Not only do skeptics such as Lanning choose to ignore eyewitness/victim accounts of ritual criminal activity, they apparently also choose to overlook the significant number of cases of ritual abuse in which perpetrators have confessed to their crimes. In the Bottoms et al. (1991; 1993) study of 2,292 cases of ritual abuse, perpetrators in 30% of the child cases confessed to abusing one or more children, and perpetrators in 15% of adult cases confessed to perpetrating as well. In the case studied by Snow and Sorenson (1990), two adolescent perpetrators admitted to charges of abuse. Both of these sets of data require further analysis to determine which acts of ritual abuse were confessed to by what number of perpetrators.Corroboration and eyewitness accounts offered by children should also be given serious attention when therapists and investigators can demonstrate that no contamination of the children’s disclosures has taken place. In the case studied by Jonker and Jonker-Bakker (1991), children from different schools and different locales gave accounts of perpetrators, abuse locations, and abusive acts that were mutually corroborating. Accounts of tunnels under the McMartin preschool given by children claiming to have been ritually abused at the school were fully corroborated when the existence and location of the tunnels were documented by a professional team of archaeologists (Summit, 1994).from Denying Ritual Abuse of ChildrenThe Journal of Psychohistory 22 (3) 1995

~ Catherine Gould

Catherine Gould Child Abuse Child Sexual Abuse Confessions Convicted Convictions Corroborated Courts Coverup Crime Criminals Day Care Denial Disinformation Existance Of Ritual Abuse Eyewitness Fbi Guilty Hoax Lanning Law Mcmartin Misinformation Proof Reality Ritual Abuse Ritual Abuse Myth Satanic Ritual Abuse Sexual Abuse Skeptic Society Denial Testimony Tunnels Victim

It has become fashionable in the last several years for the media to minimize and even dissemble about the data which so strongly support the existence of ritual abuse. Amazingly, this has happened even in relation to ritual abuse cases in which criminal convictions have been obtained. Parenting magazine (Ruben, 1994), for example, asserted that “far more cases (of ritual abuse) end in acquittal” than in conviction.In fact, 58% of the ritual abuse cases in the Finkeihor (1988) study that went to trial resulted in convictions. In the Kelly (1992b) study, convictions were obtained in 80% of the ritual and sexual abuse cases combined; since there were no significant differences between the rates of criminal conviction in these two groups, we can surmise that convictions were obtained in approximately 80% of the ritual abuse cases Kelly studied. Finally, and most significant given the thousands of cases studied, convictions were obtained in 11% of all ritual child abuse cases studied by Bottoms et al. (1991; 1993).from Denying Ritual Abuse of ChildrenThe Journal of Psychohistory 22 (3) 1995

~ Catherine Gould

Catherine Gould Child Abuse Child Sexual Abuse Confessions Convicted Convictions Corroborated Courts Coverup Crime Criminals Day Care Denial Disinformation Existance Of Ritual Abuse Fad Fashionable Guilty Hoax Law Misinformation Proof Reality Ritual Abuse Ritual Abuse Myth Satanic Ritual Abuse Sexual Abuse Skeptic Society Denial Testimony Victim

Habitual excuses for inactivity indicates little or no interest in what one ought to have done.

~ Itohan Eghide

Itohan Eghide Alibi Apology Cover Coverup Curiosity Depression Done Enthusiasm Excuses Habit Interest Laziness Leisure Lethargy Lifeless Lifelessness Moment Pessimism Pursuit Rationalization Reason Story

This vacillation between assertion and denial in discussions about organised abuse can be understood as functional, in that it serves to contain the traumatic kernel at the heart of allegations of organised abuse. In his influential ‘just world’ theory, Lerner (1980) argued that emotional wellbeing is predicated on the assumption that the world is an orderly, predictable and just place in which people get what they deserve. Whilst such assumptions are objectively false, Lerner argued that individuals have considerable investment in maintaining them since they are conducive to feelings of self—efficacy and trust in others. When they encounter evidence contradicting the view that the world is just, individuals are motivated to defend this belief either by helping the victim (and thus restoring a sense of justice) or by persuading themselves that no injustice has occurred. Lerner (1980) focused on the ways in which the ‘just world’ fallacy motivates victim-blaming, but there are other defences available to bystanders who seek to dispel troubling knowledge. Organised abuse highlights the severity of sexual violence in the lives of some children and the desire of some adults to inflict considerable, and sometimes irreversible, harm upon the powerless. Such knowledge is so toxic to common presumptions about the orderly nature of society, and the generally benevolent motivations of others, that it seems as though a defensive scaffold of disbelief, minimisation and scorn has been erected to inhibit a full understanding of organised abuse. Despite these efforts, there has been a recent resurgence of interest in organised abuse and particularly ritualistic abuse (eg Sachs and Galton 2008, Epstein et al. 2011, Miller 2012).

