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XISTS AND THE
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Falmouth Pagan Ritual Abuse CaseTIMELINE2000 (circa) Petrauske meets Solheim for the first Time:2004 June 18th: Peter Solheim found murdered : Witness 'A' identified Solheim: "I didn't recognise the man until a few years ago when he was on the television because he had been murdered. It was Peter Selvine (statement says Selvine, but she meant Solheim)." Source:". Witness 'A' said she suffered pain for weeks after she was tied to a bed and raped by an unknown man when she was nearly ten and how, years later, she recognised him when he was murdered and his picture was shown on television" 2004 July 8th: Petrauske Interviewed by Falmouth Packet - see above column left. Denies any pagan connection with Solheim murder. First publication of the photo above where Petrauske holds the metal pentacle made for him by Solhiem. : 2004 December Crimestoppers Reward first offered. 2005 Stanley Pirie tried for 'regular' sexual abuse against Witness 'A': Witness 'A' does not mention Solheim nor Kemp nor Petrauske to the police or at the trial. 2006 April 26th Margaret James tried for Solheim Murder. Receives 20 year sentence. 2011 December. Police arrest Kemp and Petrauske. 2012 November 26th: Falmouth Pagan Ritual Abuse case begins 2012 December 14th Kemp and Petrauske found guilty. |
What Can Pagans and Freethinkers Do To Stop This Evil Flow of Black Propaganda Against their Religion?Look upon the Falmouth Case as an opportunity to present the true and socially responsible face of paganism. Every time you see a Tweet or newspaper article or Forum comment about the Falmouth Case which is defamatory to Paganism or Wicca or which repeats ignorant conclusions then consider commenting or Tweeting back to redress the balance. Repudiate the idea that there is such a thing as Pagan Ritual Abuse at every juncture and be sure to include a link to this webpage. To make things easier we have added a shortened link below suitable for use in forums and on twitter. http://bit.ly/VOk5nN http://bit.ly/VOk4nN ALERT OTHER PAGANS who many not be aware of what is happening so that they too can rebutt any besmirching of their beliefs. Join in with the SAFF's sterling work in protecting freedom of religious belief and in particular the rights of pagans. Check out our complete website and begin contributing ideas and information to our FORUM to share with others. Discover the legal position and what your local authority has to do to respect your religious beliefs. Bone up on them here: UNHUMRITS Please click here to go to the SAFF Forum - You can leave a message anonymously or just read what others have to say. |
Even though there have been dozens of failed cases over the past two decades in which claims of SATANIC abuse have featured the people accused in those cases were neither satanists nor witches but ordinary folk sucked into the madcap controversy who were subsequently cleared. In the 23 years since the Satan Scare was first floated the Falmouth case is the very first instance where a genuine pagan has been prosecuted and is therefore of historic consequence. The implications for Paganism are immense and this article has been writen primarily to make pagans aware of the dangerous situation they now find themselves in. So important was the Falmouth Pagan Ritual Abuse case that the entire investigation and subsequent prosecution was kept under a veil of secrecy during the lead up to the trial. The adult accusers were given absolute anonymity and gave much of their evidence by video, (a facility introduced originally for children to avoid them being traumatised by the formality of the court and appearing in front of their abusers) which in the context of an adult trial immediately gives a guilty impression to the jury. Judge Graham Cottle even imposed a legal order banning media coverage of the case which further dramatised the hearing. . The first the public knew that a witch-hunt was in process was when BBC radio Cornwall successfully challenged the gagging order, which meant reporting of the proceedings could take place. Congratulations must go to the BBC for doing the job a healthy media should be doing. This made it possible for the public to see the workings of a modern-day witch-trial of mediaeval proportions. The prosecution's Inquisitorial approach was clear from the outset as defence barrister Sean Brunton, defending, told the Jury 'medieval justice' was used to torture and kill people who behaved strangely or differently as soon as others began to point the finger of accusation.' He was of course warning the Jury against falling for the old myths when he said: 'While
those who don’t follow the crowd are criticised, it’s not yet illegal
to be a weirdo.'
