SCOTLAND must realise that ritual and satanic abuse is a very real and
growing problem whatever the outcome of the Orkney inquiry, a child
abuse expert warned in Glasgow yesterday.
American Dr Judianne Densen-Gerber, an authority on ritualistic abuse
and the link with alcohol and drug use, told the International Congress
on Drug and Alcohol Dependence that these types of abuses were
increasing worldwide. Her studies have found that alcohol or drug
dependency has been present in patients involved in the abuses.
Dr Densen-Gerber, 57, a forensic psychiatrist, doctor, and lawyer,
said the problem was particularly acute in America. She described some
of the patients she has treated over the years, including a Yale
University student who she said had eaten three of her children on a
cult altar.
For anyone in the audience who might have thought satanism did not
exist, she said the taxi driver who brought her to the Royal Concert
Hall yesterday had claimed to be a satanist.
''The taxi driver asked me on the way over what I was talking about
and when I told him he said: 'I'm a practising satanist.' So don't tell
me there aren't any because I was driven here by one.''
Dr Densen-Gerber said later: ''There is no question that in the
Western world we have an increase in ritualistic, satanic crime.''
She said there were many reasons for the rise, including the feelings
of powerlessness stemming from a recession. ''In time of recession we
have an increase of Ku Klux Klan activity and it is very easy to go from
the Klan mentality to ritualism.''
She said some of her patients had been members of a 3000-strong coven,
two large cults were known to have their headquarters in Geneva and
Venice, and some cults were believed to have targeted day-care
institutions in the US.
''We're not talking about small groups. They are highly organised with
dual ministries, often fronted behind more traditional religions.''
She said one particularly worrying aspect of satanism and ritual abuse
throughout the world was the similarity between rituals.
Dr Densen-Gerber said she has been following the Orkney allegations
very closely and was looking forward to studying the report.
The conference was also told yesterday that Scotland's level of
services for alcoholics was an international disgrace.
Mr Peter McCann, chairman of the country's largest treatment clinic at
Castle Craig in Peebleshire, said the Government and health boards would
have to carry out a radical re-appraisal of specialist services to bring
them to levels enjoyed in other parts of the world.
He warned the Scottish Office that services would need to be expanded
quickly if they were to meet their target of reducing Scottish
alcoholism deaths by the year 2000.
Mr McCann said Scotland had 390 specialist beds including those in the
private and charitable sector. This compares to 2620 beds in Norway and
952 beds in Alberta where the problem is similar to Scotland, but the
population is half the size.
Delegates will hear today how drug addicts in 12 cities throughout the
world, including Glasgow, are flouting safe sex guidelines. The study
found that most addicts in all of the cities were sexually active but
did not wear condoms.
The conference will also study the link between substance abuse and
crime, and will hear how Japan has managed to control abuse.
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