Showing posts with label Satanism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Satanism. Show all posts

3 Apr 2011

Woman who helped put her mum and Satanic cult leader in jail for ritual sex abuse of children describes the horrors



The Sun  -  UK        March 31, 2011

Satanic cult boss convinced me he could make tsunamis happen

By JENNA SLOAN


HOLDING her daughter tightly, Gemma Marling whispers "I love you" to three-year-old Emily.

It is something she tells the little girl several times each day.

For Gemma, 21, knows from bitter experience how important a mother's unconditional love and support is.
Earlier this month she gave evidence in court which resulted in her own mother, 42-year-old Jacqueline Marling, being jailed for 12 years for a series of sickening sex attacks on her own daughter and other children.

Gemma's evidence also helped to jail Jacqueline's depraved lover, Colin Batley - a Satanic cult leader.

And one day she will have to break the horrifying news to Emily that Batley is her father.

Gemma said: "Now the trial is over the reality has hit me. I know I'm never going to have a mum.

"People take their parents for granted but I'd do anything to have a mum and dad."

Gemma's ordeal started at the age of eight when Jacqueline moved the family from their home in east London to Kidwelly, a town in Carmarthenshire, west Wales.

They settled into a nondescript semi in Clos Yr Onnen - Welsh for Ash Tree Close - but behind the house's bland exterior was a Satanic nightmare orchestrated by depraved Colin Batley, who lived next door.

Gemma said: "My mum knew Colin in London but I didn't meet him until we moved to Wales. One night I was in bed and my mum got me up and took me downstairs.

"Colin was sitting in the living room. There was a candle flickering and I couldn't see him properly. It was like a horror movie."

Jacqueline then performed a sex act on Batley in front of her terrified daughter. Gemma recalls: "Colin said to me, 'One day you'll start your periods and I'll have you.'

"After that I was terrified, but Colin didn't touch me again for three years, although he was constantly in and out of our house. My mum did what he said and so did we - you follow what your mum does. She's meant to look after you."

Batley was an ardent disciple of occult and Satanist writer Aleister Crowley, and styled himself a cult "lord". He built up a harem of adoring female followers who lived in the close.

They included his bisexual wife Elaine, who was jailed for eight years for her part in the abuse, Jacqueline, and prostitute Shelly Millar, who was sentenced to five years.

All were tattooed with the symbol of Egyptian god Horus and followed Batley's warped theories promoting rape and promiscuity.

When Gemma was 11 Batley initiated her into the cult.

She said: "Colin raped me for the first time. It was a sunny summer day and I'd come inside to escape the heat when he forced himself on me.

"He then visited every night for the next eight weeks, as he was decorating our house.

"He said the sex was a test. If I passed, I'd go to the palace where he lived.

"I feel a mug now for believing it but what else would I know?

"If I didn't do it I was told I'd go to hell, where I'd suffer a lifetime of pain with no sleep or respite.

"I was too scared to tell anyone what was going on. I didn't know it was happening to anyone else. I thought I was on my own."

When Gemma turned 14 her mother began to join in the sex abuse, and when she was 16 Jacqueline even filmed her having sex with a boy of 15.

Batley ruled the cult with his encyclopaedic knowledge of The Book Of The Law, a text written by his hero Crowley, and used twisted logic to keep control.

Gemma recalled: "Colin said he made the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 happen. He said he'd done it because we had broken so many rules and the gods were angry.

"On the day he was sentenced, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan happened, and I instantly thought Colin had done it. I know now that's not possible but he was very good at placing things and convincing you that you'd caused a disaster. I was totally brainwashed."

At 17 Gemma became pregnant with Batley's baby. She said: "When I found out it was the first time I'd cried in six years. I didn't want a baby - I couldn't bring a child into that kind of hell."

But the cult leader forced her to keep the child, saying the baby belonged to the gods. Gemma explained: "I said I wanted an abortion but I was called a murderer. When I was pregnant I attempted suicide twice.

