Yaohirou audio quashes tattoo story for good

In this fourth instalment of our full transcription of the Jean-Clement Yaohirou audio recording, we’ll not only see how Abraham, Ella, and even Jean-Clement lead and guide the children in their “disclosures”, but we’ll finally learn about the true significance of the infamous “tattoos”.

We’ll start, though, with Ella’s troublesome  neighbour, who allegedly reported her to social services for neglect and child abuse.

Ella’s history with social services

When we left off yesterday, Ella had just described her upstairs neighbour, who she claimed was a member of the alleged cult at her children’s school—despite the children’s assertion that “she doesn’t like children”:

Ella: And, mmm, also she said the name of the school. I suspected it was her, well, at first actually I thought it was him, made the phone call, but then she said I had aggressive partner. I mean I didn’t have anybody in my life at that time, I wasn’t in a relationship. So I thought you know, where did she get this piece of information, because she just moved in? Like a year before. She didn’t know anything.
J-C: So she moved in around 2010–12?
Ella: Yeah. But I thought where’d she get this information. But when children mentioned that it’s her, because she did…did you hear the conversation between her and, um…
Child P: No.
Ella: No, you made it up, hmm? I suspect her. No, I don’t know for certain it was her. However, someone made this anonymous phone call. The matter was transferred to social services. Now because the social services involved, court wanted some report from child agency. Yeah. They normally would get it from Cafcass, but they said since social services already involved, we would like, because they know your family, would like to get a report from them. Now, social services got involved, they said to come to my house, um, there were few meetings in school, and the last one, I took children to the social services for an hour, to have a meeting with this appointed whoever…um, person, and him [RD]. One hour. And so that’s after that, they dropped that report now. I was in communication social services, and I said I mean, he was making them sick, he was feeding them weird things and they would I mean throw up, they would come in with fever, so I really don’t want to, um…I knew he was gonna receive something, said minimum what I wanted in um, in um, say um, you know, in those centres, what’s it called? Centres…ummm…ummm…what is called those centres where you bring children and someone is like in a…
J-C: Playgroup?
Ella: Not playgroup…what is called, you know, where the court is happening and um…some governmental offices, and…
J-C: Okay.
Ella: …and there be someone there…and be like…
J-C: Yeah, is a controlled area.
Ella: Supervised contact, this is it.
J-C: Supervised contact, sorry.
Ella: And so was pushing for that, they give him four hours every two weeks. They told me three contacts so far happened. This is where we are. It’s here…
Abraham: And every time he has a contact…. And also, did you mention the fact that he’s been going to the school?
J-C: We haven’t touched this one yet. She’s explaining the reason why they’re not together because I started ‘how come she didn’t know?’
Abraham: Okay.
J-C: Yeah. That’s what she’s explaining. And later we come to what happened to the kids.
Abraham: Okay.

Two things of note here: Ella had no evidence of who had called social services to report her, but she chose to believe that it was her upstairs neighbour. And she quite calmly says to Child P, “No, you made it up, hmm?” as though her daughter was in the habit of making up falsehoods. Funny, that.

J-C: Because at one point, the kids must have said to themselves, enough is enough, I’m going to tell Mum.
Abraham: Yeah. They did.
J-C: That’s what I’m going to come…
Abraham: They did get to the point of telling Mum. Child P wanted to tell. How many times did you want to tell?
Child P: A few but not a lot. Not a lot.
Abraham: A few because you were scared.
J-C: How did she come to talk to you?
Child P: What did you tell to him? I think…
Ella: I think they were….what I understand from what happened was that they were beaten, they were hurt, and they were really scared. And um…
J-C: Who did that? Who beat you?
Child Q: Mmm, Papa. He gets out his spoon, he gives us licks, like, um, salad ones…not like…
Abraham: Big metal spoons…
Child P: No, like you know the ones you dish out pasta…?
J-C: Ahh.
Child P: You know the big, big ones, he hits us on the head with them, to make sure it hurts, we scream, or we say it hurts…
Abraham: Tell him what if you scream, what happens?

Abraham has no trouble supplying details of the “spoon licks”, as he was the one who hit the children with spoons. They would later tell both the police and Dr Hodes this, as seen in this excerpt from the medical report: 

