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News items, from the year 2003
ABOUT RITUAL ABUSE,
SATANIC RITUAL ABUSE (SRA),
MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER (MPD), RECOVERED MEMORY THERAPY (RMT), etc.
Sponsored link.
News items:
 | 2003-JAN-21: CO: Woman accuses father of infanticide based on
recovered memory: Julie Connachan, 40, of Fort Collins CO, had
suffered from alcoholism. She underwent hypnosis and
recovered memory therapy under the direction of an unlicensed
therapist and his wife in 1995. She recovered "memories" of childhood
abuse during that therapy. She subsequently accused her father of abusing
her and her baby brother more than 30 years ago. She believes that he
killed her brother and buried his body in the back yard. Her parents deny
that the brother existed. Three other siblings and an older woman, who
came to live with the family as a foster child at about the time that she
thinks the murder happened, believe that Connachan's memories are false.
Connachan's mother, Barbara Mitchell, said: "We agreed to do whatever
is necessary to bring closure. That's just a horrible stigma on somebody's
name, that there is an open homicide investigation...We can't go on living
this way, without some finality. We'll do what we can to stop this
craziness." The father volunteered to take a polygraph test, which he
passed. Such tests are generally regarded as being accurate 85% of the
time. The police have interviewed several people but have found no
physical evidence supporting the murder allegation. Connachan is currently
serving a jail sentence because she refused to allow her son to visit his
father. She fears for her son's safety, because her ex-husband allows her
parents to visit their grand children. Barbara Mitchell said: "When it
comes to false memory syndrome, it's often a no-win situation. No amount
of proof can convince the person they are wrong." 1,2 |
| 2003-MAY-23: CA: Rumors of SRA arises in Laci Peterson case:
Laci Peterson disappeared on 2002-DEC-24, and was apparently murdered. She
was pregnant at the time. Her body and that of her fetus was found
separately. Scott Peterson, her husband, has been charged with committing
two murders. His defense team publicly raised the possibility that a
Satanic group abducted her in a brown van and murdered her as part of a
Satanic ritual. Defense attorney Mark Geragos suggested a link
between Laci's disappearance and the unsolved case of another pregnant
woman Evelyn Hernandez, who went missing on 2002-MAY-1 and also later
washed up in San Francisco bay. He said that both dates mark holy days on
the Satanic calendar. But Richard Ofshe, author of Making Monsters:
False Memories, Psychotherapy, and Sexual Hysteria, says organized
Satanic cults are a complete myth. He told ABC News that: "I think you'd
be better off suggesting Saddam Hussein really did it." He said that
police forces had investigated Satanic ritual abuse back in the late
1980's but had found no evidence that abusive Satanic cults existed.
3 |
| 2003-JUN: North America: "The Hulk" movie centered around repressed
memories: The story line centers around the hero, Bruce Banner,
whose father experimented on Bruce's genetic structure and then tried to
kill him. In the movie, Bruce repressed these memories, and became a very
strong, green, bad-tempered hulk. Pamela Freyd, Executive Director of the
False Memory Syndrome Foundation viewed the movie and reported that "It
is all so silly that it is exactly the proper setting for repressed
memories. There is not a whit of reality as laws of science are defied in
almost every scene. It is pure fantasy. It seems...likely that movie-goers
will associate repressed memories with non-reality. Well, that is our
optimistic hope." 4 |
| 2003-JUL-17: South Africa: Judge denies funding for expert witness:
Robin Classen has been charged with ten counts relating to the alleged
Satanic Ritual Abuse of three siblings ranging in age from seven to 11.
The children have disclosed stories of child murders, body parts kept in
cupboards and various depraved Satanist rituals. Classen denies that he is
a Satanist. His defense is based on the assertion that the children's
stories were implanted by others or invented by the children, and are
unrelated to real events. The Legal Aid Board refused to hire an
expert witness to testify in Classen's behalf. "The board maintained
that psychological evidence about the credibility of the three young child
victims and their mother and about Classen's psychological profile was not
necessary. The expert would evaluate the three children and their mother
to establish their credibility and to investigate if Classen had the
profile of a pedophile....Classen's advocate, Deon Hugo, said his
client would be denied a fair trial if a psychologist did not testify."
The cost would have been R40,000 (about 5,300 US dollars). Acting Judge
Lettie Malopa has refused to overrule the board. |
| 2003-JUL: CA: Conference still features ritual abuse: The 8th
annual International Conference on Family Violence San Diego, CA, will again
feature workshops on repressed memories and ritual abuse. One is titled: "The
Masks of Ritual Abuse Trauma." Another is called "Psychotherapy
with Ritual Abuse Survivors: Obstacles and Solutions." The latter
session will involve three individuals who believe themselves to be ritual
abuse survivors. 6 |
| 2003-SEP-4: USA: SMART conference discusses ritual abuse: Stop
Mind Control and Ritual Torture (SMART) is a support group for persons
who believe that they were abused as children by Satanic groups,
individual Priests, Freemasons, the Illuminati, or the CIA. The Illuminati
is allegedly a secret, world wide society whose goal is world domination.