"I cut myself and took an overdose. I just didn't want to be there. Colin found out and said the gods had saved me."

Gemma was 18 when she gave birth in February 2008. She recalled: "After I had Emily I felt like I had something worth living for. She gave me my life back."

But when Emily was three months old Batley forced Gemma to work as a prostitute in a Bristol brothel for four days a week. At this point she could take no more.

She and another cult member who also wanted to leave contacted relatives on Facebook using the internet in a public library.

Gemma said: "I made sure I had my passport and our birth certificates, and we were picked up at 2.30am on May 22, 2009. I left with a baby and a suitcase full of nappies and clothes, and I haven't been back or contacted them since. I hadn't seen or spoken to them until I saw them in court."

After escaping, Gemma traced relatives in Essex, who she has now moved in with. With their support she reported Batley to the police and the cult members were arrested.

Gemma gave her evidence to the court via videolink, and earlier this month 48-year-old Batley was jailed for life with a minimum of 11 years at Swansea Crown Court on 11 charges of rape, six serious sexual assaults, three indecent assaults and causing a child to have sex.

Judge Paul Thomas said Batley had created a "sick little kingdom" and was a "danger to children".

Gemma's mother Jacqueline was convicted of aiding and abetting rape, causing prostitution, indecency with a child and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Gemma said: "The last time I saw her was at the sentencing.

"She snarled, 'What are you doing here?' and I broke down. As I'm a mum myself it makes what she did seem even more awful.

"Now my focus is on Emily, I want to give her everything I didn't have and I want her to be happy."


This article was found at:



RELATED ARTICLES:




Five Wales Satanists guilty of extreme ritual abuse and rape of children, survivor tells of childhood horrors



Articles and reports on Ritual Satanic Abuse by Professor Stephen A. Kent, Ph.D., Department of Sociology, University of Alberta: 

Diabolic Debates: A Reply to David Frankfurter and J. S. La Fontaine," Religion 24 (1994): 135-188. 

"Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic Abuse" Part One: "Possible Judeo-Christian Influences." Religion 23 no.3 (July, 1993): 229-241.

"Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic Abuse" Part Two: "Possible Mormon, Magic, and Pagan Influences." Religion 23 no.4 (October, 1993): 355-367. 

Expert Report by Stephen A. Kent

October 20, 1997 ASSESSMENT OF THE SATANIC ABUSE ALLEGATIONS IN THE [name deleted] CASE Stephen A. Kent (Ph.D.) Professor Department of Sociology University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H4 

***************
An Analysis of Ritualistic and Religion-Related Child Abuse Allegation 
BetteL. Bottoms, Phillip R. Shaver and Gail S. Goodman, Law and Human Behavior, Vol. 20, No.1, (Feb. 1996) pp. 1-34 



German woman born into Satanic cult says she endured years of torture and rape


Anglican bishop claims devil worship widespread in boarding schools in mostly Christian Kenya


Russia bans Satanic sect that indoctrinated and abused secondary school students


Prosecutors say man killed 8- and 10-year-old stepdaughters as part of a spell or ritual from "TheSatanic Bible." 



Posted by Perry Bulwer at 14:00
57 comments Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

16 Mar 2011

Five Wales Satanists guilty of extreme ritual abuse and rape of children, survivor tells of childhood horrors



Wales Online  -   March 9, 2011

Five found guilty in sex cult trial

By Robin Turner, WalesOnline


L-R: Colin Batley, Jackie Marling, Elaine Batley and Shelly Millar
L-R: Colin Batley, Jackie Marling, Elaine Batley and Shelly Millar











The jury in the trial of five people accused of using a black magic influenced cult to sexually abuse children and young adults in Carmarthenshire has found five defendents guilty of 39 serious sex offences.
At Swansea Crown Court, alleged cult leader Colin Batley, 48, was found guilty of 27 offences - including rape, buggery, indecency wih children and causing prostitution.

