Forensic Aspects of Dissociative Identity Disorder

Graeme Galton, Adah Sachs, Graeme Galton, Adah Sachs

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780367106065
• eBook ISBN: 9780429913839
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

This ground-breaking book examines the role of crime in the lives of people with Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder, a condition which appears to be caused by prolonged trauma in infancy and childhood. This trauma may be linked with crimes committed against them, crimes they have witnessed, and crimes they have committed under duress. This collection of essays by a range of distinguished international contributors explores the complex legal, ethical, moral, and clinical questions which face psychotherapists and other professionals working with people suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder. Contributors to this book are drawn from a wide range of professions including psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, counselling, psychology, medicine, law, police, and social work.

Chapter One
Satanist ritual abuse and the problem of credibility

Joan Coleman

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790

Do some satanists really commit crimes and abuse children? Many people believe not. My own hard-earned professional experience tells me otherwise.

This chapter is an account of my own journey: a journey from relative ignorance prior to 1980, through growing awareness of the extent of child sexual abuse, through my bizarre, frightening introduction to satanist ritual abuse, to my eventual belief that satanist crime does, indeed, occur. And I would like to think that mine is a reflective, rather than reflexive, belief (van der Hart & Nijenhuis, 1999)—that is, belief that stems from reflecting on the evidence, rather than blind acceptance of what initially seems highly improbable.

Ritual abuse evoked considerable interest in Britain between 1987 and 1994. The subject was taken up by many professionals, mainly psychologists, counsellors, and social workers; numerous children thought to be at risk were taken into care. In 1989, some of us who had encountered it formed an organization called RAINS (Ritual Abuse Information Network & Support), with the aim of sharing information and supporting each other.

Ritual abuse can be found in a wide range of social and religious backgrounds. In this chapter, I focus on abuse within satanist groups, as that is the type that I myself and most RAINS members have largely encountered.

In 1990, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) issued a press release regarding the large number of such cases they were working with. There were numerous press articles and several television programmes. In 1991, Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley appointed an anthropologist, Professor Jean La Fontaine, to research the subjects of organized and ritual abuse. La Fontaine had already written an acclaimed book on child sexual abuse.

In the summary of her report, La Fontaine concluded that there was no evidence of satanist abuse and that the alleged disclosures of the children were largely suggested by adults. In those cases in which the police had found "satanic" paraphernalia, she maintained that these were simply used by paedophiles to intimidate the children (Great Britain, Dept. of Health, 1994).

Largely as a result of this report, both the media and professionals became cautious about the subject of ritual abuse, and many shied away from it. Social workers were instructed not to mention the words "ritual" or "satanic" in any reports regarding child abuse.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of adults were seeking help with what they were convinced were genuine memories of severe and sadistic abuse that they had undergone as children. The recognition of the reality of child sexual abuse and its resulting psychological effects enabled adult survivors of satanist ritual abuse to feel some hope that they would be believed. However, this was not always the case because when ceremonies and sacrifices were mentioned, these were dismissed by some psychiatrists as delusions and many survivors were given inappropriate treatment with antipsychotic drugs. The False Memory Syndrome Foundation (set up in 1992) and the British False Memory Society (set up in 1993) also contributed to the general attitude of scepticism among professionals, and the whole subject of ritual crime became "suspect".

Incidentally, the reader may notice that I have been using the term "satanist" rather than the more commonly used "satanic". In my view, it is important to make this distinction because, although the alleged abuse may be done in the name of Satan, whom the abusers profess to worship, it is nonetheless people, not Satan, who are the abusers.

From ignorance, through uncertainty, to reflective belief

When I was working towards membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the early 1970s, only a few days of the course were dedicated to the subject of sexual disorders, which included perversions and fetishisms, incest, and paedophilia. The latter was considered rare and usually referred to strange men preying on children singly, rather than in groups. When the existence of the Paedophile Information Exchange network was exposed less than a decade later, it was an eye-opener for many that a large number of professional people appeared to be abusing on an organized scale. Furthermore, most of us were still unaware of the extent of child sexual abuse by family members.

