More Satanic Panic in the UK

A news item from the British Sunday Mercury (serving Birmingham) reports that serial killer Fred West was involved with the occult. The source for this revelation? “Renowned Irish author Jim Cairns”, according to the hack concerned.

Renowned? Unlike the hack, who gets paid to do this sort of stuff, I spent about ten minutes on-line to find out who this distinguished source really is. Alarm bells went off very quickly. According to Cairns, just about every missing person in Ireland has been abducted by secret Satanic coverns for sacrifice. And who are the Satanists? Among others, the prime movers are, er, Evangelical and Charismatic Christians, whom he insists on calling “Born Agains”, and who he seems to think of as one controlled movement. And who are their leaders? Er, George W. Bush, apparently. Cairns, who is a great fan of David “Queen Elizabeth is a giant lizard” Icke, also goes on at rambling length about the CIA, paramiliataries and people he has fallen out with over the years (including his ex-wife).

The report then goes on to back Cairns up with mention of Valerie Sinason, a psychotherapist advocate of the existence of Satanic Ritual Abuse, without noting the many critiques of her methods and ideas, such as Jean La Fontaine’s work.

Although, about 20 paragraphs down, there is a mildly sceptical response from Dr Peter Maxwell-Stuart of St Andrew’s University, the newspaper raises Cairns to a level of respectability. Never mind that Cairns preys on our natural bewilderment of West’s evil to spread unnecessary fear and suspicion. Never mind that he puts the families of missing people through unnecessary torments. Never mind the damage done to serious efforts to counter child abuse and other crimes.

One Response

  1. […] sexual abuse. However, the continued credibility given to these claims by therapists and the media suggest that there may be future tragedies inspired by self-serving […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.