His wife, Elaine Batley, 47, was convicted of 5 offences, incuding indececy with a child and indecent assault.

Shelly Millar, 35, was convicted of two counts of indecency with children.

Jackie Marling, Batley's lover, was convicted of five offences - including aiding and abeiting rape and indecency with a child.

Peter Murphy QC, prosecuting, has alleged the four established their own religion - which preached free sex and was influenced by notorious English occultist Aleister Crowley.

The prosecution case is that the sex was established in members' homes in the tranquil Cararthenshire town of Kidwelly and children and young adults brought there were abused.

Below: The house where the sex ring was believed to have operated from


But alleged cult member Sandra Iveson, 45, was cleared of a single charge of indecency with a child.

Vincent Barden, 70, of Kempston, Bedfordshire, who was not a cult member, was also cleared of a single charge of rape.

Batley was jointly charged with Barden in connection with the rape and was also cleared of it.

But Barden had already admitted two counts of sexual assault on an under-age girl.

Both he, Batley and the other cult members will all be sentenced at Swansea Crown Court on Friday.

The jury today delivered guilty verdicts for almost every offence that the group faced.

In Batley’s case it included 11 separate rapes, three indecent assaults, causing prostitution for personal gain, causing a child to have sex and inciting a child to have sex.

The jury also found him guilty of six counts of buggery and four counts of possessing indecent images of a child.

Judge Paul Thomas warned the group they all faced “lengthy jail terms”.

As the convicted women were led away to the court’s custody unit an argument erupted with several of them shouting and shrieking at one another.

The jury’s verdict regarding all offences was reached today after four full days of deliberations and two half days.

During the trial, Batley was accused of using the cult as an excuse for its sexual depravity.

The jury heard that he first moved to Kidwelly from London and was followed successively by Marling and Millar and their partners, neither of whom figured in the trial.

Cult members would dress in hooded robes during occult rituals which usually took place before group sex.

A number of houses in the same cul-de-sac were used for the regular cult sex sessions.

Batley would read from the occult bible, The Book Of The Law, written more than a century ago by arch-Satanist Aleister Crowley.

He would also order cult members to have sex together and ensure that other members were present to film it.

The recorded material mentioned during the trial is believed to have been destroyed before his arrest.

Batley was apparently tipped off by friends in London about the impending raid on his home two days before his arrest.

But the evidence against him and other cult proved overwhelming during the trial.

Marling was found guilty of aiding and abetting rape, causing prostitution for gain, and inciting a child to engage in sex.

She was also convicted of three separate counts of indecency with a child.

By the time of his arrest Batley and his wife had separated and Marling had moved in with him.

Elaine Batley was today found guilty of three counts of indecency with a child and one of sexual activity with a child.

Shelly Millar was found guilty of indecency with a child and inciting a child to engage in sex.

Batley was said to have used the cult as a form of brainwashing to justify abuse to his victims.

One schoolboy, now an adult, told the trial Batley had repeatedly abused him as a child when he had access to him.

A schoolgirl, also now an adult, said she was forced into joining the cult through fear for her life.

Batley told her a cult assassin would kill her if she did not take part in an elaborate initiation ceremony.

It started with a 10 minute lecture on the occult by him but concluded with sex.

The schoolgirl was later ordered to Batley’s home on regular occasions when she would have to give him sex.

She was also taken to Satanic sex parties where she would be passed round to have sex with strangers.

“I did it because I was told to by Colin,” she sobbed while giving evidence against Batley via videolink during the trial.

The perverted events described in court took place over several decades in both Kidwelly and addresses in London.

Batley was arrested at his home in Kidwelly last summer where the cult itself was created and flourished under the unsuspecting noses of locals.

As the leader of the cult, Batley’s dedication to Satanist material and Egyptian icons was well documented.

He bred rottweiler dogs from his home for cash, but kept two for personal safety which were named after ancient Egyptian royalty. He also bred cats which were given occult names.

