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The Report: The Satanic Cult That Wasn't

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23/04/2015

The Satanic Cult That Wasn't

BBC Radio 4 - The Report, The Satanic Cult That Wasn't

How Satanic abuse accusations in a north London suburb went global, despite being untrue.

How Satanic abuse accusations in a north London suburb went global, but turned out to be untrue. Melanie Abbott investigates.

How Satanic abuse accusations in a North London suburb went global, but turned out to be untrue. Melanie Abbott investigates.

It's members are, it's claimed, drawn mainly from a school and church in Hampstead. They are said to wear shoes made of baby skin, to dance with the skulls of dead babies and to sexually abuse young children. But the cult doesn't exist. The claims are, according to a High Court Judge, 'baseless' and those who have sought to perpetrate them are 'evil'.

The Report investigates why, after a police inquiry and a family court judgement which unequivocally rubbished the notion of Satanic abuse in Hampstead, the allegations are proliferating on the internet and being spread all over the world? We hear from the supposed cult members who have had their personal details and photographs published online and received death threats. And we ask about the welfare of the two children at the centre of it all who were coerced into fabricating the fantastical story.

Producer: Joe Kent.

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