A Hampstead mum has revealed the sickening moment she received emails from pedophiles asking to meet her young daughter after being falsely accused of running a satanic child sex cult.
‘Alice’, who goes by an alias to protect her children’s identities, is among the mothers who outline how a disturbing lie about a satanic child sex cult unleashed hell on their quiet north London community in Channel 4’s new documentary Accused: The Hampstead Hoax.
Hell for the families began when two young siblings, aged eight and nine, accused parents – including their own father – and teachers at their primary school of being part of a satanic pedophile ring involving horrific ritual abuse in 2015.
Their mother, Ella Draper, and her supporters published a document online listing all the people accused of being part of this ring, which led to death threats, harassment and abuse.
One of the parents Draper falsely accused was Alice. While her family was coping with the harassment, she said she received an email from someone saying they liked her ‘daughter’s profile’ posted online.
‘Alice’, played by an actor in the new Channel 4 documentary Accused: The Hampstead Hoax
While her family was coping with the harassment, Alice said she received an email from someone saying they liked her ‘daughter’s profile’ posted online
The dispatcher told Alice (played by an actress above) that ‘they wanted me to take my daughter to meet them. So I got emails from pedophiles believing what they had heard about my daughter. I literally ran to the toilet and threw up everywhere’
The dispatcher told Alice that ‘they wanted me to take my daughter and meet with them. So I got emails from pedophiles believing what they had heard about my daughter. I literally ran to the toilet and threw up everywhere.’
‘I think the lowest point for me was when my daughter’s picture was taken from my Google account. I blame myself so much because I completely forgot that account even existed.
‘And the realization that they know what she looks like – my world came crashing down because I had nothing left to hold on to at that point.’
The Satanic cult accusations against Alice and the other parents were found to be unfounded, but the conspiracy theory caught fire online after Draper uploaded a video in which he called a conspiracy by the police to drop the investigation.
Draper and her partner Abraham Christie had manipulated her two children into making these false claims in the first place, which Abigail and her brother Joseph (as they are called in the documentary) later retracted.
After the names, addresses and phone numbers of parents, school staff and students identified as involved were published online, they were inundated with death threats.
The parents were approached by vigilantes and said they would grab their children to get them to safety. Just as horribly, pedophiles would ask about their children’s sexual preferences.
It was, as another mother named ‘Anna’ recalls, ‘like being under siege’.
In the documentary, Alice and three other mothers at the center of these disturbing allegations talk about what they have been through for the first time via audio interviews, which are lip-synced on screen by actors, as the women wish to remain anonymous to protect their now grown children.
In the end, it would take the determined and extraordinary efforts of four mothers in particular, who worked into the wee hours, month after month, meticulously gathering evidence that would lead to the prosecution of two of the most vocal online conspiracy theorists.
“For years we had to keep this dignified silence because we were trying to build a lawsuit and we didn’t want to jeopardize it,” says Anna. ‘Now we finally get our voice.’
Their mother, Ella Draper (pictured), and her supporters published a document online listing all the people accused of being part of this ring, which led to death threats, harassment and abuse
‘Anna’ is played by Kathryn McGarr in the series
Because while the trolls who attacked them are quieter these days, they haven’t completely disappeared: they’re still out there spreading their theories in dark corners of the internet.
‘They are still there trying to spread their poison’, as Jenny, another of the mothers, puts it. The parents’ confusion is still palpable.
“There are many curves in life that you can predict, whether it’s a terminal illness diagnosis or the death of a loved one – but being accused of being a satanic pedophile is not one of them,” says Anna.
A mother of one, Anna had been happily married for 18 years and running a business with her husband when, back in February 2015 – along with some other parents of Year 5 children at the Church of England affiliated primary school they attended – received an email that allegations had been made against the school.
‘It said that they had been investigated by the police and that the case had been closed,’ she recalls. ‘It asked more questions than it answered so I went straight to the internet.’
Within five minutes, Anna had found footage of the two siblings – one of whom, Abigail, was in her daughter’s class – and claimed an organized cult was based at the school, indulging in horrors from pedophilia to baby sacrifice.
“She mentioned our daughter by name, said she was paid for sex in candy and named myself and my husband as her abusers,” Anna recalls. ‘It was like going through the looking glass.’
‘They called us Satanists, yelled down the phone that we cheated and killed babies; that we were evil,’ says Jenny.
Police told them to vary their routes home and wear rape alarms, but none of that was enough to shake the persistent threat.
Sarah, a lawyer in her 40s who also had a child in Abigail’s year, slept on her children’s bedroom floor for eight months until the family could move.
“Once our address was out there, I couldn’t shake the thought that someone would come in and try to take them,” she says.
‘Sarah’, played by Sarah Barlondo, on the set of the Channel 4 documentary. Many of the real women in history have chosen to remain anonymous
Sabine McNeill is a virulent conspiracy theorist, since dubbed Britain’s worst online troll
Some parents, like Alice, were approached by pedophiles who asked if they could have contact with their child because they ‘like sex’. Police said their hands were tied.
“They pretty much admitted it was beyond their knowledge,” says Anna. ‘There was a sense that it would blow over, but to us it felt organized and purposeful.’
“It was incredibly disappointing,” adds Sarah. “We were completely clear that this was criminal activity. We even identified a list of up to 20 laws that were broken. But no one would listen.’
The four mothers worked together on a campaign to get the police to act; first by having their names removed from the Internet and then by prosecuting Sabine McNeill, one of the central figures in the attempt to legitimize the conspiracy.
The German-born pensioner was on trial for stalking, harassment and breaching a restraining order and was branded an ‘arrogant, malicious, evil and manipulative woman’ by the sentencing judge who jailed her for nine years – the longest sentence ever. in a UK court for these offences.
McNeill, a virulent conspiracy theorist who has been dubbed Britain’s worst online troll and has since fled to Germany, leaked the names and addresses of the accused Hampstead.
Self-styled activist and blogger Rupert Wilson Quaintance, an American who had come to Britain a few months earlier, became obsessed with the case and threatened to ‘kick down doors’ and ‘draw blood’ from the parents.
He was jailed for nine months after being found guilty of putting people in fear of violence.
Draper and Christie fled the country in 2015. They have been on the run ever since, believed to be in Spain.
Why they started the scam is still a mystery. If it was part of Draper’s custody battle against her ex-husband, it failed. After a period in care, Abigail and Joseph were reunited with their father.