Several of his victims were made to wear upside down crosses, and every home appears to have had at least one laminated copy of The Book of the Law.

Batley and the other convicted cult members will be sentenced at Swansea Crown Court on Friday.
This article was found at:


**************************************************************************
Wales Online  -  March 13, 2011

Kidwelly sex cult victim breaks silence to tell of childhood horrors

by Robin Turner, Wales On Sunday


A victim of twisted Colin Batley told Wales on Sunday of her anguish as the black magic sex cult leader forced her to put on a satanic symbol and raped her as a teenager.

The woman, who is now a mum in her thirties, spoke out after her 48-year-old tormentor was jailed for a minimum of 11 years at Swansea Crown Court and warned he may never see freedom.

She spoke on condition of anonymity and revealed the hell she suffered at the hands of a man who was convicted of 11 rapes and numerous child sex crimes over some 20 years living in the West Wales town of Kidwelly.

The jury was told about the cult’s fixation with Egyptology and the works of occult writer Aleister Crowley – and their obsession with wife swapping and sex with younger girls and boys.

The woman, who was one of the victims who gave evidence against Batley in court, said that he had everyone in the cult under his spell.

She said: “He (Colin) was the boss. He barked orders at everybody including me.

“People just did what they were told. He had Rottweilers that were scared of him but vicious to everyone else.

“At 15 I had to have sex with Colin. He said it was an initiation into the occult.

“He said he did not want to do it but it had to be done. He said if I did not follow orders I would be killed. People ‘higher up’ in the cult would do it, he said.”

Ex-Tesco security guard Batley was the self-styled “lord” of the bizarre sect which operated for years in the quiet cul-de-sac of Clos Yr Onnen in Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire.

Members filled their Gwalia Housing Association homes with ancient Egyptian idolatry, held ceremonies in robes and hoods and forced a number of children and vulnerable adults into depraved sex acts.

The victim said she was massively relieved by the guilty verdict and hoped he would never enjoy freedom again.

“A hundred years would not be enough for Colin Batley,” she said.

“But at least now myself and the other victims can start to rebuild our lives outside of the shadow of that contemptible man.”

She also spoke of a ceremony she witnessed in Kidwelly involving an altar on which salted bread, oil and a goblet of wine was placed.

Cult members dressed in white robes held readings of occult texts and later sex took place between the members who disrobed, or in their words, “became sky clad”.

The woman, who gave evidence in court via a CCTV system so she did not have to face Batley, added she “did not hate Wales” despite what had happened.

She was originally from London but was brought to Wales by Batley where she was abused and “passed round” to other cult members who had sex with her.

She said: “He said the occult was strong in Wales.”

She said she did not know if there were many more victims of Batley who had not yet come forward, but urged them to speak out if they could.

“Whether there are any more victims in this case, I don’t know, but for the length of time that the abuse went on, it’s highly possible,” she said.

“I hope to encourage anybody who is a victim to come forward, not just in Colin’s case.

“If anybody is going through something similar, we hope they will have the courage to come forward and speak to the police.”

Her husband, who is helping her get over the trauma of her years of abuse said: “We hope to come back to Wales in better times.”

The shadowy cult built up by Batley came crashing down when three victims approached Dyfed-Powys Police with their complaints.

The judge, who presided over the sensational five-week case, commended all the witnesses for their bravery in speaking out.

After they spoke out, the depravity that had been happening behind closed doors at Clos yr Onnen for almost two decades was finally exposed.

Colin Batley was revealed as a monster who forced a number of women into prostitution and made them pay him 25% of their earnings.

He owned two Rottweiler dogs, Toots (after Tutankhamen) and another named Sekhet after the Egyptian lion god.

He would read from Aleister Crowley’s works including The Book of the Law, Equinox of the Gods and The Book of Magick.

On Friday, Batley was given an indeterminate sentence on public protection grounds but will have to serve at least 11 years before he can apply for parole.

Even then he may “never be released” said Judge Thomas because he will have to prove he is no longer a risk to the public.