Margaret

In the autumn of 1986 my comfortable world was shattered and has never been the same since. I had by then been working in a psychiatric hospital for nearly 17 years. One of my wards was for patients with both physical and psychiatric disorders. One such patient, a woman in her early forties, whom I will call Margaret, had been admitted frequently to the ward during the previous four years. I was aware that her physical illnesses—asthma, peptic ulceration, and severe migraines—were connected with her mental disturbances, but I was unable to identify the cause of these. She had plenty of visitors, and she denied any family problems. She was given to self-harm—mainly overdosing with prescribed drugs—especially during weekend leave. On one occasion that summer, she overdosed within hours of discharge and returned to hospital the following day via the Accident & Emergency Department. Her physical condition rapidly deteriorated, and by the autumn she was vomiting blood.

Soon after this, in response to an almost casual question about her clear dislike of a family friend, she began talking, and the floodgates on her disclosures opened. As well as talking to me, she also talked to Eileen, a nurse whom she trusted, and we started to work with her together.

Initially she spoke of what appeared to be a large paedophile network that was currently active. She described sadistic sexual abuse of children by men; some of these men were members of her family and their acquaintances, some were politicians, some were well-known entertainers.

From the time of her first disclosures, there was a remarkable improvement in her physical symptoms. The vomiting ceased, and she had no further asthma or migraine attacks. She stopped overdosing and seemed ready to continue talking. At times she would confuse and exasperate us by saying that she had made it up, but within hours she would withdraw this. Eileen and I knew little about paedophile networks, but we agreed that we would withhold judgement and just record everything that we were told.

We decided that, whether or not she was telling the truth, we should involve the police, which was done at a fairly early stage. However, when the names of alleged abusers were not found on criminal record files, police interest waned. We were told that if we could provide some evidence, they would then investigate.

In the early summer of 1987, Margaret, who was still an inpatient, learned that she had a terminal illness. She reacted to this by insisting on her discharge, saying she wanted to die at home. When I expressed doubt about the wisdom of this, she retracted all her disclosures, maintaining that she had always been given to fantasy and had made the whole thing up. This left us with mixed feelings: relief that these horrors were possibly not real, anger at having been "taken for a ride", and yet still feeling considerable doubt about what really was the truth. Was there pressure on her to retract, or did she just want to spend her last few years in peace?

Within a few weeks of discharge she was back, having been found in a drugged state staggering among traffic. She was now detained under Section 3 of the Mental Health Act, which, unless she was discharged by a tribunal, would detain her in hospital for six months. Possibly this enabled her to feel safe enough to extend her previous disclosures. At all events, she began to give detailed descriptions of runaway children being met at the big London stations and offered accommodation in what they were told was a hostel. There they were forced to take drugs to which they quickly became addicted. Soon they were being abused and hired out for sex. She then described another house to which some of these children, mainly boys, were taken. She commented on how they initially appeared normal but were taken out of the room only to be brought back limp and drooping. Later, we learned that some children are given muscle relaxants prior to abuse, but at that time we had no knowledge of such things. What puzzled us more was why Margaret was taken to witness these activities. She explained that whenever she had protested about what went on, she was forced to watch and was photographed to maintain her silence.

Photographs were also taken of the abuse, she said. After being raped or buggered by a number of men, some of the children were returned to the "hostel". Others were killed. This, she told us, was always done with a knife. The body was then dismembered and the parts enclosed in plastic bags, which were taken to what she described as a factory, where they were disposed of in vast kilns. The killings were recorded on videos, which were sold for huge sums as "snuff movies". She described the same pattern each time and commented that "it seemed like some sort of ritual". Even then we did not grasp what she was trying to tell us. Not until she spoke of abusers wearing robes and masks and young Vietnamese children being tied to altars and inverted crosses did we begin to understand and research what was written about satanism and satanist ritual abuse. Later, she admitted that her family had been satanists for generations. Thereafter, there were no further retractions, and we felt, for the first time, that her accounts were adding up. But because we now believed her, it was all the more terrifying for us.

Her mental health improved markedly after these disclosures, and, when her detention under the Mental Health Act was lifted, she was discharged and needed no further admissions. We continued to see her regularly as an outpatient.

