Ritual abuse conviction

by **biaothanatoi** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:03 pm

<a href="http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-3/111890430186640.xml?nola" target="top">Man gets life in prison for 'evil actions'</a> This case is interesting for a few reasons – 1. One of the co-accused was a woman. The line between perp and victim is blurry in RA, particularly for women, but the involvement of female perps is virtually ubiquitous. 2. The nexus of excrement and sexual abuse, also ubiquitious in RA. Nobody briefed these two dabblers on ritual abuse techniques – they came up with their little scat games all on their own. The commonality of torture techniques in RA seems, to me, to suggest a universal ‘vocabulary of torture’. Other common elements such as mock burials, killing of animals, etc, all seem to develop ‘organically’ within RA. 3. The involvement of Wicca. Yes, it’s relatively innocuous; although you have to wonder about a religion with all the historical authenticity and internal consistency of Scientology, particularly when Wicca’s inventor Gerald Gardner (who, like Hubbard, was a fantasy author before becoming a cult leader) took much of his material from Alistair Crowley. In my experience, Wiccans and occultists continue to be the loudest debunkers of ritual abuse – they claim that ritual abuse is a literal ‘witch hunt’ orchestrated by fundamentalist Christians, designed to distract attention from paedophilia within the Christian church. Every time I write an article on ritual abuse for Indymedia, the outright denials and insults come from ‘pagans’, Wiccans and occultists. Of course, it is much more common that RA perpetrators are located somewhere on the Christian-Satanic continuum (often occupying points at either end) but Australia has seen two Wiccan ritual abuse convictions inthe last year.

by **Rigorous Intuition** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 5:05 am

An excerpt: The grandfather of one of the boys called Stockstill a monster who used Wicca, a form of witchcraft, as a catalyst to force bizarre acts on the boys. "This ritual is designed to do one thing: break down the inhibitions of all of those involved," the grandfather said. An aunt said one of the boys had to be put in a group home when he abused a dog and tried to assault a 4-year-old girl. One family member looked directly at both defendants and called them "worthless beyond worthless, scum of the universe." During the trial, both defendants took the stand in their own defense. Stockstill first denied practicing Wicca, then admitted to it on cross-examination. Littlefield testified that she didn't know Stockstill and didn't practice Wicca. Both denied performing sex acts on the children. Stephen Yazbeck, Stockstill's attorney, said the allegations were "childhood fantasies." Stockstill was arrested on the charges in Olympia, Wash., where he was using the name Eion Aneas Woodcraft.

by **Ted the dog** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 1:09 pm

<a href="http://www.newsbanner.com/articles/2005/05/13/news/news06.txt">www.newsbanner.com/articl...news06.txt</a> "Pair of roommates from Folsom convicted of sex crimes, one could face death penalty By Matthew Penix Pontchartrain Newspapers COVINGTON - A pair of Folsom roommates were found guilty of a slew of sexual crimes against children late last Friday after the woman allowed her children to be molested and raped by her roommate who called himself a witch, authorities said Wednesday. It took a jury about six hours to convict Michelle C. Littlefield of 1110 Tantella Ranch Road and Burt Stockstill, formerly of Folsom, now of Olympia, Wash., on molestation, cruelty and rape charges. Littlefield faces up to 50 years in prison for her conviction of molestation and cruelty of a juvenile; Stockstill faces the death penalty or life in prison for the aggravated rape charge when the pair are sentenced June 15. In what prosecutors called a bizarre case Littlefield allowed her children, now 6 and 9, to be raped and abused by her roommate, Stockstill. Tosterud went on to say that Stockstill claimed he was a witch, made the children eat feces and raped the youngsters. During testimony, Stockstill admitted he practiced the ancient form of witchcraft called Wicca and had changed his name to Eion Woodcrast. He has since reverted to Christianity, he said. But despite their religious beliefs, a 12-person jury did not think it was acceptable for Littlefield to allow Stockstill to rape, molest and perform other acts of cruelty on her young children, said District Attorney spokesperson Bart Pepperman. District Attorney Walter Reed recommended a mandatory life sentence. "This disgusting and violent act committed upon children is especially repulsive to the community. They are the type of victims who cannot defend themselves," said Reed." I was curious as to how these two had access to children so young...and it turns out they were her kids?!! isn't a little strange that they don't mention that at all in the original article?

