Last October several people were arrested for Satanic abuse. Angry mobs terrorised the charged people, frightening their children as well. One man had his house burnt out. The police did little to protect these people, accused of raping young girls. You might be tempted to say, who cares about some child rapists? Except that after 8 months the charges were quietly dropped. Along with the charges was a civil case by the social services, also dropped. The parents are considering suing the police. Once again we have a case of social services charging in like the cavalry to save everyone from the Indians (aka native Americans) and shooting the civilians instead. Once again questionable investigation techniques appear to have been used and a social services determined to believe anything no matter how thin the evidence. No sign of an apology or even an explanation. The social services haven't learnt from last time. It seems like they apply an attitude of man=guilty and woman=innocent and will suspect men of anything with no proof but when the reverse is true, a woman is the central character, no amount of evidence will convince them of her guilt until it is too late. Only when they get past this attitude will they actually start to find the real abusers.
From the Telegraph Parents cleared of child abuse to sue police
People who were falsely accused of satanic child abuse on a remote Scottish island spoke out yesterday against the police and social services investigations that led to their arrests.And from the Scotsman Charges Against Seven in Child Abuse Case Dropped
The charges against them, including allegedly engaging in devil worship, group sex with children, and the ritual sacrifice of animals, were dropped on Friday by the procurator fiscal. Social services have also told those accused that they would now abandon their own, separate, civil case.Six men and a woman were arrested in dawn raids in October last year and were charged with rape and sexual abuse against three girls aged under 16 on the Isle of Lewis, off the west coast of Scotland.
Four of the accused lived on the island, which has a population of 20,000. The charges led to a series of terrifying mob attacks against their homes.
Peter Nelson, 59, one of the men who was arrested and charged, said yesterday that he was seeking legal advice to sue the Northern Constabulary for wrongful arrest and Stornoway Social Services department for wrongful imprisonment. Speaking from his home in Leurbost, a village 10 miles from Stornoway, he said that he and his daughter Mary Ann, 38, had lived in terror from the moment the allegations were first made.
"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," he said.
Mr Nelson, who is physically disabled, said that central to his claim against the authorities will be the fact that he was charged with offences that were supposed to have taken place in 1995 - even though he only came to the island in 1997.
"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," he said.
The nightmare began for the accused at 6am last October, when police raided four houses on Lewis and three houses in Leicestershire. Ian Campbell, 38, a father of five, was woken in his island home by police and shown a piece of paper stating that he was accused of raping young girls.
He and his wife, Penny, were then told that their children - now aged 12, 10, five, four and 17 months - would be taken away.
"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," said Mrs Campbell yesterday.
Two days later, Mr Campbell, a fish farmer, was sent to Porterfield Prison in Inverness. Meanwhile his children were returned, but they and his wife had to face a mob that surrounded their home. "Vigilante mobs roamed the streets and my children were left so terrified that they had to keep their bedroom lights on," she said.
When Mr Campbell was released on bail on October 16, the police allegedly refused to escort him home, and he was recognised by someone on the ferry, said Mrs Campbell. "A villager who recognised 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," she said.
Mrs Campbell said that she will also be seeking legal action against the authorities involved.
Dr Bill Thompson, a forensic criminologist who has examined the evidence on behalf of those accused, said that the charges derived from a series of unsubstantiated assumptions made by the police and social services.
"This is not the first case since the Orkney scandal [when similar accusations of satanic child abuse were made and later dropped] in which the allegations were constructed on the basis of interview techniques that have long been discredited and fly in the face of all the rules that are supposed to define how children and adults are questioned."
A spokesman for Northern Constabulary said that the investigation was conducted properly. "In the investigation of such emotive and complex cases, the interests and safety of children is always paramount and as such all avenues of inquiry were rigorously investigated and reported accordingly."
Murdo Macleod, the chairman of the social services committee of the Western Isles Council, declined to comment.
The prosecution of seven people in connection with alleged child abuse in the Western Isles has been dropped, officials said today.The original text from October 2003 from the Telegraph Police charge seven in Western Isles child sex inquiryA statement from the Crown Office in Scotland said: “Following a thorough investigation by the procurator fiscal and careful consideration of all the available evidence Crown counsel has instructed that no proceedings be taken in this case.”
Six men and a woman appeared in private at Inverness sheriff court last October accused of sex offences involving three girls under 16.
The men were charged with rape, and lewd indecent and libidinous conduct.
They were named at the time as Iain Campbell, 38, of South Dell, Ness, Isle of Lewis; John Gray, 58, of Graham Park, also South Dell; Peter Nelson, 58, of Leurbost, Lochs, Isle of Lewis; John Sellwood, 65, of Upper Coll, Isle of Lewis; Neil Stretton, 48, Sturdee Road, Leicester; and Timothy Tetley, 36, of The Caravan, The Manor House, Fifehead, Magdalen, Gillingham.
