ROCHDALE, UK
SATANIC RITUAL ABUSE CASE
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In 1990, social workers from the Rochdale area raided five homes at dawn
and took 21 children into care. The officials suspected that
horrendous criminal acts were being perpetrated by the children's
parents, allegedly members of a Satanic Ritual Abuse
(SRA) "cult".
The plight of the "stolen children" was given extensive publicity by
reporters of The Mail on Sunday newspaper. After a six month
investigation, they found that the Satanic abuse scare had
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destroyed five families |
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made the children wards of the court, and placed them in foster
homes, separated from their families of origin |
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left almost a dozen parents falsely accused of horrifying sexual/physical abuse
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been based on a myth. Underground, abusing Satanic cults never existed
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The only positive outcome of the whole fiasco was that the newspaper won the
Campaigning Journalists of the Year award for 1990.
The Rochdale case was triggered by two young boys' abuse fantasies. The
younger boy, aged 4 at the time, described being present at ritual
sacrifices of infants and seeing cult members robbing graves in a local
cemetery. A very similar ritual abuse case broke out in the Orkneys
shortly afterwards; more children were taken into care.
With support from the newspaper, the families challenged the care orders
in the High Court. Since there was no hard evidence to show that any
abuse had actually occurred, the children were gradually returned home. The
two boys who started the arrests were the last of the 21 children to be
released. They had been in care for over 6 years when they were given
a High Court hearing, released and reunited with their families before
Christmas 1996 They have returned to their home on the Langley estate in
Middleton, Greater Manchester. However, they will be supervised by a social
worker under an approved "care plan." Tony Heaford, a Middleton councilor,
has been trying to reunite the family for years. He said "They have been
separated from their parents an incredibly long time, despite the ruling in
the original case that Satanic abuse was a myth which did not exist...I
understand part of the reason for not returning them was that the parents
are in debt, which is tantamount to penalisation of the poor." [We suspect
that one of the reasons for the parents' financial difficulties may have been
legal costs associated with the seizure of their children].
In 1991, the courts determined that the allegations of Satanic Ritual Abuse were
false. However an injunction prevented the children from speaking about the
case. 3
Cause of (and fallout from) the Fiasco
The root cause of the disaster seems to have been a series of social workers'
conferences given by what the paper called "fundamentalist Christian
evangelists" from the United States. The workers were "indoctrinated"
with "so-called Satanic Indicators". Some then returned to their
offices, scanned their case loads and found Satanists under every rock.
Fatally flawed interview techniques led to many children making false
confessions, based on memories of non-existent ritual abuse which had accidentally
and unwittingly been implanted by the interviewers. The British
government commissioned a study by Prof. J.S. Lafontaine. Her report indicated that: no evidence of Satanic Ritual
has been found, that unfounded rumors of SRA had been propagated on the basis
of dubious information, and that some Evangelical Christians, psychologists,
childcare workers, and health-care professionals were responsible for spreading
the myth.
Virginia Bottomley, the Health Minister in the early 1990's, said that
every social worker in the UK would be retrained with proper techniques
for child interviewing, and that the "outrageous" and "traumatic"
practice of taking children from their homes in dawn raids would be
discontinued. There was a general shake-up within social service groups.
Unfortunately, not all areas of the UK got the message. A similar disaster
occurred in the Island of Lewis off of the shore of
Scotland in 2003.
Aftermath of the fiasco:
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The Social Services Inspectorate issued a report which
criticized Rochdale council's social services department. |
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Gordon Littlemore, the council's social services director, resigned
over the controversy. |
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During 2005, twelve of the 20 children victimized by the social
services department initiated legal action against Rochdale council
seeking a formal apology and compensation. They are now between 18 and
29 years old. Their lawyer, Richard Scorer, said: |
"When these events happened in 1990 these people were
children who had no idea what was happening to them as they were
being taken away from their families. Now they have all reached
adulthood they are coming forward to speak about what they went
through and they want the record put straight, which has led to
this legal action. When they were eventually returned home they
had to put up with bullying and taunts from other children,
massive family upheaval and, in some cases, parents splitting
up. It has caused them enormous damage. This legal action is
being brought because they want a proper apology from Rochdale
council, and because they deserve compensation for the
psychological damage, disruption to family life and long-term
suffering caused by events which they did not understand and
were never explained to them."
4
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The British Broadcasting Corporation successfully
challenged an injunction that blocked the children from discussing
the case publicly. BBC lawyer, David Attfield, said: |
"One of the things we had to argue in court, was
that now that the families are willing to talk out and want
to talk out they should be allowed to and the rationale for
withholding the identities of those social workers fell
away."
On 2006-JAN-11, their Real Story program broadcast a
documentary on the Rochdale tragedy titled: "When Satan Came
to Town." Rochdale council issued a statement concerning the
program. It said:
"Following the judgment, the local authority took
immediate steps to ensure the mistakes made in this case
would not be repeated. The practice of interviewing children
is now conducted in accordance with carefully researched and
reviewed national guidelines." 4
References
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Andrew Chapman, "Six Years On, Rochdale's Last Victims can go
home" (headline), The Mail, London, England, 1996-DEC-29
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Prof. J.S. Lafontaine, [Great Britain] Department of Health, "Extent
& Nature of Organized Ritual Abuse" ISBN 011 11 321797 8; 1994-May.
Available from Unipub, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham MD 20706, for USF$ 11.49
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"BBC wins removed children ruling," 2006-JAN-11, at:
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/
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"Satanic abuse scandal kids take
action," Manchester Evening News, UK, 2006-JAN-07. Online at:
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/
Copyright 2000 to 2006 by Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance.
Latest update: 2005-APR-29
Author: B.A. Robinson
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