by **Avalon** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 2:53 pm

HTML Comments are not allowed - Please see my post below. I'm very sorry for your lost post. This was not my edit. I don't know what caused the above message and the erasure of your comments. - Edited by: <A HREF=http://p097.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=rigorousintuition>Rigorous Intuition</A> at: 6/21/05 3:15 pm

by **Avalon** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 2:56 pm

Jeff, if you can get in here and change that "the grandfather said.[/i]" to end with [/quote], I think that passage might be a bit clearer. Sorry.

by **Rigorous Intuition** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 5:02 pm

Avalon, I'm so sorry - I went in to your post, changed the [/i] for a [/quote], and when I posted that error message appeared instead, and your post is gone! seemslikeadream lost a post to the same error message last week. ezboard hasn't yet explained to me what happened. As I said, I'm very sorry.

by **Avalon** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:47 pm

No prob. Will try and reconstruct my posting. I'm unclear -- your italics in your message work, and the second quote in my message worked at the time -- is it the way you made them, or that you're an admin? Or a residual glitch from the big hack? I did it the way I usually do on Ezboard boards.

by **Rigorous Intuition** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 11:01 pm

"I'm unclear -- your italics in your message work, and the second quote in my message worked at the time -- is it the way you made them, or that you're an admin?" That's the way I made them. So the error message is not only unwelcome, but it's erroneous! Just a guess, but this feels like a post-crash glitch.

by **chiggerbit** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 1:19 am

I'm trying to figure out in my own mind where children are "obtained" for ritual abuse. There seem to be at least two groups: kidnapped children and children whose parents "offer" them to the group. I'm not sure that the same applies for victim groups abused by "plain old pedophiles"-- incestous parents, pedophilic neighbors/church people, etc . I'm wondering if the RA group in which the parents offer their children aren't the same as the "plain old pedophiles", who use RA as an excuse for their perversion. I would appreciate any comments which would help me to understand. Is this really occultism, or just an excuse for pedophilia? In other words, which came first, the pedophilia or the occultism? (Hmmm, no spell check?)

by **Avalon** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 1:26 am

[reconstruction of my original posting that got lost] It's incomprehensible that the first article linked did not mention that the children were Littlefield's children. the first article says both children testified in court. I'm truly amazed that the testimony of a child who is less than 6 years old telling of his memories when he was between 1 and 3 would be admissible in court under any circumstances, let alone in a case that could bring the death penalty. Under his Woodcraft name, Stockstill seemed to be living in Olympia, Washington in 2004. I wasn't able to pin-point exactly when in 2004 he was there, but it looks like the Louisiana didn't have very long to get their documentation together for the trial. The Olympia paper archives give no clue that they knew that an alleged felony sex offender was extradited to Louisiana for trial. "The grandfather of one of the boys called Stockstill a monster who used Wicca, a form of witchcraft, as a catalyst to force bizarre acts on the boys. 'This ritual is designed to do one thing: break down the inhibitions of all of those involved,' the grandfather said. " Gramps is an instant expert on Wicca? "But despite their religious beliefs, a 12-person jury did not think it was acceptable for Littlefield to allow Stockstill to rape, molest and perform other acts of cruelty on her young children, said District Attorney spokesperson Bart Pepperman." Er, "despite their religious beliefs" refers to whom? They the jurors didn't think it was right for Stockstill to rape children, even though the jurors' religious beliefs allowed for it? Or despite the fact that Littlefield said she wasn't Wiccan, and while allegedly practicing Wicca for a short while, Stockstill was Christian before and after that period, the jurors thought that even so they shouldn't rape kids? "The nexus of excrement and sexual abuse, also ubiquitious in RA. Nobody briefed these two dabblers on ritual abuse techniques – they came up with their little scat games all on their own" So maybe it's not actually a ritual abuse technique per se or indicative of a widespread cult of abuse , but just happens to become an abusive technique because it is deemed by most people to be inherently degrading, and much abuse is about power rather than sex. And when you've got a kid under the age of 3, poop is a major presence even at the best of times. "In my experience, Wiccans and occultists continue to be the loudest debunkers of ritual abuse – they claim that ritual abuse is a literal ‘witch hunt’ orchestrated by fundamentalist Christians, designed to distract attention from paedophilia within the Christian church. Every time I write an article on ritual abuse for Indymedia, the outright denials and insults come from ‘pagans’, Wiccans and occultists." When you sound like you are making common cause with fundamentalist Christians against them, you can't expect pagans to welcome you with open arms. The pagan communities have not had as much trouble from bad apples in their own ranks as they have from fundamentalist christians and their allies. Fundamentalist Christians, who in American are overwhelmingly Protestant, don't feel that the pedophile Catholic priests cast them in a bad light. Many of them consider Catholics to be as pagan and non-Christian as Wiccans. It's those candles, I hear. I don't see any way that you'd have a transcript of this trial, so I'd caution you that you are making a whole lot of assumptions based on a newspaper article.