The woman, Lily Place or Smith, 75, of Perth Avenue, New Parks, Leicester, was charged with lewd, indecent and libidinous conduct involving the same three underage girls.
All seven were granted bail when they appeared before the court in October
Today’s statement from the Crown Office said: “The procurator fiscal has been in contact with the local social work department and the Children’s Reporter to ensure all relevant information is provided to those authorities responsible for the ongoing care of the children.”
Seven people were charged with alleged child sex offences yesterday after a series of dawn raids on family homes in different parts of Britain.Between 10 and 20 men and women were detained by one police force in Scotland and three in England, and several children were taken into protective care.
The nationwide operation was led by police in the Western Isles but involved simultaneous raids by officers in Dorset, Leicestershire and West Yorkshire.Police in Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis, charged four men yesterday afternoon, and another three adults last night.
They were picked up by officers and social workers at addresses in the crofting townships of Ness and Lochs, in the northern part of the island.
It is understood that five children have been put in the care of the social work department of the Western Isles Council.
The seven charged under the Child Protection Act are expected to appear at Stornoway sheriff court on Monday.
It seems like the SS scum have learnt nothing from their previous mistakes. They truely are a pariah organisation. The earlier Orkney Island scandal has still not seen all the children returned to their parents.
The enquiry into this scandal found no blame on the part of the SS. This was conducted by the Nanny blinder Dame Butler-Schloss (she had to attend a driving awareness course). Shortly after the whitewash enquiry Schloss was promoted to head of the family court division.
Believe this: your children will be next.
Posted by: N/A | July 14, 2004 at 09:55 PM
In Confidence
Dear Sir,
Can your organisation supply the name and address of a defence solicitor connected with this case?
The reason is some 13 years ago I had to do an investigation into the Satan Abuse craze and wroie an academic paper on the results. The whole thing was proved beyond any doubt to be a complete fundamentalist hoax, initiated by adult fundametalists in their beliefs of the apocalype.
I am amazed that the whole thing has remerged years later as it was totally discredited, but not our old friend "disclsure therapy" appears to be the origin of it.
I assure you this is a legitimate enquiry and would value any assistance you can give.
The work 13 years ago may be of some use,
yours sincerely,
Richard Roper
Posted by: Richard A. Roper | July 17, 2004 at 01:29 AM
I am the wife of Ian Campbell. He returned home on May 7th, when his solicitor approached social services with the intention of taking the matter of him forcibly being kept away from his home (black-mail, we were told if Ian returned our children would be taken into care) to court. SS realised that it would be made public that they were doing this with no evidence other than an allegation, and backed down.
We have been doing our own investigating and have learnt a substantial amount from the girls Uncle, who knows they had a medical examination in 2001 (before being fostered, the charges against everyone dated from 1995-2001, two years before we even moved here) which showed no signs of abuse. Their mother was seen meeting with the girls when contact had been forbidden (they were removed from their mother about 3 years ago), their mother signed a document stating her unreliability due to her past history of making false allegations, it also stated that she was a danger to the girls, SS had that document in their possession. One of the girls had made an allegation against her foster parent, and later admitted it was a lie. The eldest girl started receiving controversial 'disclosure therapy' at the age of 3, when her mother claimed a case of nappy rash was abuse by their father (the doctor disagreed, he said it was nappy rash, SS carried on with the assumption of abuse). This girl is now about 16 years old. The NCH manager here (who lives in our village) had been bribing the girls with sweets and using anatomically correct dolls with them, a method so controversial that some local authorities no longer use it. The list of information contradicting their claims goes on.
Ian used to go on school trips with our children, he can never do that now. He trained as a youth worker in Guernsey (where he comes from, I'm from Arbroath), that is worthless now. His life has been permnantly damaged by professionals who are anything but, who clearly did not do their homework at all and simply don't care, because no matter how badly they do their job, they are untouchable.
The day after the charges were dropped, we received a letter from the Children's Reporter to say that a Children's Panel Hearing is not required, and they were taken off the 'at risk' register about three weeks ago.
Two days ago, we received most of our property back, some of their 'evidence' of devil-worshipping included two pictures drawn at school by our 5 year old daughter, one features the numbers 1-10 written across the top, with the figure of someone apparently wearing a tall hat. The other is in story-board format, with pictures in it of a castle and two people on a broomstick.
They took photos of our eldest cat,our duck, our two eldest playing at snowball fights in our garden, our 3 year old pretending to use the mobile phone and others. They took letters from our niece and her father, our brother-in-law, written shortly after we managed to trace them after a gap of 7 years. They took our books on Paganism (but left those of other religions, including the Bible). They even took our first aid box because it was were Ian stored the condoms to prevent the children getting them. If this is what they consider to be evidence of devil-worshipping, then surely that means every family and household in the UK is guilty!
FAO Mr Richard A. Roper, Ian's solicitor for the latter half of the case, was John McCormick of Glasgow, who is well experienced in these cases.
Posted by: Penny Campbell | August 07, 2004 at 01:52 AM