~ Michael Salter

Michael Salter Accusations Attack Authority Beliefs Blame Child Abuse Child Protection Child Sex Confabulation Cover Up Coverup Crime Cult Cult Abuse Debate Defence Denial Disbelief Discrediting Epstein Evidence Fairness Galton Horror Hysteria Injustice Innocence Investigation Just World Justice Karma Law Legal Media Memory Mental Health Miller Minimisation Miscarriages Of Justice Misunderstanding Moral Panic Organised Abuse Organized Abuse Paedophiles Pedophile Pedophile Rings Prosecution Recovered Memories Ritual Abuse Ritualised Abuse Sachs Safe World Satanic Ritual Abuse Scorn Self Efficiacy Sense Of Safety Sexual Abuse Sexual Violence Social Justice Social Workers Society Denial Testimony Therapists Toxic Trauma Traumatic Trust Understanding Victim Victim Blaming World View

Some readers may find it a curious or even unscientific endeavour to craft a criminological model of organised abuse based on the testimony of survivors. One of the standard objections to qualitative research is that participants may lie or fantasise in interview, it has been suggested that adults who report severe child sexual abuse are particularly prone to such confabulation. Whilst all forms of research, whether qualitative or quantitative, may be impacted upon by memory error or false reporting. there is no evidence that qualitative research is particularly vulnerable to this, nor is there any evidence that a fantasy— or lie—prone individual would be particularly likely to volunteer for research into child sexual abuse. Research has consistently found that child abuse histories, including severe and sadistic abuse, are accurate and can be corroborated (Ross 2009, Otnow et al. 1997, Chu et al. 1999). Survivors of child abuse may struggle with amnesia and other forms of memory disturbance but the notion that they are particularly prone to suggestion and confabulation has yet to find a scientific basis. It is interesting to note that questions about the veracity of eyewitness evidence appear to be asked far more frequently in relation to sexual abuse and rape than in relation to other crimes. The research on which this book is based has been conducted with an ethical commitment to taking the lives and voices of survivors of organised abuse seriously.

~ Michael Salter

Michael Salter Accusations Amnesia Attack Authority Beliefs Blame Child Abuse Child Protection Child Sex Chu Confabulation Cover Up Coverup Crime Cult Cult Abuse Debate Defence Denial Disbelief Discrediting Epstein Evidence Eye Witness Fairness Fantasy Galton Horror Hysteria Injustice Innocence Investigation Just World Justice Karma Law Legal Lie Media Memory Memory Error Mental Health Miller Minimisation Miscarriages Of Justice Misunderstanding Moral Panic Organised Abuse Organized Abuse Paedophiles Pedophile Pedophile Rings Prosecution Recovered Memories Ritual Abuse Ritualised Abuse Ross Sachs Safe World Satanic Ritual Abuse Scorn Self Efficiacy Sense Of Safety Sexual Abuse Sexual Violence Social Justice Social Workers Society Denial Testimony Therapists Toxic Trauma Traumatic Trust Understanding Victim Victim Blaming World View