Following the disclosures that children were being killed, we involved the police a second time. We supplied them with names and addresses of more alleged perpetrators and with more details regarding the children. By the time they called us back to tell us the result of their investigation, Margaret had divulged a great deal more about cult activities, including descriptions of ceremonies, locations, and hierarchy. She made a clear distinction between the killings of the children in London and the ceremonial sacrifices. The former, she said, were sadistic and commercial; the latter, however, were part of a religious ceremony in which both men and women participated. These sacrifices were always performed by the High Priest on certain festival dates. Their purpose was to enhance the power of the cult.

We were prepared to give all our information to the police and had already provided the address of the "factory". They told us they had found some bricked-up areas there and had even contacted the bricklayers, who told them these had formerly held windows, not kilns. The police, meanwhile, had appointed an independent psychiatrist to interview Margaret. The psychiatrist's conclusions were that I had invented the whole story and persuaded her that satanism was the background to all her problems, whereas he attributed them to the repressive attitude of a strict aunt who had lived with her during her childhood. The Assistant Chief Constable accepted his opinion but did not report me to the General Medical Council, as the psychiatrist had requested. The Detective Chief Superintendent who had conducted the investigation gave me his personal phone number, saying he wished to be kept informed. Unfortunately, he retired from the police force not long after.

From September 1988 onwards, Eileen and I continued listening to and recording Margaret's disclosures without further police involvement. She described the methods of mind control used by cults; how children were drugged and hypnotized to believe in the magical power of Satan. Despite her awareness of the deception of children, she still half-believed in this magic. She claimed to have actually seen Satan and demons at some ceremonies. Not until she was taken to a ceremony a year or so later, did she become less credulous. She decided to watch events carefully instead of staring at the candles, as instructed. She observed both "Satan" and "demons" appearing from behind a screen. After that, she gradually ceased to believe that there was any supernatural aspect to cult activity. She thus became much less fearful and considerably stronger. On ceremony dates she would barricade her room, refusing to attend. Occasionally, she was punished, but the perpetrators knew of the police involvement, which ensured her safety.

Eventually she was left alone by the cult. She got herself a job and became independent. Sadly, by the time she died a few years later, she had, for the first time, developed a zest for life. She just described it as "Sod's Law".

Margaret was one of the most courageous women whom I have met. Eileen and I saw her just hours before she died. She repeated that everything she had told us about the cult was true and that she wanted everyone to know.

Theresa

By the late 1980s, we had become aware of other cases alleging satanist ritual abuse. We made efforts to contact the professionals involved and listen to their accounts. Many of these cases had already been heard in the criminal or family courts, so there was no question of contaminating evidence. We thus became acquainted with a small network of people who had encountered satanist ritual abuse. In early 1989, I was asked by one of these professionals if I would work with a 15-year-old girl who was claiming satanist abuse by members of her extended family from whom she had escaped 18 months earlier.

This girl described cult activities in a much more direct manner than Margaret, but the procedures, including the methods of abusing children, were almost identical. She provided much detail about a large, castle-like house, to which she and other children were taken regularly. They were drugged before the journey, so she had no idea of its whereabouts. She believed it to be owned by a doctor, because part of the basement was used for experimental operations. Another part, she claimed, contained small cult children who were kept in cages, brought out only for abuse, operations, and ultimately sacrifice. She also talked of a large tub of acid, which was used for disposal of the bodies. She seemed determined to tell everything she knew.

In this case, the police were already involved and had charged five men with rape of a minor and one woman with aiding and abetting and with procuring an abortion. Although Theresa had spoken of them to the police, there was no evidence available to prove the ritual activities, so these were omitted from the charges. Shortly before the trial, the police visited her school to obtain records of her attendance. The school counsellor then gave them some notes and drawings that Theresa had produced some months earlier, when she was upset by memories of what she had witnessed. These included a graphic description of the ritual sacrifice of a tramp.

