The Victimisation of Mr C.M. Bray
APRIL 16 1988: Radio Aire (Leeds' Commercial radio station) broadcasts a
news piece of Dicken's speech and includes an interview with Diane Core,
with reference to the Sorcerer's Apprentice she says "shops like this should
be shut down". Mr Bray telephones her and asks why she is so critical of
his operation when the S.A. has always had a voluntary rule not to sell to
under 18s? He tells her that If he ever became aware of anyone criminally
misusing the occult he would inform the police immediately and that all genuine
occultists want to help stamp out child sex abuse. Core tells him that she
is helping with a programme for THE COOK REPORT to be screened during spring
1989 and infers that this will have a sensational impact.
OCTOBER 8 1988: Dicken's appears on James Whale TV Show criticising occult
linked child-abuse. Chris Bray phones in and an argument ensues between Dickens
and Mr Bray. Dickens says " You are a Menace; Your kind are a Menace... and
... Wait until next year, you'll see some evidence'
NOVEMBER 7 1988: Mr Bray writes to Diane Core to say that he does not believe
one iota of the claims she is making but offers his extensive knowledge of
occultism to help her ferret out any, just in case. Core does not answer
Chris Bray's letter.
.. NOVEMBER 15 1988: The New Federalist Magazine, a Christian Fundamentalist
magazine carries an interview with Diane Core. Included in the report is
a derogatory reference to the Sorcerer's Apprentice and a statement that
'Bray participated in an October 17-21 conference on the Devil held in Turin,
Italy' (this was a lie, Mr Bray has never been to Turin).
DECEMBER 8 1988: Chris Bray believes that an unjust campaign is being secretly
waged against him. His solicitor writes to Diane Core asking her whether
she will confirm or deny that she supplied information about the Sorcerer's
Apprentice which was used in Dicken's speech in parliament which included
details on the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Core does not reply.
DECEMBER 19: 1988: Heresay in recent newspaper reporting and gossip leads
Chris Bray to believe that a conspiracy is afoot and that the The Cook Report
is unfairly targetting the S.A.. Chris asks his Solicitor to pre-empt the
situation by writing to the producer stating our position and warning them
that if they have accepted information from people who are pursuing the myth
of satanic abuse, that it is likely to be incorrect and libelous.
JANUARY 31 1989: Tim Tate, co-producer of the Cook Report writes back but
does not reply to any questions already put. Instead he asks if Mr Bray will
give him an interview. He says 'We would wish to discuss with you the nature
of your organisation , its mail-order business and its publications. Additionally
we would like to film inside your premises to set your interview in context.
Please be assured it is not our intention to subject you (or the occult in
general) to what your solicitors term "mis-informed vilification". We would
simply like to interview you along the lines indicated above.' Time and Tim
Tates' subsequent actions proves this statement to be an outright and
manipulative deconstruction of the truth designed to persuade Mr Bray against
his best interests.
FEBRUARY 2ND 1989: Mr Bray smells a rat. He intuitively senses that, for
no just reason, the Cook Report have decided to make him the villain of the
piece and so, in order that he cannot be accused of failing to communicate
his case Mr Bray issues a 4 page public statement of his personal philosophy
and honourable business intent. So that the Cook Report have absolutely no
excuse he sends a copy to them and then has his solicitor write to Tim Tate
on February 10th to underline that previous and recent examples of mis-reporting
have reduced his confidence in the intentions of the media to such an extent
that he does not trust that an interview would be productive. However he
offers to assist with background information about occultism and do anything
he can to assist their research. To that end he agrees to meet with them
providing the Cook Report give written assurances that no secret recording
of an interview or broadcasting use will be made of any such meeting without
Mr Bray's permission. Furthermore his solicitor's letter gives legal notice
of his refusal for them to film either interior or exterior shots or use
any any film, radio or press library material concerning his business unless
cleared with him beforehand. The letter also reserve copyright on all
publications and products and permission for the use of them in pictures
or the use of verbatim extracts therefrom is strictly prohibited unless agreed
in writing beforehand. Although the letter was sent recorded delivery the
Cook Report did not reply to it. This is because they eventually, unfairly
and outside the broadcasting code of practice, conspiratorially broke every
one of the restrictions he had outlined in his letter!. Lastly in this letter
Mr Bray made clear that at that time several complaints were already being
pursued with the IBA over the misportrayal of Mr Bray's business by ITN news
and a copy of this letter was therefore sent to the IBA chairman.