Today, acknowledgement of the prevalence and harms of child sexual abuse is counterbalanced with cautionary tales about children and women who, under pressure from social workers and therapists, produce false allegations of ‘paedophile rings’, ‘cult abuse’ and ‘ritual abuse’. Child protection investigations or legal cases involving allegations of organised child sexual abuse are regularly invoked to illustrate the dangers of ‘false memories’, ‘moral panic’ and ‘community hysteria’. These cautionary tales effectively delimit the bounds of acceptable knowledge in relation to sexual abuse. They are circulated by those who locate themselves firmly within those bounds, characterising those beyond as ideologues and conspiracy theorists. However firmly these boundaries have been drawn, they have been persistently transgressed by substantiated disclosures of organised abuse that have led to child protection interventions and prosecutions. Throughout the 1990s, in a sustained effort to redraw these boundaries, investigations and prosecutions for organised abuse were widely labelled ‘miscarriages of justice’ and workers and therapists confronted with incidents of organised abuse were accused of fabricating or exaggerating the available evidence. These accusations have faded over time as evidence of organised abuse has accumulated, while investigatory procedures have become more standardised and less vulnerable to discrediting attacks. However, as the opening quotes to this introduction illustrate, the contemporary situation in relation to organised abuse is one of considerable ambiguity in which journalists and academics claim that organised abuse is a discredited ‘moral panic’ even as cases are being investigated and prosecuted.

~ Michael Salter

Michael Salter Accusations Attack Authority Blame Child Abuse Child Protection Child Sex Confabulation Cover Up Coverup Crime Cult Cult Abuse Debate Denial Disbelief Discrediting Evidence Horror Hysteria Innocence Investigation Justice Law Legal Media Memory Miscarriages Of Justice Moral Panic Multi Perpetrator Multi Victim Organised Abuse Organized Abuse Paedophiles Pedophile Pedophile Rings Prosecution Recovered Memories Ritual Abuse Ritualised Abuse Satanic Ritual Abuse Sexual Abuse Social Workers Society Denial Testimony Therapists Victim Blaming

Allegations of multi-perpetrator and multi-victim sexual abuse emerged to public awareness in the early 1980s contemporaneously with the denials of the accused and their supporters. Multi-perpetrator sexual offences are typically more sadistic than solo offences and organised sexual abuse is no exception. Adults and children with histories of organised abuse have described lives marked by torturous and sometimes ritualistic sexual abuse arranged by family members and other care-givers and authority figures. It is widely acknowledged, at least in theory, that sexual abuse can take severe forms, but when disclosures of such abuse occur, they are routinely subject to contestation and challenge. People accused of organised, sadistic or ritualistic abuse have protested that their accusers are liars and fantasists, or else innocents led astray by overly zealous investigators. This was an argument that many journalists and academics have found more convincing than the testimony of alleged victims.

~ Michael Salter

Michael Salter Abuse Of Power Accusations Allegations Authority Blame Child Abuse Child Protection Child Sex Colin Batley Contested Cover Up Coverup Crime Cult Debate Denial Disbelief Eye Of Horus Grooming Horror Incest Investigation Kidwelly Law Legal Media Memory Moral Panic Multi Perpetrator Multi Victim Organised Abuse Organized Abuse Paedophiles Pedophile Pedophile Rings Prostitution Recovered Memories Ritual Abuse Ritualised Abuse Ritualistic Satanic Ritual Abuse Sexual Abuse Society Denial Testimony Victim Blaming Wales

Our need to be greater than or less than has been a defense against toxic shame. A shameful act was committed upon us. The perpetrator walked away, leaving us with the shame. We absorbed the notion that we are somehow defective. To cover for this we constructed a false self, a masked self. And it is this self that is the overachiever or the dunce, the tramp or the puritan, the powermonger or the pathetic loser.

~ Maureen Brady

Maureen Brady Abuse Survivors Ashamed Child Sexual Abuse Child Sexual Abuse Survivor Coverup Defective Defective Humans Dunce False Self Feeling Bad Healing Healing Insights Hidden Feelings Hidden Pain Hidden Self Incest Loser Overachiever Power Trip Puritan Recovery From Abuse Shame Survivor Toxic Shame True Self

Chapter 4,‘Organised abuse and the pleasures of disbelief’, uses Zizek’s (1991) insights into cite political role of enjoyment to analyse the hyperbole and scorn that has characterised the sceptical account of organised and ritualistic abuse. The central argument of this chapter is that organised abuse has come to public attention primarily as a subject of ridicule within the highly partisan writings of journalists, academics and activists aligned with advocacy groups for people accused of sexual abuse. Whilst highlighting the pervasive misrepresentations that characterise these accounts, the chapter also implicates media consumers in the production of ignorance and disdain in relation to organised abuse and women’s and children’s accounts of sexual abuse more generally.