Judge Thomas said it was a “mystery” how jobless, scruffy Batley, who has several missing teeth, managed to control his women followers, who the judge termed “not unintelligent”.

The judge dismissed The Book of the Law as “a ludicrous document” but accepted that cult members were obsessed with it.

All the women in the cult had identical Eye of Horus tattoos.

Marling even had an “altar” comprising of Egyptian cat goddess statues, a painting of the mask of Tutenkhamun and another painting of the god Horus.

Batley’s wife Elaine, 47, also had a tattoo of Tutankhamen’s face on her arm, a pentagram on her leg and an entire Egyptian script on her back.

According to one of the victims in the case, Batley’s wife was treated “like a slave” but the judge said she became a willing participant in her husband’s “wickedness”.

The jury heard how a young boy was tricked into having sex with her and she was jailed for eight years for indecency with children.

Batley’s long-term lover Jackie Marling, 42, as well as being “besotted” with him, was also obsessed with The Book of the Law, said Judge Thomas, who described her as his “second in command”.

She wept as she was sentenced to 12 years in jail for offences including aiding and abetting rape.

Tears also streamed down the face of bespectacled Shelly Millar, 35, who was said by the judge to have been behind “the prostitution” side of the operation.

Millar, who listed Batley on her mobile phone as “My Lord” was found guilty of indecency with children including a 12-year-old boy and was also described during the case as Colin Batley’s “sex slave”.

The court heard she earned £2,000 a month as a prostitute in Swansea and gave 25% of her earnings to Batley.

Judge Thomas told the defendants they were evil.

“When this case was opened to the jury you Colin Batley were described as evil,” he said.

“That in my view is an accurate statement of your character.

“You set yourself up as the ruler of a sick little kingdom surrounded by three women who danced as your willing attendants regarding you as their master.”

Listen to Chief Inspector Richard Lewis of Dyfed-Powys Police statement to the press following the guilty verdicts against Colin Batley in the west Wales sex cult case.







RELATED ARTICLES:



Articles and reports on Ritual Satanic Abuse by Professor Stephen A. Kent, Ph.D., Department of Sociology, University of Alberta: 

Diabolic Debates: A Reply to David Frankfurter and J. S. La Fontaine," Religion 24 (1994): 135-188. 

"Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic Abuse" Part One: "Possible Judeo-Christian Influences." Religion 23 no.3 (July, 1993): 229-241.

"Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic Abuse" Part Two: "Possible Mormon, Magic, and Pagan Influences." Religion 23 no.4 (October, 1993): 355-367. 

Expert Report by Stephen A. Kent

October 20, 1997 ASSESSMENT OF THE SATANIC ABUSE ALLEGATIONS IN THE [name deleted] CASE Stephen A. Kent (Ph.D.) Professor Department of Sociology University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H4 

***************
An Analysis of Ritualistic and Religion-Related Child Abuse Allegation 
BetteL. Bottoms, Phillip R. Shaver and Gail S. Goodman, Law and Human Behavior, Vol. 20, No.1, (Feb. 1996) pp. 1-34 



German woman born into Satanic cult says she endured years of torture and rape


Anglican bishop claims devil worship widespread in boarding schools in mostly Christian Kenya


Russia bans Satanic sect that indoctrinated and abused secondary school students


Prosecutors say man killed 8- and 10-year-old stepdaughters as part of a spell or ritual from "TheSatanic Bible."

Posted by Perry Bulwer at 15:12
19 comments Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2 Mar 2011

Catholic Church downplays talk of the devil in public but maintains international network of exorcists



The Independent - UK      February 24, 2011

The Devil’s own work: Why do priests still perform exorcisms?

Exorcism is a Hollywood favourite, the latest being 'The Rite'. The Catholic Church continues with the ritual, but will only talk about it behind closed doors. What are they afraid of, asks Peter Stanford


Of the approximately 70,000 exorcisms he has carried out, Father Gabriele Amorth estimates that fewer than 100 have been cases of genuine demonic possession.

