Wong, co-conspirators found guilty of conspiring to kidnap child

According to BBC Wales, long-time Satanic abuse campaigner Wilfred Wong and two of his his co-conspirators have been found guilty of planning and carrying out the kidnap of a child, who they claimed was the victim of Satanic ritual abuse. Three others pleaded guilty to the same charge.

On 4 November 2020, Anke Hill, 51, abducted the child from the street, while Wong threatened the child’s foster mother with a knife.

Hill, 51, Jane Going-Hill (no relation), 60, of Holyhead, and Kristine Ellis-Petley, 58, also of Holyhead, each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap.

Wong, of Pied Bull Court, Camden, 67-year-old Janet Stevenson, and her husband Edward Stevenson, 69, of Parnell Close, Crawley, denied the charge, but the jury found them guilty.

Karren Sawford, 48, was found not guilty, and an eighth defendant, Robert Frith, was discovered dead in his prison cell last year, whilst he was remanded awaiting trial.

The month-long case was held at Caernarfon Crown Court in July, but could not be reported due to a court order, which we understand was necessitated by the behaviour of some members of the public who attended in the trial’s early days.

A court order remains in place to protect the identity of the victim, whether via direct naming or by naming anybody as being related to the child.

The jury heard how Hill conspired with Wong and Janet Stevenson to kidnap the child from foster care, while the other four assisted in various capacities.

Hill had previously claimed that Child A’s father had sexually abused the child. Police investigated the allegations of sexual abuse for more than six months, before the Crown Prosecution Service determined there was no evidence to support them. At that point, Hill was herself arrested. She went on to invent further claims of Satanic abuse by the father. However, the court found that all the allegations of sexual abuse by the father had been fabricated by Hill. 

Hill contacted Wong online, and phone records showed the two had spoken in person for many hours. Wong put Hill in touch with Janet Stevenson, who claims to specialise in counseling victims of Satanic abuse. According to the BBC report,

Hill worked with Wong and the others to organise an elaborate plan, involving code names and a clandestine rendezvous at Bangor railway station, where one gang member arrived by train and followed another through the city at a distance. ….

At one stage, the conspirators also considered modifying a horsebox with a secret compartment to smuggle the child away.

A person with first-hand knowledge of the trial told Hoaxtead Research that during the trial it emerged that Wong had previously attempted to obtain a ‘getaway driver’ for the planned kidnap, but that person refused to get involved. In video evidence to the court, that person stated they refused as they were aware that they would be committing a criminal act. Wong subsequently recruited Janet Stevenson as a substitute driver but Edward Stevenson later volunteered for the role.

Knifepoint abduction

On November 4, Hill kidnapped the child, who was on the way home from school. Wong threatened the foster mother with a knife, before using the same knife to slash the tires of her car.

The BBC reports that the foster mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: “The child was horrified. [They] called my name and asked me to help. I tried to hold [their] hand as long as I could. But then someone came behind me with a knife and ordered me to drop it.”

Northwest Wales Live reports,

The shocking crime was part of an elaborate plot to kidnap the youngster from foster care on Anglesey and take them to southern England and then abroad. …

… The foster mum said the child was “terrified” and started sobbing.

“(Child A) kept calling my name and asking me to help. I tried to hold on to (Child A) as much as I could.”

Moments earlier a man in black – later identified as Wilfred Wong – emerged from the silver car, as the foster mum was screaming and becoming hysterical, the court heard.

The foster mum told the court: “Someone came round the back of me which is when I had to make a decision.

“He held a knife to my face and told me to let him (Child A) go.”

The foster mum, who had her own daughter in the car too, added: “I had to make a decision between my daughter’s life and (Child A)’s life and mine.”

During cross examination, the foster mum told barrister Nicholas Williams, defending Wong, that she was leaning over her daughter to try to prevent Child A being taken, and that the man was leaning over the foster mum.

The foster mum said the man then went round the back of her car.

“I saw him crouch down and heard a hissing noise. The tyre went flat”.

The man then joined Anke Hill and Child A in the silver car and drove off towards Bangor.

During the kidnap, Going-Hill and Ellis-Petley stood lookout on the bridges between Anglesey and the mainland, ready to alert the fugitives of any police activity.

Following the kidnapping, Hill and Wong transported the child in a car with counterfeit number plates to a road near Bangor. There, a second vehicle, hired by Janet and Edward Stevenson, awaited them. In the second vehicle, Hill, Wong, and the child headed to the southeast of England. Based on Google searches found on the suspects’ computers, police determined that the group’s plan was to take the child to the Stevensons’ home in Crawley, and thence to leave the country.

Almost immediately following the abduction, police were called. They were able to piece together the links amongst the various group members. The vehicle carrying Wong, Hill, and the victim was stopped by police on the M1, north of Milton Keynes.

Update: “Chilling” items found in getaway car

In a follow-up article published on 10 August, North Wales Live described articles police found in the getaway car:

Officers found a kidnappers’ kit of items in a rucksack and bag belonging to Wilfred Wong which included cable ties, a balaclava and a serrated lock knife.

Janet Stevenson claimed kidnap was a ‘rescue mission’

In a further follow-up on 10 August, North Wales Live outlined evidence given by Janet Stevenson, who stated she believed that the kidnap was actually a “rescue mission” to protect the victim from “Satanic abuse”.

Stevenson admitted that she had agreed with Hill to kidnap the victim and take them from Anglesey to Crawley, West Sussex. From there, Hill planned to take the child to mainland Europe. Stevenson admitted that she’d asked friends in northern France to take care of some documents to be given to Hill, in the event that she made it over the Channel with Child A.

Asked whether she knew it would be a crime to take Child A, Stevenson replied,

“People during the Second World War, who were trying to smuggle children out of concentration camps in suitcases or bags, put themselves at risk that they would be shot by the Gestapo.

“It was an offence but it was morally right because they were saving children.

“I could not bear anybody’s child being sexually abused, manipulated, tortured and potentially murdered”.

Wong just on a walking holiday in Wales

Wong tried to disclaim his involvement in the kidnap, telling the court he’d been on a walking holiday in North Wales, and had only arranged for a ride home with the Stevensons. According to the BBC report, he told the court, “I’d have been more of a liability than a help with any abduction plan. I would have been too old and too slow for that sort of thing.”

Apparently the jury found this excuse implausible, as they found Wong and the Stevensons guilty as charged.

According to journalist David Powell of the North Wales Post, the court was shown video footage made prior to the kidnap, in which Wong claimed,

“The family court system (has) been infiltrated by Satanists, as well as social services.

“It enables them to turn upside down the system that is supposed to protect children from abuse” into something that “protects the abuser and penalises the whistleblower, and gives the child back to the abuser’s custody. …

“… It has become so clear that the only way to protect a child from (abuse) is to take the child and flee the country, and hide until the child has grown to adulthood.

“It’s the government’s fault for allowing the family courts to be corrupted to this extent“.

In a second video shown to the court, Wong stated,

“I do surveillance on Satanic covens. They like to meet on dates in the Satanic calendar and on the birth dates of their members“.

Sentencing for those found guilty and those who pleaded guilty will take place on 29 September. Janet Stevenson’s legal team has stated that she may appeal the verdict.

A person with first-hand knowledge of the trial noted, “Of all those who gave evidence from the witness box, including the police, other witnesses and the defendants themselves, only one person elected not to swear an oath on the Bible—Wilfred Wong”.

Updated: 6:00 p.m., 10 August 2021

Wilfred Wong, convicted of conspiracy to kidnap