~ Michael Salter

Michael Salter Cover Up Coverup Crime Criminals Disbelief Disdain Evidence Horror Lies Media Mispresentation Mocking Organised Abuse Political Ridicule Ritual Abuse Scorn Victim Blaming

There is unmistakable proof that abusers do get together in order to share children, abuse more children, and even learn from each other. As more cases have come into the public eye in recent years, this has become increasingly obvious. More and more of this type of abuse is coming to light.I definitely think it is the word ritual which causes people to question, to feel uncomfortable, or even just disbelieve. It seems almost incredible that such things would happen, but too many of us know exactly how bad the lives of many children are. A great deal of child pornography shows children being abused in a ritualised setting, and many have now come forward to share their experiences, but there is a still tendency to say it just couldn't happen.Why not?Why, given what we now know about paedophiles and about what they do to children? Would they have limits? It was all done to me and I have enough experiences to write many more books than this one, but this will have to do for now. I've tried to make sense of it and I've tried to tell you my story in a way that will, hopefully, let you understand how it was done, and how they managed to get away with it, but I haven't told you a big part of it yet. I haven't told you what happened that finally ended it all for me.There was something else.When I was eight, someone else came into my life and made a huge difference to what was happening and how things would turn out. I didn't know it then, but I see the whole picture now.Something I have often wondered is whether Andrew was there while I was being abused. Lots of people hide their faces, and there were often masks worn, so he certainly could have been. I have no evidence one way or another though, so I will leave it to the reader to decide whether it would seem in a paedophile's character to watch abuse continue when it has been masterminded by him. But I do know that it wasn't just me who he abused - I know that because I saw it.Andrew was away a lot with the Army until I was at high school, then he left that position. He was instrumental both in my abuse and in setting the scene, but when I was eight, something happened which would distract him and which would, at times, take his attention from me. My mother very kindly provided him with a new victim - my little sister.

~ Laurie Matthew

Laurie Matthew Abuses Challenged Child Abuse Child Sex Ring Child Sexual Abuse Coverup Cult Abuse Culture Of Disbelief Culture Of Secrecy Debate Denial Disbelief False Memory Myth Fear Organised Abuse Organized Abuse Paedobritain Paedophile Paedophile Protectors Paedophile Ring Pedophiles Proof Of Ritual Abuse Rapists Ritual Abuse Rituals Satanic Panic Satanic Ritual Abuse Secrets Silence Silencing Children Society Denial Sra Survivors Terror Truth Victims

Perhaps no skeptic has done more to obfuscate the issue of ritual abuse than Kenneth Lanning of the FBI, who for years has maintained that no substantive evidence exists for the reality of ritual abuse (Lanning, 1991). (As investigative journalist Civia Tamarkin has noted, for decades the FBI also told the American public that the Mafia did not exist in the United States (1991)). “No bodies…No adult witnesses,” as Parenting magazine put it so succinctly, and so erroneously in their March 1994 article “The Satanism Scare” (Ruben, 1994). And why do accounts like the ones given by the 37 ritually abused adults in the Young et al. (1991) study, and the 14 ritually abused families in the Kelly (1992a) study, of group sexual assaults, human sacrifice, forced cannibalism and the like not constitute eyewitness accounts to so-called experts like Lanning?from Denying Ritual Abuse of ChildrenThe Journal of Psychohistory 22 (3) 1995

~ Catherine Gould

Catherine Gould Child Sexual Abuse Convictions Coverup Crime Denial Disinformation Fbi Government Kenneth Lanning Lanning Lanning Report Mistrust Misinformation Research Ritual Abuse Satanic Ritual Abuse Skeptic Social Denial

The UFOs were explicable enough, just experimental aircrafts from the airport. Of course the government was not going to tell people what was actually going on. She would not be surprised if the government encouraged the UFO cultists to flock there as the perfect cover, since no one would ever believe them.