The CIA involvement involves alleged mind control programs. They held a
conference in Windsor Locks, CT in late August.
 | Conference speaker Jeanette Westbrook said that she was a sex slave
for the Masonic order: "My father handed me over to the cult; I was
like his gift. When they realized that I was a gifted split --
split-personality -- the CIA got hold of me for sexual blackmail
missions." |
| "Juliane" recognized a wavy steel dagger displayed by
Westbrook. She said: "Oh, I recognize that. That's what we killed the
babies with. We were brainwashed by the cult and made to kill firstborn
children." When asked where the sacrificed babies came from, she
replied: "The baby farm." |
| Neil Brick also believes himself to be a survivor of ritual abuse.
He said: "My whole life was very dysfunctional. I was always tense,
always holding my emotions in very tightly. I had a lot of life issues
-- could not hold a job, had a failed marriage, drinking." He said
that the government stunted his growth: "The government kept me small
so that I could easily fit through ducts and crawlspaces when I was on
missions." After attending therapy, he recovered "memories"
of having engaged in assassination missions behind the Iron Curtain. He
said: "I have not been in touch with my family for quite a while. My
belief is that my family is still in the group, possibly for financial
reasons." |
A Hartford Advocate reporter interviewed an expert in ritual
abuse and a specialist in human memory:
| Elizabeth Loftus, a professor of psychology and social behavior at
the University of California, Irvine, has worked for decades in the
field of human memory. She said: "Everything that one might call a
'repressed memory' could have been the result of suggestion and an
active imagination. The things these people say are just not credible."
When asked why people are motivated to attempt to recover memories,
Loftus said: "The benefit is that people have an explanation for
everything wrong in their lives. If you were so traumatized and forced
to commit such awful acts, nothing is your fault. You get a free
pass....They get together in these groups, reinforce each other, ooze
sympathy and empathy, give each other a sense of importance. In the end,
they stay unwell and never get help." |
| Consultant Kenneth Lanning, a former FBI agent with the
Behavioral Science Unit and expert on child ritual abuse said
in a telephone interview: "For me it started about 20
years ago when I got calls about children being tortured by satanic
cults. The calls were coming from all over the country and my first
instinct was to help local law enforcement find out how to catch these
people. But no matter how much we investigated these cases they were
just impossible to substantiate with any physical evidence."
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This essay continues below.
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| 2003-SEP-15: UK: Conference on RMT: The Royal Society of
Medicine in London, UK, sponsored a conference: "Remembering Trauma."
It dealt with such topics as repressed memories, Satanic
Ritual Abuse, and the therapeutic use of hypnosis and regression
therapy to recover memories. The New Statesman magazine, in a
review of the conference, suggests that:
| "Most doctors in the mental health field now accept that some
so-called recovered memories can be false memories unwittingly induced
in therapy by leading questions and suggestions. Now some researchers go
further, arguing that it is impossible to have forgotten a truly
traumatic event. All recovered memories are therefore necessarily false
in the same way as memories of alien abduction." |
Some quotations from the papers delivered at the conference:
| Richard McNally, professor of psychology at Harvard University,
says: "The notion that the mind protects itself by repressing or
dissociating memories of trauma, rendering them inaccessible to
awareness, is a piece of psychiatric folklore devoid of convincing
empirical evidence." |
| Janet Boakes, head of psychotherapy services at St George's
Hospital, London, told the conference: "Most clinicians now accept
the reality of the 'false memory syndrome', but few recognize that they
could themselves be responsible for creating or fostering false memories."
She recommends that therapists: "Avoid any treatment aimed at
facilitating or recovering memory. If the patient gets worse, review the
case from the beginning. Consider whether you could have got it wrong.
There is good evidence that the mental health of patients treated for
sexual abuse that did not happen may deteriorate alarmingly as their
view of themselves and their world is rewritten. Some of them never
recover." 8 |
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| 2003-SEP-19: TX & CA: Christian Ritual Abuse case proceeds: A
Fort Worth newspaper reported that an indictment has been returned which
accuses Michael La Brecque, 44, and his wife Juliette, 45, former
residents of Fort Worth, TX, of transporting and aiding in the
transportation of two minor children from Texas to California between 1999
and 2001 with the intent that they engage in illegal sexual acts. The
newspaper reported that: "The ritualistic sexual abuse of children is a
tenet of the religion of self-styled Mormon sect leader Allen Harrod, 56,
of Folsom, Calif., according to a federal criminal complaint...Harrod
promotes sex with children as an educational rite of passage from
childhood to adulthood, an affidavit filed with the complaint
said....Michael La Brecque was a bishop in Harrod's sect." Assistant
U.S. Attorney Laurel White in Sacramento said "It's a fairly unique
case, it's a pretty horrendous conduct alleged here...I don't know of any
of other cases here involving the underlying religion (the defendants)
professed to believe in." The Mormon sect referred to is reported to
promote polygyny. There are many small Mormon sects which practice
polygyny in the U.S. All have been excommunicated from the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(LDS), the largest Mormon denomination. The LDS
suspended polygyny late in the 19th century, at least temporarily.