FEBRUARY 20 1989: David Austen, an occasional client and self-styled satanist
troublemaker is contacted by the Cook Report and wined and dined. He agrees
to perform a satanic ceremony for them on film and the Cook Report team connive
to obtain ritual empedimentia for the rite from the S.A. They ask Austen
to persuade Chris Bray to give an interview on an 'or-else' ultimatum. Austen
telephones the S.A. ostensibly to persuade Chris that cooperating with the
Cook Report will be in his best interests. However Chris figures this to
be impossible, because he has no intention of supporting or agreeing with
any of the ridiculous and untrue allegations which Core and Dickens have
been making and therefore any meeting can only result in conflict. He refuses
an interview. A couple of days later Tim Tate telephones Chris and asks for
an interview. Chris explains that the Cook Report are entirely on the wrong
track, the allegations are lies created by fundamentalist christians and
he does not want to have anything to do with them. With the publication of
the government's own report on the allegations five years later, Chris's
estimation of the situation is proved entirely correct, but at that time
the Cook Report have no other person in their sights, so Chris is given 'the
treatment'.
MARCH 19 1989: The Sunday Sun Newspaper runs a sensational article on Devil
Worship and defames the Sorcerer's Apprentice by describing us as 'Devil
Worship Organisers' . Mr Bray is not a Satanist, has never been a Satanist.
He does not and has never organised any form of Devil Worship. The few books
he stocks on Satanism are a minority in his range and he does not promote
Satanism more than any other New Age philosophy which is represented in his
stock, including mystical Christianity. The inherent intolerance and prejudice
of Geoffrey Dickens and the Sunday Sun coupled with the impeding Cook Report
has obviously made it open-season on Mr Bray!The article contains a statement
that the author (John Merry) and other speakers including Diana Core will
be addressing a Royal Society of Medicine Conference 'which is looking at
the problems of occult activity'. In fact the conference was not organised
by the Royal Society of Medicine but was held in their rented rooms by a
Christian fundamentalist group REACHOUT which has strong links with Diane
Core's Childwatch.
MAY 2: 1989: An unknown first purchaser calls into our retail shop at
approximately 10.30 but is seen to be acting suspiciously. The Manager senses
something is wrong (we are not occultists for nothing) and challenges the
man. Flustered he admits to being a Journalist who works for a Keighley newspaper
but says that he is collecting some items for a friend. As none of the items
are controversial the manager completes the sale without checking with Mr
Bray. The journalistleaves. Later we discover that the 'journalist' was in
fact the co-producer of the Cook Report, Tim-Tate who had, against the
broadcasting guidelines, mislead the manager about his identity in order
to obtain altar paraphernalia which was used by the satanist David Austen
in a clip of a Satanic ceremony. If this was a police investigation instead
of a thoroughly reprehensible trial-by-TV, the case would have collapsed
already due to Entrapment.
MAY 3: 1989 Daily Star reports that Central TV's Cook Report have flown in
Michael Aquino the leader of the Satanic Temple of Set from the U.S.A. Dianne
Core is quoted as being upset by this saying "It is horrendous that Roger
Cook brought him into this country when we are fighting to keep him out"
The article continues Mrs Core is also angry because she helped Cook research
his programme which aims to expose the link between Satanism and the sexual
abuse of Children.What Mrs Core doesn't say is that she had already formally
challenged Aquino to a public debate on TV in the U.S.A. when she went there
to pursue her satanic ritual abuse allegations. Mr Bray can see which way
the wind is blowing.
MAY 3: 1989 7.15am. Workers at the S.A. open up the Mail Order office as
usual but during preparatory work in the shop the manager notices that three
men are sat on a park bench on the opposite side of the road to the S.A.
and one of them is Tim Tate. We observe that one of the men has a video camera
partially concealed under a blousson jacket. The Cook Report are illegally
filming. Mr Bray calls the police. Police Sergeant 89 arrives at 8.50.a.m.
He goes across to talk to the three men. After 15 minutes of conversation
and sheepish looks Tim Tate and the police sergeant walk towards the shop.
Tate has persuaded the sergeant to allow him to ask Mr Bray for an interview and,
Tate says, if Mr Bray refuses then he and the camera crew will go away. But Tate
is being duplicitous - he already knows that Mr Bray has refused permission
. Mr Bray takes up the story:
The Police Sergeant stands between Tate and
me. Tate asks: "Will you answer some questions/give an interview?" I asked
where he was from. He said "Central Television" I responded "You mean The
Cook Report?" He said "Yes". I then said "You did not say that you were from
the Cook Report when you pretended to be a customer yesterday did you? "
He did not reply. I said "In which case you are deceitful and I will not
give you an interview." I also said "My solicitor has already written two
letters to you informing you that I will not give an interview." Tate said
"But there have been serious allegations made against you" and I said " In
which case I will sue you". At this point one of my staff saw that the two
other men had begun to shoot the scene at the door and it became obvious
to me that Tate was 'wired' for sound and that the Police Sergeant had been
duped into giving Tate the opportunity of interviewing me, so I curtly cut
the interview short. The sergeant then came inside and told us that he had
told the crew that they could be prosecuted for obstruction. They had agreed
to move on after Tate had enquired about an interview with me. The Sergeant
said that if there was any further trouble I should telephone the Police
again.
