife, and that you carried out some sort of ceremony during which there
was dancing, and that your children were dressed up in a similar manner
to yourselves and there was music being played, described as Indian
music. And also that during this, some form of chanting and praying took
place. Further to that, there was information given to us that whilst
this was being conducted, it was being videoed on a camcorder. Have you
been in a position of seeing any videos which would depict serious
sexual abuse? People being killed, and I’m not talking acting here? Have
you ever drank the blood of a chicken? Have you ever witnessed anybody
else doing that? Ever drink the blood of any other animal?" 5
The core problem seems to have been related to the term "occult"
which is assigned very different
meanings by different groups.
 |
The police seem to have been following the definition used
by some conservative Christians and some feminists: that an evil, underground,
intergenerational, abusive network of Satanists is at the core
of the occult. The many dozens of other components that consider
part of the "occult" -- including Wicca, heavy metal rock music,
the Masonic order, palm reading, snuff movies, child sexual
abuse rings, etc. -- recruits adults into abusive Satanism. |
 |
Others, apparently including Campbell, believe that the
occult is composed of a number of harmless, benign, unrelated
activities, such as the religions of Wicca, other
Pagan traditions,
Religious Satanism, methods of
divination, men's service organizations, etc. |
|
Thus, any discussion between Campbell and the police would almost
automatically lead to
misunderstanding, with each basing their beliefs on a different definition of
the term "occult." The police asked him about the use of statues in the
practicing of the occult, about ritualistic killing of animals, ritualistic
dress, etc. The police were obviously linking the "occult" and a
non-existent form of Satanism -- that composed of abusers and criminals. In
addition it seems that they may have assumed that all Pagans, Wiccans, and
Satanists engaged in Satanic Ritual Abuse of children. The
police accused him of being involved in the videotaping of snuff movies in
which individuals were sexually abused and then actually murdered. He denied
this as well. The police said that he and another adult had engaged in
animal sacrifice, killing chickens, rams, lambs with hammers and knives, and
abusing dogs. He denied all such activities. 6
The police had three pieces of evidence that they felt were
incriminating:
 |
The children's disclosures, which the police apparently did not realize
were unreliable to the point of being devoid of meaning. |
 |
Campbell had a book in his home with described Wicca and children. It
may have been Ashleen O'Gaea's book: "The Family Wicca Book: The Craft
for Parents and Children." 7 The police had apparently not read the book, or they would have realized
that it was quite innocuous. |
 |
Campbell's wife told the police that she: ''...recalled
at the birthday party one of the girls sat on Ian's lap. He didn't like this
and stood up. That is the extent of the 'physical contact'. You cannot tell
me that two people will recall the same event in exactly the same way,
especially after six years. Ian doesn't recall the girl sitting on his lap.'' |
|
Campbell was sent to Porterfield Prison in Inverness. His children were
later returned to the care of his wife. However, when she and the children
returned home, they were
confronted by a mob that surrounded their house. She said: "Vigilante mobs
roamed the streets and my children were left so terrified that they had to keep
their bedroom lights on." When Ian was released on bail on 2003-OCT-16, the
police allegedly refused to protect him on his trip home. Peggy Campbell said: "A
villager who recognized him on the return ferry had arranged for a number of
other people to meet him. They followed him back to the house in their cars,
shouting at him." Peggy believes that the police arrested Ian because
he is a Pagan. She suggests that the police showed ''blatant religious
discrimination, equating paganism with devil worshipping. Ian and I believe that
it was because he described himself as Pagan, and I didn't, that he was charged
and I was released.'' 8
 |
Susan Sellwood told a reporter for the Sunday Herald: |
''We're
supposed to have all raped the girls and then the men did. Then we were having
sex orgies. We had sex orgies with each other's partners - wife-swapping,
whatever you want to call it - at each other's houses. We're supposed to have
killed cats, chickens, rams and lambs, then drunk the blood. We were accused of
drug taking and making snuff movies. I didn't even know what a snuff movie was.
The satanic cult was supposed to have threatened the mother to keep quiet. John
was accused of trying to get her to change her evidence after a complaint. This
was supposed to have been on CCTV. Porno photos are supposed to have been taken
by us using a webcam. The police said that they had medical evidence that the
accused had sexually assaulted the girls. But they had no DNA. They had
no DNA evidence.'' 8

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References used:The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
-
"Lewis," TheFreeDictionary at:
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Lewis
-
The Free Church of Scotland has a web site at:
http://www.freechurch.org/
-
"Sum of Saving Knowledge," The Free Church, at:
http://www.freechurch.org/
-
Alasdair Palmer & Rajeev Syal, "Parents cleared of child abuse to sue police," News.Telegraph, 2004-JUL-04, at:
http://www.mobile.telegraph.co.uk/
- Daryl Dobson, "Western Isles: falsely accused
remain demoralised," at:
http://www.faascotland.co.uk/
-
Neil MacKay, "I've never done anything, I
swear," the Sunday Herald, 2004-JUL-11.
-
Ashleen O'Gaea, "The Family Wicca Book: The Craft for Parents and
Children," Llewwellyn Publications, (1993).
Read
reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store.
-
Vicky Allan, "We were accused of raping
little girls, having orgies, killing cats and chickens and drinking their
blood ... it was all lies but they wouldn't believe us," Sunday Herald,
2004-JUL-11. Online at:
http://injusticebusters.com/

Copyright © 2004 to 2006 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Originally written: 2004-JUL-9
Latest update: 2006-APR-28
Author: B.A. Robinson 

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