9 |
| 2003-OCT-31: France: Baby murders blamed
on Satanists: Four dead
newborns were found in Galfingue, in Eastern France. It appears
that they were born alive, strangled, and then abandoned. Suzanne, a
waitress, speculated that "There are many young women from the east
[of Europe] who are working there now. We know that they are beaten and
raped by their pimps. It could be a pimp who put the babies there."
Other villages blamed the murders on Satanists. Still others blamed Roma
(Gypsies); they are typically "accused when anything goes amiss in
rural
France." Needless to say, the article headline screamed "Satanists."
10 |
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2003-NOV-5: Holland: Exorcism ends in a death: "D.P." was
sentenced in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to 18 months in jail for
assaulting a five-year-old girl during a religious exorcism. Both "D.P."
and the victim's mother were convinced that the child had been possessed
by the devil. The intent of the ritual was to drive the devil from the
child's body with a brua-ritual -- a version of
Vodun which is practiced in the
Netherlands. The assault was so intense that the child died. Since she has
been in custody for 18 months, the perpetrator was released. Earlier in
2003, the same court sentenced the girl's mother to a three-year jail term
and conditional psychiatric treatment. One or two Christian exorcism
rituals which have ended in the death of the victim are reported each
year. This is the first non-Christian exorcism-murder that we have seen in
the media.
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2003-NOV-29: MN: Ralph Underwager died. He died
unexpectedly Saturday morning of necrotic ischemic -- tissue death
caused by the obstruction of a blood vessel. He died only a few hours
after exploratory surgery, surrounded by his family. Underwager and his
partner Hollida Wakefield promoted innovative and pioneering research
into true and false accusations of child sexual abuse. Lesley Wimberly
of recalls meeting him in 1984 at the first conference of Victims of
Child Abuse Legislation (VOCAL). She writes: "I was not only
impressed with his incredible knowledge of how children are so easily
influenced into making false statements of abuse while under inquisition
by a well-meaning and determined investigator, but for his compassion
for all people, of all walks of life. I was fortunate to have known
Holly and Ralph for many years, since. In taking the stand as a
professional in the defense of those falsely accused of the most heinous
of crimes, child abuse, he was viciously attacked, libeled, slandered,
and ridiculed. Still, he held a steady hand on the helm of the truth ...
he never backed down or hid away, but boldly faced his accusers. He
faced them with facts, science, research, and demonstrated how children
in false positive cases were being abused by the very system that was
using them for the prosecution of an alleged abuser. He never swayed
from this course ... even to the end."
12 |
- Sarah Huntley, "Murder story leaves family battered," Rocky
Mountain News, Denver CO, 2003-JAN-21, Page 4A
- "Prosecutors to review woman's accusations that father killed her
younger brother," Associated Press, 2003-JAN-21.
- "Satanic cult theory arises in Laci Peterson case," ABC13.com
Eyewitness News, 2003-MAY-23, at:
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/
- FMS Foundation newsletter, Vol 2, #4, 2003-JUL/AUG.
- "Satanist abuse case: Row over expert continues," South African
Press Association, 2003-JUL-17.
- "8th International Conference on Family Violence," at:
http://www.fvsai.org/fv_8thconf.pdf You need software to read these files. It can be obtained free from:
- Patrick Rucker, "Speak of the Devil. Victimized by satanic cults and
the CIA or just plain crazy? A look at the recent SMART conference at Windsor
Locks," Hartford Advocate, 2003-SEP-4, at:
http://hartfordadvocate.com
- Rosie Waterhouse, "When the mind plays tricks; Observations on sexual
abuse," New Statesman, 2003-SEP-15.
- Toni Heinzl, "Former Fort Worth couple indicted in child sex case,"
Star-Telegram, Fort Worth TX, 2003-SEP-19, at:
http://www.dfw.com/
- John Lichfield, "French baby killings lead to rumours of Satanic
Ritual Abuse," The Independent - London, UK, 2003-OCT-31, Page 13.
- "Jail term cut in voodoo death appeal," Expatica, 2003-NOV-5, at:
http://www.expatica.com/
- Email from Lesley and George Wimberly, forwarded on 2003-DEC-1.
Copyright © 2003 & 2004 by Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance.
Latest update: 2004-APR-10
Author: B.A. Robinson
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