Child P: If we scream, so loud, or if we even make a noise, he gets Miss _____ to inject me…|
Abraham: Who’s Miss _____?
Child P: The nurse. Of our school.
J-C: Do you know her?
Abraham and Ella: Yeah.
Abraham: She tries to be superficially to be nice to Mum. (To children): And what do she do to you?
J-C: Miss…_____…
Child P: Inject us. Which puts us to sleep.
Abraham: She injects you?
Ella: (spells out name)
Abraham: Just a moment. So she injects you?
Child P: Yes. On the neck.
Abraham: And she…and what happens when she injects you on the neck?
Child Q: We feel…when he injects us…
Abraham: You feel drowsy.
Child Q: We feel like, we feel like, just like we’re gonna have, we have no energies like…like we want to…
Abraham: To go to sleep.
Child P: To go to sleep, we can’t stand any more, so, yeah, like that.
Abraham: Okay.
Ella: And that’s when they do sex to you.
Child P: Mmmhmm. And after when you woke they just, and after when they’re finished to do sex with me and Child Q, leave us in a room, in the dark and go to the other classes.
J-C: So how do you know that they do sex to you if you’re drowsy?
Abraham: Shh-shh!
Child P: No, because you can see Miss _____, I saw Miss _____ inject him. And I fell down, because I was standing up…
J-C: But how do you know that they’re doing sex to you if you’re drowsy and you’re sleepy?
Child P: I saw, I saw, I saw! They injected him! I saw they injected him.
J-C: Okay…
Child Q: And they fell down…
Child P: He didn’t fall down, he…
J-C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know.
Abraham: And then what do they do…
Child P: And they were doing sex to him while he was…injected.
Child Q: Because Child P was watching.
J-C: So you’re standing there watching him…
Child P: Yes.
J-C: …but you’re not injected.
Child P: Yeah…um…
Ella: They would only do…they would only…do it to children who scream too much.
J-C: Okay, the rest is just…
Ella: They will do whatever they want to do with them, if they don’t listen they would hit them, if hitting doesn’t help, inject them. And, um, I mean, while…
J-C: How’s your school work?
Abraham: There’s no school work. Jean-Clement, un moment s’il vous plait. (To children): Now Miss _____, is she a member of the cult?
Child P: Yes!
Abraham: Does she do sex to you?
Child P: Yes!
Abraham: Does she get naked?
Child P: Yes!

Note that while the children are ostensibly telling the story, the adults are filling in the important bits. The children have been trained to follow Abe and Ella’s cues.

Child Q: She got a big black wart on her privates.
Child P: Like a 50p, um, coin.
Abraham: No, a 5p coin.
Child P: A 5p coin.
Abraham: She’s got a big, black wart where? On her privates where?
Child P: On lips.
Abraham: Right on the lips of her private privates!
Child P: Right on it.
Abraham: A big, black wart the size of a…how could you know that she got a big black wart the size of a 5 pence piece on her private parts?
Child P: We seen it!
Abraham: You’ve seen her naked, have you?
Child Q: We’ve seen everybody naked!

Here, Child P flubs a detail, and Abe quickly corrects her.

Abraham: Oh my God! Have you seen Jean-Clement naked?
Children: No…
Abraham: Thank goodness for that. [laughs]
Child Q: But I’ve seen Mum naked.
J-C: It’s the size of 5p?
Child P: Yeah, like a 5p coin size.
Child Q: I measured it! I asked her can I measure it, then she let me. And it was a 5p coin.
Ella: What, with a ruler?
Child Q: Yeah, yeah, it was like…it was a tiny weenie bit, um, like, really fat, and it was like that big, it looks like that big, something like that. On the lips. And I knew it was a tiny bit…

Here, Child Q tries to manufacture a detail—that somehow this “cult member” thought it would be fine to let one of her alleged victims measure a wart on her labia—but it’s clear that he’s struggling.

Abraham: Has she got a tattoo as well?
Child Q: Yes!
Abraham: She got a tattoo!
Child Q: Everybody does!
Child P: But she makes the wart so it’s on the devil’s cheek, to make it look like the devil got a wart on his…
Child Q: Me, Child P, and J____ don’t have no um, no um, how you…
J-C: Tattoo.
Child P: But they want Mum to be sucked in…
Abraham: Why? So the reason you haven’t got tattoos is because Mum’s not in the gang. But if Mum was in the gang you’d get a tattoo.
[Children start to speak]
Abraham: How about if I joined the gang, would they give you a tattoo then?
Child P: Yeah, Mum.
Child Q: If she…
Abraham: Is it because I’m black?
Child P: No, it’s not because you’re black…
Abraham: What about If I joined the cult and I say it’s okay for you to have a tattoo, what then?
Child Q: Yeah, you do…
Child P: Mum…Mum!
Abraham: What tattoo d’you want?
Child P: I don’t want a tattoo, I…
Abraham: Neither do I.
Child Q: Cos you can’t take it off then, it would stay there forever.
Abraham: That’s right. And they pretend to you…tell them what, tell them what they tell you…
Child P: And then they say to us that it’s easy to take it off…
Child Q: They say to us, you have to do a…
Child P: You have to do an operation, just take two seconds and done. And they say it’s just easy, and they try and make us believe that, and if you get a tattoos, like a normal tattoos, like a child one, they say that it’s like a child one. So you put on, and then it can just go off, straight away. That’s what they say. And after, they do say…
Child Q: They don’t, like say, ‘you’ll need an operation, it’ll be easy’, they don’t just say that. They say it’s just a normal child’s tattoo, like a normal one from Tesco…you know the fake ones!
Abraham: Who said if you wash it, it’ll go?
Child Q: Papa!
Abraham: Do you believe him?  
Child P: No…
Ella: The other children have the tattoo. It doesn’t wash off, no?
Child P: No!
Abraham: Who’s got a tattoo? Tell me who’s got a tattoo?
Child Q: Everybody does.
Abraham: Everybody can’t have one.
Child Q: No, but not all the children, not the children…

Here the children review the “rules” about tattoos, but they seem a bit confused as to whether Abe’s joining the “cult” would mean that they would get tattoos themselves.