But, as soon as the sergeant had disappeared the film-crew set up the
camera on a tripod on the pavement opposite the shop and appeared to be filming
through the upstairs windows using a powerful telephoto lens. As Chris Bray
did not see why any of his staff should be made into puppets for the Cook
report, they turned off all the lights and kept away from the windows. Chris
instructed the manager to lock all the exterior doors and treat the matter
as a siege. Within the space of 15 minutes three further cars had arrived
with two other camera crews along with Roger Cook and several other minders.
Camera Crews were set up in front, at the side and at the rear of the building
and were successively pointed up through the first-floor windows and into
the ground-floor shop area. A large crowd began to form. I telephoned the
police again. This time the sergeant and another police constable arrived
within a few minutes and as soon as they had been admitted through the front
door of the shop Roger Cook and one of the film crew positioned themselves
immediately outside the front door blocking the entrance so that customers
could not gain entry and taking shots of items in the windows and through
the windows. The police reported the situation to their superior, Inspector
Cromack at Leeds HQ. Amazingly the police decided not to get involved They
said there was nothing they could do until the TV people had broken a law
and they couldn't stand about all day waiting so would have to leave. The
continued and flagrant persistence of the Central TV people was so beligerant
that it was obvious that the shop could not function at all that day. To
do otherwise would be to put at risk of harassment members of staff and clients.
He was not about to either capitulate or waste his time with a day-long siege.
If the Cook Report team were this dishonourable when the police were there,
heaven knows what provocations they had lined up for when they went. So Mr
Bray had no alternative but to close the business and the police escorted
us out of the rear of the premises. The three film crews were covering the
exits ready to film anyone leaving. This was a problem because there were
eight members of staff at the shop who were becoming rattled by this oppressive
situation. One girl, who had only months before escaped the attentions of
a brutal husband was terrified that she would be identified and he would
come and get her. Chris knew that Cook was out for the 'doorstep' , a clip
of film making the fat oaf look brave and courageous by challenging the supposed
villain of the piece on camera whilst his entourage and heavies stood behind
the camera in case anything went wrong. Chris had a brainwave and dusted
off the Halloween stock, giving everyone the same Dracula masks. He knew
that when eight identical Draculas rushed out Cook would be running in circles.
That is what happened but Cook's researchers had done their jobs well, they
knew which car was Chris' and got some shots of him getting in whilst Cook
was mouthing ridiculous allegations, all of which were proved false in the
course of time. This was probably the biggest media -stitch-up of all time.
July 18th 1998: The programme was bedevilled by problems and held up beyond
its scheduled date, but is finally broadcast on July 18th and creates nationwide
banner headlines. Mr Bray asks the local police for protection for his property.
A plain clothes squad is stationed to patrol the area at night. After a fortnight
the police withdraw the patrol
..August 13th 1989: Fundamentalist Christian agitators break into the Sorcerer's
Apprentice, hack and smash at the bookshelves containing books on Paganism
and Crowley, throw the books in a pile on the floor and set them alight,
leaving the building to burn to the ground. The fire takes hold but is spotted
by a local customer who alerts the fire brigade. By the time the fire is
under control the entire shop and ground floor area of the S.A. is a pile
of ashes. However, the fundamentalists did not bargain on another four floors
of back-stock. Within a week the shop is cleaned up, reglazed, redecorated
and fully back in business, in between time Mr Bray and his loyal staff set
up a stall outside to serve the many customers and well-wishers who call.
Epilogue: Mr Bray's friends, acquaintences and customers were up in arms
when the programme was eventually screened and their hundreds of letters
of complaint caused the Broadcasting Complaints Commission to enquire of
Mr Bray whether he wanted to make an official complaint. He did so and the
BCC found in his favour slating the Cook Report for unfair dealing. The Cook
Report apology was printed in the TV times and broadcast on ITV. This is
the one and only time the Cook Report has been successfully admonished. The
programme will go down in history as the biggest media con of the 20th century
but what is worse is that it caused a wave of intolerance against Pagan and
Occult beliefs and helped divert millions of pounds from areas of child care
which needed the funding and wasted it all on the wild-goose chase of Satanic
Abuse which was nothing but a myth. Ends:
(c) world coypright holder: The Sub-culture Alternatives Freedom Foundation
(S.A.F.F.) Leeds, Yorkshire, U.K.
