Netherlands: therapists appeal to Parliament to take seriously new allegations of ritual abuse
By Andrew Symes, Anglican Mainstream:
A group of mental health practitioners in Holland have taken the courageous step of going public with their belief that organised networks exist within which “paedosexual ritual abuse” takes place.
Following an in-depth report by investigative journalists with the radio programme Argos, questions were asked in the Parliament of the Netherlands. The Minister of Justice and Security replied with the now standard line in most Western democracies, that ritual abuse is the product of internet-fuelled over-active imaginations and discredited “repressed memory” syndrome; that it results in false accusations beings levelled at senior figures without sufficient evidence, blighting their lives; that “only three cases of such abuse have been reported in the last seven years”, and that laws are already in place to prevent abuse.
The therapists have taken action to write a letter [PDF copy here] publicly refuting the Minister’s statements, risking their reputations and careers, because they have all encountered a number of clients whose accounts of suffering the trauma of ritual abuse contain very similar themes of horrific sexual violence combined with occultic rituals, and as respected psychiatric practitioners they are convinced that the accounts they hear are consistent with true events, not autosuggestion or some other form of group deception.
The Argos report in fact results from interviews with 140 such survivors, and can be found here. [A warning to readers: some of the experiences described are extremely disturbing.] The interviewers address the question of whether the abuse could have been imagined or vastly exaggerated. The therapists agree that a constant theme is that the victims are not believed by doctors or police, because “there’s a dominant view within society that these things don’t exist.”
However, the evidence is not just the obvious mental trauma suffered by those who have experienced this abuse, and the similarities in accounts of the practices done to them. There is also physical evidence, including interviews with four gynaecologists who, speaking anonymously, confirm that they have seen horrific injuries to the private parts of girls and women consistent with accounts of mutilation as part of occult ceremonies. The whole hidden practice of satanic ritual abuse appears to be connected with drugs, prostitution and internet pornography, and thrives on secrecy, fear-based control of its victims, and denial of its existence at a high level.
The official body of ‘experts’ responsible for dealing with claims of ritual abuse (LEBZ in Dutch) has consistently taken the view that ritual abuse does not exist, and so the main need is to protect those accused of being perpetrators. As the letter from the therapists to parliament says by way of illustration, this is the equivalent of a body set up to deal with the issue of car theft, starting with the presumption that such a crime never occurs, and has an in built bias in terms of assessing any evidence to the contrary. The LEBZ in turn oversees the training of police forces in relation to issues of abuse, which means that the opportunity of obtaining justice for victims of these crimes is very low.
The letter to Parliament from the therapists accuses the LEBZ, a government body, of being complicit in a “cover up” which allows the mental and physical torture of women to continue without investigation, and which even costs the lives of children, as there are reports of children being abducted and killed as part of a system of organised sexual violence and paedophilia which stretches throughout Europe and the world.
In the UK, a government sponsored report released in 1994, succeeded in squashing growing media accounts at the time, of ritual or satanic abuse. Most mainstream media accepted the view that the real problem was poverty and lack of education leading to a prevalence of physical and emotional abuse in certain sections of society; that “belief in evil cults” and attributing a ritual and dark spiritual element to the abuse shows prejudice against the marginal poor, who need more conventional social services support not investigations into “manifestations of evil”. This view, led by the secular elites, prevails to this day.
Another reason why most privileged classes in the West – including Christians – reject the idea of organised ritual abuse, is that exaggerated and unsubstantiated claims about this are common in certain circles on the internet, and especially among right-wing conspiracy theory groups such as Q-anon. This politicises the issue, saying that ritual abuse is part of a vast “deep state” agenda to overturn cherished democracy and freedoms, connected only with politically progressive politicians and their billionaire backers. This very informative piece shows the danger of such conspiracy theories, but seems to err on the side of saying that because Q-anon warns about ritual abuse, and Q-anon can’t be trusted, therefore all reports of this kind of crime are not to be taken seriously. (The author of the Q-anon article similarly discredited the idea of “cultural Marxism” in an earlier piece, suggesting that because a disturbed young man who attacked a synagogue complained about cultural Marxism on social media, all who share a similar concern about a contemporary mix of secular ideologies are inherently associated with violent fascists.)
This ‘tarnishing by association’ emphasises the courage of the Dutch therapists who have written to their Parliament and adds more evidence to the case. Which respected European professionals would risk being linked with an American far right group at this time, unless they are utterly convinced of the truth of what they are saying? We look forward with interest to hearing the outcome of this intervention.
Meanwhile, the exhaustive report into abuse of adults and especially children by those in leadership positions in the Church of England has just been published. One of the conclusions is that abusers have been able to continue their destructive activities and “hide in plain sight” because of a culture of denial. A refusal to look at the clear evidence, instead dismissing it on the basis that “this could not happen”, was one factor resulting in corrupt clergy and even Bishops abusing children and not facing justice, thankfully mostly in the days before the current stricter safeguarding procedures were introduced. It would be tragic if, as many in wider society delight in pointing the finger at the church and absolving themselves from sin, their own similar refusal to believe in the existence of organised ritual abuse results in more lives blighted and lost.
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