A few days before the trial was due to start, there was great consternation within the Crown Prosecution Service, because they had seen this material. The prosecution lawyers had no choice but to inform the defence lawyers. After a morning of deliberation, the case was adjourned. I was then asked to write a full report including all that she had disclosed regarding the cult activities and sacrifices. As a result, the prosecution lawyers maintained that there was no chance of any jury believing it, so, at the next court appearance, they offered no evidence and the defendants walked free.

This case well illustrates the difficulty with credibility Even now, 17 years later, prosecution lawyers are reluctant to include details of a ritual aspect in cases involving sexual abuse of, or cruelty towards, children. That is because it is not illegal in the United Kingdom to practice satanism, nor to wear gowns or masks. Therefore, such material coming up in court is not only considered irrelevant, it seriously undermines the credibility of any other account of the witness.

This situation might well change if tangible evidence were more forthcoming, but until there is generalized acceptance of the reality of satanist ritual abuse, the evidence will not be sought. It is a vicious circle.

After the collapse of the court case, I continued working with Theresa. I am happy to say that she became increasingly strong. The abusers eventually stopped all attempts at harassment, and she was able to lead a normal life. She is now a healthy young woman with a husband and family. We have remained close friends.

Difficult as it was to cross the barrier of their seemingly incredible stories, and my own doubt, when working with my first two survivors of satanist ritual abuse, it could have been even harder. I was fortunate, for example, that neither one of them had disclosed recovered memories: it was clear that they had never forgotten. I know that I did not suggest or induce these memories. In Margaret's case, my knowledge was so scant that I would not have known what to suggest. In Theresa's case, she had already disclosed much of the material to others before I knew her.

Neither of these two survivors showed evidence of dissociative identity disorder, then known as multiple personality disorder. Both described and occasionally displayed episodes of dissociation, but these subsided soon after they were free from cult activity. I had heard that multiple personality disorder was common in cult victims who were abused from birth, but I found this concept hard to accept. Not until I started working with my third satanist abuse survivor was I confronted with this baffling condition; after that, there was no mistaking it.

Monica

In late 1990 I had a call from a counselling community psychiatric nurse asking for advice about a 37-year-old woman named Monica who had been referred to her by a health visitor a few months earlier because she was bulimic. Monica was now disclosing ritual abuse since babyhood. Mandy, the community psychiatric nurse, felt in need of some help, so I started to see Monica with her on alternate sessions. Occasionally, when Mandy was away, I saw her alone.

At first, she was terrified of talking about the cult, but after a few weeks she started to give detailed accounts of her memories. She talked more about her childhood than had Margaret, who had concentrated on what was happening to children currently. Many of Monica's memories were re-lived and described in childlike voices with similar facial expressions and mannerisms. These child-like parts of her maintained that they had different names and ages, and sometimes, when she wrote, it was In the script of a 5-year-old. At other times, she seemed unlike her usual self and was quite hostile towards Mandy and myself. It gradually emerged that some of her personalities were still fiercely loyal to the cult. While Monica herself believed she had not been involved with cult activities since she was 15 years old, some of her personalities had ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• SERIES FOREWORD
• ABOUT THE EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS
• Introduction
• CHAPTER ONE Satanist ritual abuse and the problem of credibility
• CHAPTER TWO Unsolved: investigating allegations of ritual abuse
• CHAPTER THREE The Extreme Abuse Surveys: preliminary findings regarding dissociative identity disorder
• CHAPTER FOUR The protectors of the secrets
• CHAPTER FIVE Am I safe yet?
• CHAPTER SIX Dissociative identity disorder and criminal responsibility
• CHAPTER SEVEN When murder moves inside
• CHAPTER EIGHT When the imaginary becomes the real: reflections of a bemused psychoanalyst
• CHAPTER NINE Some clinical implications of believing or not believing the patient
• CHAPTER TEN Infanticidal attachment: the link between dissociative identity disorder and crime
• CHAPTER ELEVEN Letter from a general practitioner
• CHAPTER TWELVE Corroboration in the body tissues
• CHAPTER THIRTEEN Opening Pandora's box
• CHAPTER FOURTEEN From social conditioning to mind control
• CHAPTER FIFTEEN Mind control: simple to complex
• REFERENCES
• INDEX