The glee with which the Ritual Abuse
Axis used the Falmouth case to
support their 24 year old failed contentions about SRA was first
revealed when a week or so prior to the actual trial the outgoing
Children 's Commissioner fleetingly
mentioned it in a short interview
answering wide criticism of the departments most recent claims about
16,000 teenage girls being at risk from Asian Gangs. In the interview
for Channel 4 TV news he gave a list of threats to
children and also slipped in;
The evidence against the two accused was the word of their adult
accusers, involving memories in childhood which went so far back (to
three years old in one case) that most ordinary people would be unable to
recall them at all, let alone recall memories with reliable accuracy, but the
defence, which appeared to sleep-walk through the trial, did not
challenge the source of these memories or question when they
were
first recalled. They did not for instance check whether witness
'A' giving this testimony (who had beenunder psychiatric
treatment) had undergone any recovered memory therapy.
The discredited 'Recovered Memory syndrome
now appears to have morphed with a modern version of the infamous
'spectral
evidence'
which brought mediaeval witch trials into utter contempt.
Clearly, the fact
that Peter
Petrauske was a genuine pagan believer and High Priest of his own coven
was CRUCIAL to the story painted
by the prosecution and witnesses giving evidence against him. The
stories each witness gave were being aggregated into impressions of a
Pagan Abuse Ring - a coven of paedophiles intent on abusing
multiple children during evil pagan ceremonies ; thus confirming
in the minds of the Jurors
all the historic mega-accusations Satan Hunters in Social Work had
alleged in a propaganda excercise lasting two decades. But the truth of
the Falmouth Pagan Ritual Abuse case was far more complex and
convoluted than that as we will relate.
In almost every historic case of sexual abuse the conclusion inevitably boils down to a choice between the word of the accuser and the word of the accused which is why an attempt to besmirch and discredit the reputation and intent of the accused is always present in any such trial. The less real evidence there is the more strident is the attempt to discredit. In a case in which occult involvement played a part the prosecution had this presented to them on a plate and they focused on the Pagan Ritualised Abuse aspect. The defence saw this coming and brought in expert witness Ronald Hutton, a History professor and pagan who had written many books on the subject. Hutton did his best to convince the jury of the truth. That paganism is the original prehistoric religion of mankind and that none of its ceremonies or rites involve or abuse children. That pagans are highly responsible about children and would inform the police immediately if they found anyone in their ranks abusing them in any way. "Previously this week Dr Ronald Hutton, a professor of history who has written numerous books on the history of Paganism and Witchcraft, spoke about the religion WICCA that was part of a complex religion including Paganism.Source The message was that it was not possible for a Pagan Ring of child abusers to have existed in Cornwall for so many years without detection by Pagans themselves in the first instance, and the police shortly afterwards. Those who have heard similar accusations before throughout the twenty four year reign of the Satan Scare will already be saying; Just a minute! This is the first occasion when a pagan has been tried and convicted for child abuse but there have been THOUSANDS of instances of Priests who have used their divine authority to abuse children and often done this in a church or by using religious impedimentia (e.g. the case of the priest who raped an 8 year old girl by inserting a crucifix into her vagina see here) but we never saw headlines like: 'Christian Gang Ritually Abuses Children'
because
it is obvious to all intelligent observers that it is paedophile
priests
who are at fault and not the religion of Christianity within which they
work. Renegade priests, even THOUSANDS of renegade priests do not
undermine the genuine nature of the Christian Religion. We don't say;
to avoid the thousands of paedophile priests we should ostracise or ban
