Why did the police believe ‘Nick’ and his fantasies?

Yesterday in our Comments section there was considerable discussion about “Nick”, whose fantastical imaginings about VIP paedophile rings were swallowed whole by some media and police, and who, it has recently been revealed, has been charged with offences involving child sex abuse images and voyeurism.

Arthur Pint commented, “Reading the stories from Nick and how over the top they are and without any evidence to back up his claims makes me think just how smart or dumb are some of our top cops?”

Indeed.

Some of Nick’s more bizarre allegations included claims that the paedophile ring had murdered three boys in order to scare other victims; that he had been present at an orgy during which Harvey Proctor had tied up another boy and knifed him for 40 minutes before finally strangling him; and that Nick, too, had been raped by Mr Proctor, who had been stopped from cutting off Nick’s genitalia by Ted Heath…but Proctor had later given him the penknife as a memento of the occasion. As one does.

Another of Mr Heath’s accusers, a woman, claimed that he was linked to a network of paedophiles who held Satanic orgies in the woods, and stabbed children in churches.

And yet, despite the utter unbelievability of these and other allegations, the police officer in charge of Operation Midland described Nick’s delusional sado-masochistic fantasies as “credible and true”. And former Chief Constable of the Wiltshire police force, Mike Veale, stated that he believed Nick’s allegations “120%”, and that had Sir Edward Heath been alive today, he would have been interviewed under caution for seven of the 42 allegations against him.

Updated 28 February 2018: A reader has correctly pointed out that Mike Veale cannot be properly quoted as having claimed that he believed Nick’s allegations 120%. In fact, while The Mail on Sunday reported that “the police chief investigating claims that Sir Edward Heath was a paedophile is convinced the allegations are ‘120 per cent’ genuine”, and that “The Mail on Sunday has been told that Mr Veale believes the paedophile allegations are genuine. A source said: ‘Mr Veale believes in them 120 per cent and thinks they are totally convincing”. The 120% figure, therefore, should not be attributed directly to Mr Veale, but to a source close to him. In addition, it is not clear from the Mail on Sunday article whether Mr Veale was speaking about “Nick”, although “Nick” did make allegations about Mr Heath.

So are these police officers exceptionally gullible, or just plain stupid? Why did they so readily believe the bizarre, uncorroborated stories fed to them by Nick and others?

Trained to believe

A couple of weeks ago we discussed the phenomenon of intelligent, well-intentioned, educated people who nonetheless believe in the myth of Satanic ritual abuse.

We mentioned police officers who might have attended training seminars which taught them how to identify the tell-tale signs of SRA. Although we speak of the “satanic panic” of the latter years of the 20th century as though it’s a thing of the past, it is unfortunately still very much with us, and being propagated by respectable and respected institutions such as the Bowlby Centre in London.

In 2009, the S.A.F.F. reported,

Currently (the Bowlby Centre) is running three day courses and giving ‘qualifications’ in satan hunting at £620.00 a time!

Of the nine keynote speakers at the seminar seven are either on the Bowlby Centre staff, have been trained by them, or are officially linked with them. Amongst these is our old friend Valerie Sinason….you’ll find lots more on the SAFF website about this SRA crusader. She is a key member of RAINS (The Ritual Abuse Information Network and Support,) set up in 1988 to further the meanderings of believers in the myth and all are ardent players in its promotion. Joan Coleman, also of RAINS, is chairing the conference.

We’ve discussed the Bowlby Centre’s link with Dr Sinason recently, as well.

Various professional people—including physicians, mental health professionals, and police officers—attend such seminars to earn CPD (continuing professional/personal development) credits. While there, they learn from people like Dr Sinason, Orit Badouk Epstein, Joseph Schwartz, Rachel Wingfield Schwartz, and others how to identify the tell-tale signs of Satanic ritual abuse. In the above workshop on “Meeting the Challenges of Dissociation: from recognition to connection”, speakers include Orit Badouk Epstein, Adah Sachs, and Valerie Sinason—all of whom believe that a key cause of dissociation is…wait for it…Satanic ritual abuse. In fact, you might say they wrote the book on it: And many of the same people have offered up their services to a company called Confer, which delivers conferences, seminars, and online modules to professionals looking for CPD credits: We can easily see how people could be taken in by this sort of hogwash, as it’s delivered by accredited individuals who are affiliated with a well-known, respectable institution. After all, anyone who’s taken a course in psychology at the most elementary level will be familiar with the name of John Bowlby, whose pioneering work in childhood attachment has had a profound impact on our understanding of childhood development.

But clearly, when senior police officers are unwittingly indoctrinated by soft-spoken, seemingly credible “experts” into ultimately believing in fantasists and liars like Nick, there is something very, very wrong going on.