~ Thomm Quackenbush

Thomm Quackenbush Alien Coverup Explanation Government Ufo

FORGET FERES DOCTRINE And the military has immunity! Yes! The feres doctrine! It states “the Government is not liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act for injuries to servicemen where injuries arise out of or are in the course of activity incident to service” (U.S. Supreme Court 1950). Federal law and our Supreme Court shield acts of rape and sexual brutality in the military as proven by its subsequent ruling on a 2001 case that denied a plaintiffs right to file a civil suit against her accusers. Yet when women report the crime, it is handled internally Commanders are given the discretion to resolve complaints. The report may not go beyond his office. Many times he's part of the problem or a sympathizer with the offender. This certainly was my case! Our Supreme Court ruled as recently as 2001 that rape is an injury incident to the course of activity in the service! THE HEINOUS CRIME OF RAPE IS ACCEPTABLE AND CONDONED BY OUR SUPREME COURT! WOMEN ARE FAIR GAME FOR RAPE AND HARRASSMENT, ACCORDING TO OUR SUPREME COURT! CONGRESS IS NO BETTER! NO LAWS ARE PASSED TO PROTECT US IN THE MILITARY AGAINST THE STATUTE OF LIMITATION FOR THE FELONY OF RAPE!

~ Diane Chamberlain

Diane Chamberlain Abuse Of Authority Abuse Of Power Air Force Army Colonels Comrades Congress Court Coverup Equality Federeal Felony Feres Feres Doctrine Government Harrassment Law Legislation Military Military Sexual Assault Racism Rape Rape Culture Sexism Sexual Assault Sexual Harassment Soldiers Statute Of Limitations Supreme Court United States Women In The Military

This monograph by Special Agent Ken Lanning (1992) is merely a guide for those who may investigate this phenomenon, as the title indicates, and not a study. The author is a well known skeptic regarding cult and ritual abuse allegations and has consulted on a number of cases but to our knowledge has not personally investigated the majority of these cases, some of which have produced convictions. p179[refers to Lanning, K. V. (1992)Investigator's guide to allegations of ritual child abuse. Quantico, VA: National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime.]

~ Pamela Sue Perskin

Pamela Sue Perskin Child Abuse Coverup Coverups Crime Cult Abuse Deception Denial Disinformation Fbi Fbi Lanning Federal Bureau Of Investigation Investigation Lanning Report Misinformation Quantico Ritual Abuse Satanic Satanic Ritual Abuse Society Denial

One example was the assertion that a seven-year FBI study revealed no evidence of organized cult or ritual activity in the United States. In reality there is no such study. The day following the ABC program, my office contacted the FBI and requested a copy of the alleged study. The bureau responded in writing indicating that no such study existed.[referring to the Lanning report - Lanning, K. V. (1992)Investigator's guide to allegations of ritual child abuse. Quantico, VA: National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime.]

~ Pamela Sue Perskin

Pamela Sue Perskin Child Abuse Coverup Crime Cult Fbi Federal Bureau Of Investigation Lanning Ritual Abuse Satanic Satanic Ritual Abuse Sra

In 1996 Dorothy Mackey wrote an Op-ed piece, “Violence from comrades a fact of life for military women.” ABC News 20/ 20 did a segment on rape in the military. By November four women came forward at Aberdeen Proving Ground, in Maryland, about a pattern of rape by drill sergeants. In 1997 the military finds three black drill sergeants to scapegoat. They were sent to prison and this left the commanding generals and colonels untouched to retire quietly. The Army appointed a panel to investigate sexual harassment. One of the panelists was the sergeant Major of the Army, Eugene McK

~ Diane Chamberlain

Diane Chamberlain Abuse Of Authority Abuse Of Power Air Force Army Colonels Comrades Congress Court Coverup Feres Feres Doctrine Law Legislation Military Military Sexual Assault Racism Rape Rape Culture Sexism Sexual Assault Sexual Harassment Soldiers Supreme Court United States Women In The Military

Most people, if they know they have done wrong, foolishly suppose they can conceal their error by defending it, and finding a justification for it; but in my belief there is only one medicine for an evil deed, and that is for the guilty man to admit his guilt and show that he is sorry for it. Such an admission will make the consequences easier for the victim to bear, and the guilty man himself, by plainly showing his distress at former transgressions, will find good grounds of hope for avoiding similar transgressions in the future.

~ Arrian

Arrian Coverup Error Justification Mistakes Transgression Transgressions

When the President does it , that means that it is not illegal.

~ Richard M. Nixon

Richard M. Nixon Abuse Of Power Coverup Dumb Gaffe Government Corruption Politicians Wrong