Christianity itself, so why therefore was it necessary to portray Paganism as entirely corrupt?In the Falmouth case it appeared that the prosecution wanted to have it's cake and eat it at the same time. The key prosecutor Mr Beal told the jury that Kemp had used the paraphernalia in paganism and witchcraft to scare the children he had abused. His actual words were: "You put those robes on to frighten some little children. It was nothing to do with paganism or witchcraft – it was child abuse."Those pagans who thought this was an olive branch should think again. The prosecution took this stance ONLY when questioning Kemp because his defence was that he was not a witch or pagan. Beal was trying to establish the fact that Kemp's involvement in the abuse was simply one of perversion. The prosecution WAS blaming the religion of Paganism because the key message was that the existence and activities of the two accused were linked to the group activities of a Pagan Coven lead by Petrauske. Without that link each man would have had to be tried on the evidence relating to his own indpendent abuse which was weak in relation to a network of abusers. That is, some witnesses inculpated Kemp in abuse but not in a religious framework. Those witnesses did not inculpate Petrauske. Thus even though Jack Kemp (Petrauske's co-accused) made it clear several times during his trial that he wasn't a member of Petrauske Coven, had not been initiated into it and claimed to be a member of a Spiritualist church (spiritualist churches are Christian in orientation) the prosecution insisted that he was part of this supposed Coven of Abusers spanning three decades. The barrister said: "You put those robes on to frighten some little children...." Kemp replied: "I never wore robes. It's not my religion." Compare this with Petrauske who was clearly a pagan and who told the police what his religious beliefs were immediately that he was questioned. Petrauske told police officers: “I am a white witch, a pagan and not a Christian..."Thus we have a dichotomy where one defendant pleaded that he WAS a witch and the other pleaded that he WAS NOT a witch as part of their individual defences to allegations of ritualised abuse. Petrauske appeared to be saying. Don't find me guilty just because I believe in the religion of paganism, and Kemp was saying don't blame me for ritual abuse because I am not a pagan. So, was the abuse Pagan Ritual Abuse or was it just a gang of abusers? Was the ritual perpetrated as a cloak to disguise a gang of paedophiles or was the abuse part of an evil religious belief which required the debasing and sacrifice of children? This was the catch-as-catch-can of this trial and the prosecution had decided to put Paganism squarely in the dock. Ms Martin, Kemp's defence barrister tried again saying; 'The pagan aspect is high drama. But it has absolutely nothing to do with Jack Kemp. That is the biggest red herring of this particular case.' The catch-22 was that during the trial it was revealed that Kemp had previously been convicted for child abuse in 1972 and he was said to have been friends with Stanley Pirie, a paedophile who had been sentenced to 12 years in prison in the same court in 2005 largely from the testimony of the same woman (witness 'A' ) who was now giving evidence against Kemp and Petrauske. She was the main witness whose testimony tied together Kemp and Petrauske in incidents of abuse within a ritual framework. However in contrast Petrauske had no previous convictions. This put the Jury in a bind. It looked like Kemp and Pirie might have been a paedophile group but at Pirie's trial witness 'A' had made no mention of ritual abuse. If the Jury believed Kemp's story that he was not a Witch and therefore a common-or-garden opportunistic paedophile the allegations of Pagan Ritual Abuse did not fit his case and they would need to consider the allegations against Petrauske in a different light. Because Petrauske had no previous convictions and he was blackened by association with Kemp they might very well have to find him not guilty and Kemp more likely guilty. However it was impossible to find Petrauske not-guilty in the scenario of Ritual Abuse which the prosecution had set up as his belief in Paganism was key to it all. When Jo Martin, defending Kemp, asked
witness 'A' why the woman had not mentioned Kemp or Petrauske during
the 2005 trial of Pirie, she replied:
"Because I was ashamed and feared what they would do to me if I ever told. I can't forget some of the things they did." She said she had first mentioned the two defendants during counselling sessions following the Pirie trial and said they had "destroyed" her life. These are serious charges which affect the whole of Paganism so regardless of any sympathy we may have with Witness 'A' it is important to chase down these important aspects. How could adult Witness 'A' be so frightened of Kemp and Petrauske in 2005 that she dare not tell about their abuse, yet felt free to tell the police everything that Stanley Pirie did? Why was she the key witness against Pirie but did not think of mentioning to the police about Kemp and Petrauske? The defence never posited the crucial question. 