Lewis woman retracts her story - Police officer's warnings ignored
Acording to report in the Observer reproduced on Guardian Unlimited a key witness in one of Scotland's most notorious child abuse cases has admitted lying to the police, The Observer can reveal. Angela Stretton, whose evidence was vital in bringing a case of satanic sex abuse against eight people on the island of Lewis, has written to police confessing that some of the allegations she made were false.
This newspaper has also discovered that a senior police officer expressed concerns about Stretton's reliability at the time, but was ignored.
Stretton, 39, who has learning difficulties, said that after repeated questioning she told police and social workers she witnessed her mother, brother and several other islanders abusing children.
'I had lots of meetings with police and social workers. They kept questioning me about diff erent people. It was a diff erent person every day. They had a list of names, including my mum and brother. They said things about taking photos and killing animals and drinking their blood,' she said.
'At first I said no, they wouldn't do that. But they kept on and on at me. They said I had to tell the truth for the children. I felt really under pressure, so I suppose I told them what they wanted to hear. I just agreed with what was being said.
'Plus at that time I wanted to get my own back on my mum. I know this is wrong. I just want to try and put things right. I want to say sorry to them and clear their names.'
The developments have raised critical questions about the handling of the investigation and whether lessons have been learnt by the police and social workers following false allegations of ritual child abuse in the Orkney, Rochdale and Cleveland scandals. In all of these cases, the authorities were criticised for their interview techniques.
In Lewis, eight people, including a 75- year-old grandmother, appeared in court accused of raping and otherwise sexually abusing children in black magic rituals. The court was told of wife-swapping orgies and the sacrifices of cats and chickens whose blood was drunk.
The case made international news. Yet it was quietly dropped nine months later with no explanation, leaving those falsely accused feeling that their lives had been destroyed. Three years on, they say they are still fighting to clear their names (more)