by **Project Willow** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 2:30 am

Please excuse my attempt at an answer. I have a way of conceptualizing that is non-verbal, (or perhaps it is just dissociated) and trying to write sometimes feels like translating into a foreign language. In answer to the first part of your question, it may just be a matter of degrees. The extent of the abuse/horror/torture that occurs in RA families goes well beyond that of the average pedophile. I think the occultism is an organizing framework/belief system/rationalization for group psychopathic behavior. These are collections of humans who've never experienced safe relationships or attachments. The root of their behavior is extreme, (experienced as life threatening) insecurity. Their answer to this constant anxiety is to find ways to exercise power and control over others, or on a more immediate level, to vanquish anything that reminds them of their pain. Since RA is mostly generational, there is also indoctrination and a great deal of learned behavior. It becomes a circular process of sick humans creating a sick culture, producing more sick humans influenced by the sick culture. I am sorry I am not able to explain it more fully at the moment, but the behavior makes sense in terms of evolution, psychology and culture. What came first is a very good question. I would imagine that neglect, abuse, torture, came first as that is easy and sometimes is born out of shear stupidity. Biao has made the point that certain aspects of torture seem to be somewhat universal. Once you have a collection of such impaired humans, makes sense they would attempt to generate a culture based on the practices. If the culture also provides that they are gaining some mystical power from the practices, all the better. Power is the key. Hope that makes sense.

by **biaothanatoi** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 2:32 am

I'm trying to figure out in my own mind where children are "obtained" for ritual abuse. Follows similar patterns as any form of sexual abuse, with one particularly horrifying likelihood unique to RA: 1. It’s usually family, so either parents or extended relatives. It’s commonly parent-child abuse, but familial ritual abuse is more complex then you might generally read in all the talk about ‘intergenerational RA cults’. An uncle-by-marriage took my friend (plus his daughters, his wife, and another niece) to hell and back directly under her parents nose, and they never guessed. The uncle's brother was also involved. 2. Infiltration of day care centres and children’s hobby groups. This is pretty typical activity for any paedophile, solitary or otherwise. RA perps can be frighteningly strategic about it, as various day care centre cases across the world have demonstrated. 3. Organised child sex rings with the right connections will use state wards, orphans and street kids. A recent South Australian government inquiry collected 500 statutory declarations from former state wards regarding their trafficking into organised paedophile rings whilst in state care since the 1950s. The author of the report stated that he knew it was still going on. 4. Worst of the worst – the “breeding” scenario. Perpetrators impregnate captive women who then give birth to unregistered children who are raised for the specific purpose of abuse and sacrifice. Most denialists reject this as impossible, but a recent investigation here in Australia found a woman gave birth to three ‘disappeared’ children throughout the nineties, of which there is no record at all, although she gave birth in a public hospital. The inquiry has highlighted that it is up to parents to register their child … if they don’t do anything, then there is no follow-up mechanism to ensure that the child gets on the system. Lets combine that little systematic inadequacy with the fact that ritual abuse survivors, from the youngest to the oldest, spontaneously report the sacrifice of young children in ritual abuse … and we are confronting the likelihood of a nightmare scenario in which invisible children are ‘created’ to be destroyed. From what I know of the perpetrators, they would not hesitate to exploit this loophole. Is this really occultism, or just an excuse for pedophilia? In other words, which came first, the pedophilia or the occultism? Very smart question. If you look at criminological literature, you find that organised crime networks tend to develop very insular internal cultures. In the case of the Mafia, this verges on the religious – specific codes of silence, protocols for entering/leaving the group. We also have documented cases in which drug-running networks develop into cults over time – the culture/protocols of the group begins cannibalizing the occult and pop culture to develop a specific belief system. The occult becomes a socializing force for drug network members, bonding them to the leaders of the group and ensuring complete secrecy and loyalty. Remember that paedophiles believe that what they are doing is right – in a philosophical, ontological sense – and they look for precedent to support that. For instance, it’s common for paedophiles to point to institutionalised paedophilia in ancient Greece and Rome to justify their abusive sexual practice, and there is a religious group (the name escapes me) that believes in and practices ancient Greek religion with paedophilia specifically in mind. So it seems that the ‘belief system’ develops around the crime, but, once integrated into perpetrators lives, the crime and the belief appear virtually inseparable to the observer. That’s one of the reason why ritual abuse and other ‘occult’ crimes are so difficult to prosecute – they are camouflaged within belief systems that muddy the waters.