'Did you only recall Kemp and Petrauske due to recovered memory therapy undergone after the Pirie case and during counselling sessions with therapists who believed in satanic ritual child abuse? ' The answer to that would have been interesting because, Ms Martin, Kemp's defence barrister referred to a letter from Witness 'A' 's psychiatrist to her GP in which he stated; the woman (witness 'A') told him she had been a virgin when she married. Witness (A) agreed that was what she had told her psychiatrist because "it made it easier." Witness (A) was therefore admitting that she lied to suit her predicament. Now we are not for one moment suggesting that Witness 'A' did not suffer abuse. What we are pointing out is that her own statements throw some doubt on the development of this story and there is a chance of ordinary abuse having been re-defined as Pagan or Satanic and thus played into the hands of the Ritual Abuse Axis. Now read this: During evidence Witness 'A' sensationally also accused a man named Peter Solheim of raping her when she was a child. She said he was also part of the coven that Kemp and Petrauske were involved in. She remembered him after seeing a photograph of him on TV after he was sensationally murdered. But Solheim was murdered in 2004 almost a year before Pirie had been brought to trial and most probably during the period when Witness (A) was being questioned by police about Pirie. The defence should have questioned Witness 'A' in detail about this situation but failed to do so. Apparently witness 'A' had not only decided not to mention the abuse by Kemp and Petrauske to the police but she had also not mentioned Solheim to the police whilst a murder investigation was ongoing about him even though she has admitted she was aware of it having seen it on TV! It is important to realise that when Witness 'A' gave testimony at Pirie's trial in 2005 she did not once mention occultism, wicca, paganism or ritual abuse. Pirie was sentenced for 'ordinary' sexual child abuse. We can only conclude logically that her memories of the involvement of Solheim in Petrauske's 'ritual abuse coven ' occurred in restrospect after those images were confabulated during counselling sessions following the Pirie trial. Additionally, Petrauske's defence counsel did not properly challenge witness 'A' concerning the 25,000.00 GBP compensation she had received following the Pirie case. "During cross examination yesterday the witness agreed that she had received nearly £25,000 compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board but declared: “I gave it all away, to anyone, it was dirty money... I never wanted people to know about what had happened but I had to do what is right.” Source: The questions which should have naturally followed from the defence were these: (1) When did she first learn of the fact that she might be subject to compensation and how much did she believe it might be? Paganism on TrialThe ultimate deciding factor therefore was not whether Kemp and/or Petrauske were guilty of child abuse but whether there was such a thing as ritualised abuse that went on in Pagan ceremonies. In short it was PAGANISM WHICH WAS ON TRIAL. The Falmouth case had become a test-case for the existence of child abuse as part of pagan worship.This paradoxicality was one which appeared frequently in mediaeval Witch-trials and is often used to overcome a lack of evidence to support the allegations being made. Look at this: "Witches work at night and in secret AND CLEAR PROOF OF SUCH DEEDS IS IMPOSSIBLE".In other words, juries must believe their worst fears despite the paucity of evidence. These were the words of Henry Bouguet, a lawyer in a 16th century witch-trial. They caused an innocent woman to be executed. You can read more about the similarities between medieaval witch trials and the Falmouth case here: If the prosecution in the Falmouth case succeeded it would open a completely new and very wide field of targets for the Satan Hunters. The 'Occult Census' proved that there are about 250,000 pagans in the U.K. but only about 450 genuine satanists The Child Scare Industry now has a bandwagon of enormous proportions. Note: Though 1,893 people quipped that they were satanists in the 2011 census most of these can be classified along with those who also claimed to be 'Jedi Knights'. Satanists do have a sense of humour but are not likely to aid the State to hunt them down. Neo-pagans on the other hand seek to legitimise their religion and various campaigns in pagan newsletters and their empire-building Pagan Federation ,as this report here proves, started to enthuse pagans to mark down their religion on the 2011 census form. Their naivety is clear from the Falmouth Pagan Ritual Abuse trial because those sectarians who have made a career of besmirching and defaming paganism now have a census figure of at least 80,000 pagans and druids etc to extrapolate to the authorities as an increased risk to children. Did Extreme Sentencing Reflect Bias against Paganism?