The chief exorcist of the diocese of Rome quotes this second figure as if to comfort me, but to a modern Catholic, convinced that the Devil is just a face the church has traditionally put to the otherwise intangible presence of evil in the world, 100 sounds like an awful lot of encounters with someone I don't believe exists.

I am momentarily struck dumb as we sit on either side of a table in Father Gabriele's bare-walled office, situated in an anonymous church building on the outskirts of Rome. A large crucifix lies between us, resting on a purple cushion. I want to ask if he is absolutely sure he wasn't mistaken in those 100 cases, but everything about the manner of this burly, pugnacious priest, in his mid-80s and with a deeply-lined bulldog face, makes plain he means every single word.

"It is vital," he continues, "to distinguish two causes [for apparent demonic possession]: for most people it is an illness of the psyche that can be cured by psychiatry." We are getting back onto more familiar, shared ground. Instead of splashing those who come here to seek his help with holy water and reading the rite of exorcism, as was the standard practice of the medieval church, he appears to be accepting the need for referral to a suitably qualified doctor, much more in keeping with modern, mainstream Christianity.

"But," says Father Gabriele, "there are the others, the small number of real possessions. Often they were outwardly normal people, going about their lives in a normal way." And when he exorcises them, what exactly happens? "I have had people vomit up nails during an exorcism," he replies matter-of-factly, "others pieces of glass, others pieces of radio equipment."

Radio equipment? It sounds almost comical, but he is not smiling. At no point during our 30 minutes together does he come anywhere near a smile. And neither, do I. "The Devil works through the media," he explains, looking me straight in the eye, knowing full well I am a journalist.

This chilling encounter with Father Gabriele came back vividly as I watched The Rite, Hollywood's latest follow-up to The Exorcist, the iconic 1973 horror film that remains fixed in the memory of anyone brave enough to watch it all the way through. The Rite explores similar territory as it follows a young, thoroughly modern American priest, Father Michael Kovak, (Colin O'Donoghue) who is sent to Rome by his bishop, against his wishes, to attend a training course for exorcists being run in the headquarters of Catholicism.

Deeply sceptical about what he sees as the outdated mumbo-jumbo that is demonology, Father Michael proves so disruptive on the course that he is referred by his tutor (Ciarán Hinds) to the eminence noire of Rome exorcists, Father Lucas Trevant (Anthony Hopkins). "Do you believe in sin?" Father Lucas barks at his visitor. It instantly put me in mind of Father Gabriele. "I do, but I don't believe the Devil makes us do it," Father Michael replies with the sort of courage I lacked in my brush with an old-style exorcist in Rome.

The younger cleric initially sticks to his sane, rational, 21st century guns over the nonexistence of the Devil. "She doesn't need a priest," he tells Father Lucas of one of his tortured charges, her belly swelling, her eyes rolling and her fiendish screams intensifying, "she needs a shrink". Yet by the end of this horror-thriller, Father Michael is as ready to brandish his crucifix as a weapon against Satan as Father Lucas.

Despite its primary vocation to terrify cinema-goers, The Rite cannot lightly be dismissed as a piece of shameless exaggeration and sensationalism because it does manage to get much of the incidental detail right. Such as being set in Rome. It was the only place – when I was researching a book on the Devil – where church exorcists are open about their work. According to recently reiterated papal rules, every single one of the 3,000 dioceses of the Catholic Church around the world must have, among the ranks of its priests, a trained exorcist, but their identity is cloaked in secrecy. When I asked to interview one anywhere in Britain, I was told I would have to demonstrate prima facie evidence of possession first. Which, however thorough my research, would have been stretching it a bit. That is when I discovered that in Rome, the rules are rather different and ended up face-to-face with Father Gabriele.

