From:    Albertus Magnus                        Area: Base of Set
To:      All                                    28 Feb 95 21:12:52
Subject: The devil you say?                     UpdReq 

      EDINBURGH, Feb 28 (Reuter) - A Scottish court has ruled that eight
children taken away from their parents five years ago during an investigation
into alleged ``satanic abuse'' should be returned to their parents. 
    The ruling marked the end of a long battle by the parents after the
youngsters were collected by social workers -- some taken away screaming in
dawn raids -- in the southern Scottish county of Ayrshire in 1990. 
    At least two of the children have no memory of their parents, according
to a report to the court. 
    Lord Hope, Scotland's most senior judge, said new evidence had come to
light showing the children, then aged between seven months and 11 years,
should not have been taken from their homes in what he described as ``a
tragedy of immense proportions.'' 
    The so-called satanic abuse cases sparked off a huge investigation and an
enormous debate in the media. Social workers had said the children had
described being abused, both sexually and psychologically, by covens of
devil-worshippers who included their parents and community leaders. 
    But no one was ever charged after a major police probe and a Scottish
court ruled that the social workers had been inadequately trained and had
asked leading questions. 
    ``More than 41/2 years have gone by since the children were removed from
their families in circumstances which the additional evidence has now
demonstrated did not justify their removal,'' Hope said. ``They must now be
reunited with their families and we are anxious that this should be achieved
without any further lapse of time than can be shown to be necessary.'' 
    The eight children, from three related families, will be returned to
their parents in stages. 
    ``The last four or five years have been hell. I could not believe it can
happen to anyone,'' one father told BBC radio. 
    ``I handed my girl into these people for tests of whatever it was. They
said I would get her back in two or three days -- and it was five years.'' 
... What is truth? A mobile army of metaphors & metonyms. - Nietzsche


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