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Example List of Priests and Clergy convicted in child abuse cases and the light sentences they were given.Stephen Allen, Priest, (77) was sentenced to one year in prison in March of this year, for sexually abusing four boys 45 years ago.Former Christian Brother John McKenna was given a three-year suspended sentence in 2002 for abusing boys between 1968 and 1970. McCormack pleaded guilty in 2007 to fondling five boys while he served as a Catholic priest. He was sentenced to five years in prison. Christian Brother Patrick John Kelly,, was jailed for eight years in 1999 for sexual assaults on 11 boys over a 12-year period. Gordon Wateridge, was jailed for two years after being found guilty of a string of sex attacks on teenage girls at Haute Garonne, Jersey. Christian Brother Donal Dunne, was jailed for two years at Tullamore Circuit Court in 1999 after a lifetime of abuse which spanned his entire 45-year career. A priest who sexually abused six boys at a Catholic boarding school has been sentenced to six years in jail. William Green, 67, abused pupils aged 11 to 15 between 1975 and 1987 In June of 2009, Christian Brother Sean Drummond (61) pleaded guilty to 36 counts of indecent assault in the 1960s. Priest Peter Halliday, 61, from Farnborough, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after pleading guilty at Winchester Crown court to ten counts of indecent assault. Our files show MANY other cases where priests have been given desultory sentences totally unlike the one handed out to Petrauske (see here) |
"Father John Haley Dossor, pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault relating to two boys aged as young as 13. Norwich Crown Court also heard that Dossor accepted he had abused a third boy between 15 and 20 times, although he was not charged with these attacks. The offences happened when the 71-year-old, of Kirton, near Felixstowe, Suffolk, was working at St Mary's Church in Hadleigh in the early 1990s.One year and ten months. The Judge did not mention whether 71 year old Dossor was likely or unlikely to die in prison. Source:
Jailing Dossor for one year and 10 months, Judge Mark Lucraft said: "You sexually abused these teenage boys who were committed to your care for recreation and education."
Graham Ovenden gets suspended sentence for child sexual offencesAn internationally renowned artist has been given a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, after being found guilty of a string of sexual offences against former child models. Sentencing Graham Ovenden at Plymouth crown court, Judge Graham Cottle told Ovenden: “There can be no doubt that at that time you had a sexual interest in children.”
Ovenden, 70, who studied under the pop artist Sir Peter Blake,
was convicted of six charges of indecency with girls and one allegation
of indecent assault on girls as young as 6. For decades Ovenden lived and worked at Barley Splatt, an estate and neo-gothic mansion deep in the heart of Bodmin Moor, Cornwall. It was here some of his victims claimed he had committed offences against them in the 70s and 80s. Ovenden denied that he had assaulted any of the children, who were as young as six. He claimed he was the target of a witch-hunt and his images of children were all about capturing them in a “state of grace”. |
"She had been tied to a chair and blindfolded, and on another occasion her wrists were bound and a ceremonial dagger was drawn over her body."Source
"The High Priestess ran knives up and down her body and around her neck, and she felt hot wax being poured down her stomach, she claimed.Note carefully that the witness said that it was a WOMAN and NOT either of the two defendants who did this. The perpetrator of the knife incident was a woman but she was not on trial. The situation was used to discredit the defendants through guilt-by-association. When asked to explain what had been done to her the victim said she felt like a rag doll that somebody was experimenting on but she never once claimed that she had been sexually abused during this ceremony.
"Victims were allegedly plied with alcohol before being ordered to strip naked in front of a crowd of men wearing ceremonial robes and who used daggers and wax as part of ritualistic sex abuse." Source:But as we have shown there was no ritualistic sex abuse - the witness was not complaining about sexual abuse in that context.