The Rite is based on the experiences of Father Gary Thomas from Saratoga, California, a parish priest in suburban Silicon Valley who was dispatched to Rome in 2005 by his bishop for training so he could fill the vacancy for a diocesan exorcist. He arrived deeply distrustful of talk of the Devil, and like Father Michael in the film, was sent off to meet an old hand. In interviews, he hasn't named the senior exorcist in question, and any passing similarity with Father Gabriele has to be tempered by the Hopkins character being portrayed as having his own doubts about the reality of the Devil, not a position my interviewee had ever adopted. Indeed last year he made headlines when he produced a memoir claiming that Satan was at work even in the corridors of the Vatican itself.

The publication of that book caused a few blushes among the papal entourage. In the modern church, you see, it is just not the done thing to mention the Devil. The figure who looms so large in the gospels, whose horned, scaly, terrifying face adorned the walls of many a medieval church in scenes of the harrowing of hell, and who has inspired artists from Dante and Bosch through Milton and Byron and on to Bulgakov and CS Lewis, is now rarely mentioned from the pulpit.

The last Pope to speak at any length on the Devil was Paul VI in 1972. In an address (which Father Gabriele quotes from at length during our meeting), he personified evil in the figure of the Devil as "an effective agent, a living spiritual being, perverted and perverting". By contrast, Pope John Paul II, in the 27 years of his reign, made only two glancing references to Satan, both times in larger contexts. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the comprehensive rulebook that John Paul published in 1993, the Devil figures in only a handful of the 3,000 entries, and then simply as a "seductive voice" luring humankind astray.

The logic behind this vow of silence is plain. Church leaders don't like mentioning the Devil in case it makes them sound medieval, superstitious or out of touch. There is also a smattering of remorse in there for the crimes that the Church has committed down the centuries by invoking the real presence of the Devil. When the Inquisition was torturing and murdering those who dared to disagree with the papal line, its victims (Jews, women, pagans alike) were usually presented as being in league with Satan.

Yet even in 2011, the Devil is not wholly disowned by the church that did so much more than any other institution to make him seem frighteningly flesh and blood. He remains part of Catholicism but is now treated like the disreputable relative with a dark past who the family prefers to keep shut away. Hence the silence that surrounds the work of exorcists. It is hard to downplay talk of the Devil in public when you are simultaneously maintaining a network of diocesan exorcists around the world.

This is an ambiguity the Church has long lived with. John Paul II, for all his public reticence about Satan, nevertheless managed in 1982 to carry out an exorcism himself on a disturbed young woman, an episode recalled in My Six Popes, the autobiography published in 1993 by the retired head of his household, French Cardinal Jacques Martin.

And it is not just church leaders who are in two minds about the Devil. However much I could rationally trace the development of the character of the Devil as a theological, historical, artist and church-political construct, a shorthand explanation for what many regard as the evil abroad in the world, in that moment when I was sitting opposite Father Gabriele in his office in Rome, and he started talking about the Devil possessing the media, I felt myself shifting in my chair. Was he about to attempt an exorcism on me? And if he did, what was there to worry about because I didn't share his belief a physical incarnation of evil? His words would have no effect. But frightened I was, and I beat a hasty retreat from what I later heard described as the "delivery room", and gasped with relief when I got outside the building.

There is a part of us that remains irrationally susceptible to the idea of the Devil. Perhaps it is just those who, like me, had a traditional Catholic upbringing. My Christian Brother teachers were big on the real and imminent danger of Hell. But the enduring appeal of Satan spreads beyond my generation and my particular denomination. Politicians and public alike, when faced by a monstrous crime, are still quick to characterise its perpetrator as the Devil incarnate. Think of the descriptions routinely used of the Moors Murderess, Myra Hindley. "May She Rot in Hell," ran one headline on the day she died. Indeed, if there was ever a modern image of the Devil it was that Medusa-like picture of her taken in 1966, all blond hair, defiance, and cold, cold eyes.