We showed you that so we can show you this…

~1:28:00

J-C: The tattoo bit is the most important part, because…
Child Q: And the rings?
J-C: Yep! Because, um…
Ella: And piercing as well, they have.
J-C: Yyyyes. Because on the private parts…
Abraham: It doesn’t prove anything.
J-C: It’s on the private parts.
Abraham: It doesn’t prove anything. I can put that on my private parts. It doesn’t prove anything. Tattoo doesn’t prove anything, Jean-Clement.
J-C: Aby, let me finish.
Abraham: I’ll let you finish!
J-C: Okay. The tattoo, see, they can tell the name of the people, tattoo.
Ella: You’re right.
J-C: And how would the see another person with that person’s tattoo?
Ella: Sorry, can you say again?
J-C: How would they see another person’s private, if they’re not part of the family?
Abraham: That’s right. How would they see them?
J-C: So…that’s what I was asking.
Abraham: How would they see the privates?
J-C: That’s why it’s important for them to describe them.
Abraham: Of course it’s important. Jean-Clement, look. I’m totally with you—the fact that they have…I was very happy to find that out about the tattoos. The fact that they all have tattoos is one thing. And the fact that you wouldn’t see someone, you wouldn’t see someone…
J-C: I didn’t want to cause any…
Abraham: You wouldn’t see someone’s private parts unless, as you pointed out, you were a close family member. However, it still proves nothing.
J-C: Why?
Abraham: Cause it proves nothing. They may have seen it in swimming. They may—I’m just saying, Jean-Clement…
J-C: Okay…
Ella: All the staff? All the teachers?
Abraham: Mama, I know they’ve—
Ella: The parents?
Abraham: I know this, but what I’m telling you is that as evidence, it proves nothing.
J-C: It’s for them, the most straight (?). To anyone questioning…
Abraham: Why have these children been able to see this?
J-C: That’s right!
Abraham: Of course!
Child Q: Because everybody likes to dance naked…
J-C: It will be ‘how does this child know, you’ve got a tattoo on your privates’?
Abraham: Because it’s common knowledge around the school.
Child Q: Because some people like to dance naked…
Abraham: It’s common knowledge around the school.
Child Q: It’s your choice, with skulls or not…
J-C: Okay.
Abraham: Thank you. That’s what I’m saying. It proves nothing.
Child Q: I would like one with skulls…
J-C: That’s fine.
Child Q: We do it with skulls most of the time because Papa forces me to.
Abraham: To do what?
Child Q: To have skulls.
Abraham: Where?
Child Q: On my body!
Abraham: Oh, you mean you dance with the skulls.
Child Q: But I don’t want to! He said it’s my…
Child P: Because it hurts. When you do it on the skulls. On Child Q it hurts.
Child Q: Yeah but I don’t…they give us the most hurting one. But you want to be like the best children…
Child P: …and it has like sharp bits, on, like, on the back, so when it is on our body it’s really hurting, it’s spiky.
Child Q: It’s really squee, um squeezy.
Abraham: So they actually like, they enjoy causing you pain?
Child P: Yes.
J-C: Look what I just put…
Child P: _______, she like, she love doing pain to children.
J-C: See what she said is a big black wart on, eh, Miss _____, her privates’ lip, right?
Child P: Yeah.
J-C: Now. How will you see this, as a child?
Abraham: Maybe she showed it to her, I don’t know.

To say our jaws dropped when we heard this segment of the audio would be a massive understatement. Was Abraham really arguing against the idea of using the supposed “demon and monster tattoos” as conclusive evidence that the children were not lying?

Yes, he was. And there was, at that time, an excellent reason for his reticence.

He knew the tattoos did not exist. And he knew that if the police were to examine any of the alleged “cult” members, they would find exactly nothing. The hoax would be over before it had even begun.

Jean-Clement, on the other hand, was completely taken in by the tattoo detail, and could not understand why Abraham didn’t see how important it would be in determining the guilt or innocence of the alleged cult members.

The question remains, though: why did the tattoos become such an issue when the hoax went viral in February 2015?

Simple.

The police investigation had concluded, no one had been asked to show their tattoos and/or birthmarks…and Abraham knew the coast was clear. The tattoo question could never be answered, and so it became a keystone in the promotion of the hoax.

Like Jean-Clement, countless believers would insist that because the residents of Hampstead had not been examined for tattoos, and nobody had come forward publicly to display their unadorned privates, this was somehow proof of guilt.

What no one has realised until now is that the tattoos were never meant as the sine qua non of membership in the “cult”. It was a detail, thrown in to impress people like Brian Gerrish and Bill Maloney. In the end, the tattoos wound up meaning much more than they were originally intended to.

But in this early audio recording, Abraham admits that the tattoos were always a meaningless detail, useless as evidence, to be used only as window-dressing for an imaginary cult.