Prosecutors say Jack Kemp, 69, and Peter Petrauske, 72, were members of aNote the plurals, even though only ONE instance of the use of a dagger was given by the witness and she certainly did not say that she was threatened with it to get sex.
witches' coven whose members donned robes and used daggers to launch sex
attacks on girls in Cornwall. Source:
"Among items police found at his home were a suitcase containing a ceremonial dagger, a cup and table covering, books relating to witchcraft and paganism, a blue and silver gown, a purple gown, a black eye mask, a red robe, a black leather whip, a gold chain and dagger, a black handled sword and a bag containing candles, incense and lavender."The implication is that these were items which had been used in the alleged abuses and thus proved beyond doubt Petrauske's guilt . But the truth is that ALL witches have some of these items as part of their ceremonial paraphernalia. ANY witch or pagan would possess most of these things in order to pursue their religion's ceremonies. Just as a Catholic Priest would also possess robes, a chalice, candles, incense etc. The reality is that these things were not 'hidden' and they were not 'found' by the police. They were simply part of Petrauske's permanent temple which you could see by walking into his flat as the picture at the top of the page proves. There was absolutely NO evidence to suggest that any of the items discovered in his flat had been used in any crimes; yet that is the impression that was given to the Jury.
Her evidence spoke of being about three when she was first abused, and five when she went to a ritual attended by a number of men and women, together with up to 12 children. Among those present were Kemp and Petrauske, the high priest. Source:
"The chanting stuck in my head for weeks," she said. "I didn't understand what it was all about, I just thought they were weird. I was warned that if I was naughty they would hurt me, that they had special powers.This statement was not challenged by the defence. It begged the question that if the chanting stuck in her head for weeks she would still be able to remember it now but she was never asked to repeat it before the jury or even describe what it was like. The ability of children to remember nursery rhymes almost before they can talk; and later on as adults to remember those ditties to entertain their own children, is well known, yet the defence failed this simple method to test what and what not witness 'A' could remember from that time.
Yesterday Detective Inspector Neil Best told the Falmouth Packet:However the media didn't seem bothered about the truth and kept up the 'occult' connections throughout the investigation, including a special interview with Peter Petrauske in 2004 who de-mystified the entire episode (see above leftmost column)
"The (occult aspect ) is a subject we are trying to bring focus away from. We are looking at what happened to Mr Solheim and his history is important but it is not a main focus for us."
Note that there was no mention of the occult. Unfortunately the media did not let it rest and sensational coverage increased until the police brought Solheim's wife to trial for the murder. Predictably coverage of the trial by the media then became low key, (presumably to avoid readers remembering that earlier their local rag had inferred that Solheim's death was a black magic sacrifice) but the following opening statement from the prosecution makes the police investigation abundantly clear:
A REWARD of £5,000 is being offered in a bid to try and track down the murderer of Budock parish councillor 'Peter Solheim. The Crimestoppers Trust has agreed to assist the investigation with the offer of up to £5,000 as a reward for information that leads to the arrest, charge and conviction. 56-year-old Peter Solheim's body was pulled from the sea some five miles from Blackhead, Falmouth, during the morning of Friday, June 18, 2004. A post-mortem has shown that he drowned but he had also suffered additional injuries. Since that time, detectives have been working from an incident room based at Falmouth and have interviewed more than l,500 people. At present, no one has been charged with his murder.
The long-standing lover of a parish councillor with interests in paganism
and witchcraft drugged, mutilated and murdered him then dumped his body five
miles out to sea, a court was told yesterday.
Margaret James, 57, attacked Peter Solheim, 56, and killed him in a "most
gruesome" fashion after discovering that he was about to leave her and marry
another lover, Truro Crown Court was told.
Her motives were a "combination of hatred, jealousy, revenge and a desire to
get her hands on his money and start a new life somewhere else", said Sarah
Munro, QC, prosecuting. (Source: This is Cornwall: Richard Savill 26/04/2006)
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