Diane Vera

Alas, it appears that the "Satanic Ritual Abuse" (SRA) scare, though pretty thoroughly discredited by the mid-1990's, has been limping back to life lately. Below are pages containing info (including links to news stories) about two RECENT multi-victim multi-perpetrator (MVMO) child sex abuse cases involving SRA allegations.

* The island of Lewis in Scotland, in 2003 and again in 2005
* The Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula, Louisiana

In the above cases, arrests were made for alleged MVMO child sex crimes. The first one is pretty blatantly baseless, at least as far as the majority of the alleged perpetrators are concerned. The second case is murkier and would require some in-depth investigative reporting to get at the truth.

Below are two other recent criminal cases in which SRA allegations were involved, though arrests in the cases below were made only for other crimes, NOT the alleged MVMO child sex crimes:

* Father Gerald Robinson in Toledo, Ohio (U.S.A.)
* The case of Richard Hamlin, Susan Siemer Hamlin, and Sydney Siemer

The Gerald Robinson murder trial is now being aired on Court TV and is likely to be a launching pad for a lot of new sensationalism about "Satanism," especially given Jeffrey Grob's testimony on Monday, May 1. Grob considers the murder itself to have been a "Satanic ritual" and an act of "ritual abuse." (Aargh....!)

I don't believe we'll see another full-fledged 1980's-style epidemic of MVMO child sex abuse cases. Nevertheless, I feel that we are entering an era of renewed Satanic panic, which is likely to take new forms. For some reasons why I think so, please see also the following page:

* To scholars and journalists: Topics of timely interest

One aspect of the problem is some of the clearly unqualified people who are being taken seriously as police consultantsthese days. For example:

* Dawn Perlmutter and her Institute for the Research of Organized and Ritual Violence

Nostalgic Pushhead

Oh jeez not this shit again.

Hyndis

Just wait until its 6/6/06...