Group wants cash to fight ritual abuse

Group wants cash to fight ritual abuse

Matt Conway

A new group set up to counter ritual abuse and satanic worship has applied for almost $40,000 from the Government and the Lottery Grants Board to set up an office and send members to a conference in the United States.

End Ritual Abuse (ERA) was started by a Christchurch woman whose son was found to have been molested by creche worker Peter Ellis. She cannot be named as a suppression order protects the boy's identity. We'll call her Alison.

Alison defines ritual abuse as organised physical, sexual and psychological assaults of child and adult victims, characterised by torture and mind control.

She alleges her son, then aged between 3 and 5, was splattered in blood and buried alive in a coffin during his time at the Christchurch Civic Childcare Centre.

… But New Zealand Skeptics spokesman Dr Denis Dutton, a vocal critic of ritual abuse believers, slammed ERA's bid for public money.

I'm sure the Lottery Grants Board would not be so foolish as to support something as whacky as ritual abuse theories. If they do, they can expect UFO abductees to be next in the queue for money." … - From Sunday Star-Times, 15 October 1994. Reprinted in NZ Skeptic 33