Confronted with something unthinkably cruel and inhumane, we reach not for the language of psychiatry but for medieval demonology and scapegoating. As does the Church. Benedict XVI, generally as reluctant as his predecessor to mention the Devil in public, did nevertheless last June talk about the orchestrating role of "the enemy" in the paedophile priest scandal that has so damaged the Church's moral standing.

The Devil can still be a convenient get-out clause, whether it be from culpability for unspeakable crimes against children, or more mundane problems. I remember once attending a prayer group where young Evangelical Anglicans had gathered to share the trials and tribulations of their week, and how Jesus would shape their lives if they let him. "I've had a terrible few days," one twentysomething confided, "the Devil has made me spend all my money." She said it without a hint of irony or self-knowledge. She was taking no responsibility herself.

That same reaction can be glimpsed in remarks made by Father Gary Thomas, in interviews he has given to mark the release of The Rite in the United States. Since he successfully completed his training as an exorcist in Rome, he has dealt with five cases he describes as genuine possession by the Devil. His work with those individuals, he confides, has left him vulnerable himself to Satan. "My celibacy gets attacked a lot," he remarks. Rather than locate any problems he may have with the Catholic rule that priests must be celibate within, either himself or the church, Father Gary evidently prefers to externalise them and project them onto the Devil.

The connection between sex and Devil is almost as old as Christianity. Familiar figures in the medieval church iconography were incubus and succubus, copulating demons who would seduce both women and men and impregnate females with children of the Devil.

So is Satan in the 21st century being relegated to the extreme fringes of Christianity that still prefer a literal interpretation of the Bible? Apparently not. He's still right there in the mainstream churches. Indeed, in the opening titles for The Rite, the film-makers draw attention to a New York Times report on a conference of US Catholic bishops that took place in November 2010 to debate growing demand from their congregations for exorcism, and the absence of sufficient suitably-qualified priests to service them. [see article link below]

Unlike Father Gabriele, most of this secret army of priest-exorcists prefer to operate away from the spotlight, but for all that there is no question that the Devil is real. If they ever break cover and are confronted about their work, they have a standard response, best summed up by the 19th century French poet, Baudelaire – "the Devil's deepest wile is to persuade us that he does exist".

It is a pretty circular argument. When you counter, as Father Michael does in the early sections of The Rite, that the absence of proof of the Devil cannot be taken as proof itself, they just smile knowingly. While Father Gabriele didn't even manage a smile when I met him, I am sure the same justification was going through his head.

Peter Stanford's "Biography of the Devil" is published in paperback and e-book by Arrow


This article was found at:



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Posted by Perry Bulwer at 16:47
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15 Feb 2011

Russia bans Satanic sect that indoctrinated and abused secondary school students

Interfax  -  Russia    February 8, 2011


Satan sect first banned in Russia


Moscow, February 8, Interfax - Supreme Court of Mordovia recognized as extremist and banned the sect Noble Order of the Devil that worked in Mordovia, in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, the Ulyanovsk Region, the Penza Region and the Tula Region and positioned itself as regional branch of the Church of the Dark.

"Organizer and head of the sect is Alexander Kazakov was born in 1984, he is a resident of Mordovia and a six-year student of the medical institute at the republican state university," court officials told Interfax-Religion.

It was cleared out that over 75 students and secondary school pupils were attracted to the order headed by Kazakov in 2004-2009.

According to the court information, the sect cell in Ulyanovsk was administered by Denis Danshin, born in 1987, registered in Inza town, the Ulyanovsk Region, a staff member of security guards company.

"According to the investigation data, these people in frames of the sect organized regular occult and Satan rites applying physical violence against certain sect members, practiced group sex, in particular with the underaged," the interviewee of the agency said.

As was mentioned in the court resolution, Kazakov and Danshin imposed on sect members occult postulates as the only true views on life, religion, state, convincing them that Satanism is the only true religion. Kazakov instructed Danshin to physically punish those who did not share Satanism ideology.


This article was found at:


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Posted by Perry Bulwer at 15:33
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