by **biaothanatoi** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 2:52 am

I'm truly amazed that the testimony of a child who is less than 6 years old telling of his memories when he was between 1 and 3 would be admissible in court under any circumstances, let alone in a case that could bring the death penalty. It’s unlikely that the case hinged on his testimony. You might be interested in the psychological studies on the effects of ritual abuse on young children. Fred Jonker and Ietje Jonker-Bakker research (“Effects of Ritual Abuse: The Results of Three Surveys in the Netherlands”, Child Abuse & Neglect, Vol. 21, No. 6, pp. 541-556, 1997) found that, two years after the abuse, eighty percent of young children had recall of the event, with one third ‘sometimes’ or ‘frequently’ reliving the event. So maybe it's not actually a ritual abuse technique per se or indicative of a widespread cult of abuse , but just happens to become an abusive technique because it is deemed by most people to be inherently degrading, and much abuse is about power rather than sex. Yup, that’s my point. When you sound like you are making common cause with fundamentalist Christians against them, you can't expect pagans to welcome you with open arms. I’m appalled by the hijacking of ritual abuse testimony by fundamentalist Christians who have an agenda to drive. I think it’s revolting – just as revolting as people who reject, smear or otherwise revictimise the survivors of sexual torture because the perpetrators happen to be ‘one of them’, whether pagan or Christian. It took Christians fifteen hundred years to admit that sexual abuse was a reality within it's own ranks - how long will it take pagans and occultists? I don't see any way that you'd have a transcript of this trial, so I'd caution you that you are making a whole lot of assumptions based on a newspaper article. I’d caution you in the same way. I used the article as a jumping off point for discussion, because it raised some poignant issues.

by **WhoCountsTheVotes** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 12:14 am

"It took Christians fifteen hundred years to admit that sexual abuse was a reality within it's own ranks - how long will it take pagans and occultists?" Oh, probably about 1500 years I would think. Something that should be noted is that nearly all Wiccans and Neo-Pagans come from Christian families. In fact, the moral codes of "White Wicca" is pretty much standard Western/Christian morality - the golden rule, etc. I'm sure this will be considered "anti-Pagan" or some such, but I have never heard such shrill cries of "persecutions" from any religion than I hear from neo-Pagans, except for perhaps the most hard core right wing Christians. Remember - Wicca is recognized by the military, enjoys Constitutional protections, etc. But you have to admit it's hilarious to hear a neo-Pagan spend an hour ranting about the evils of Christianity, then freak when their own religion is criticized even slightly. I suppose that's just human nature.

Ritual abuse conviction

Ritual abuse conviction

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Italics work though?

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To chiggerbit

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Bia, good question:

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