London, March 11: Members of a British satanic sex cult were found guilty of a series of sex offenses against children.
Cult leader Colin Batley, 48, was convicted yesterday of more than 20 serious sexual offenses, including 11 rapes, sex assaults, indecent assault and possessing indecent images of children, according to British newspaper The Times.
His wife Elaine Batley, 47, Jacqueline Marling, 42, and Shelly Millar, 35 – who all lived at separate addresses on the same street in Kidwelly, western Wales – were also found guilty of sex offenses.
Batley wore a hooded robe and read passages from occultist Aleister Crowley’s “The Book of the Law” before attacking the youngsters at his home, Swansea Crown Court was told. He also told the children that they would go to hell if they did not agree to his demands.
“Batley is an evil and manipulative sexual predator who preyed on the young and vulnerable … The cult was used as a vehicle to justify and excuse sexual activity between themselves and sexual assaults to children,” said prosecutor Peter Murphy.
One victim told the court that she was raped aged 11 by Batley, saying that “having sex with him was a test, and if I did not pass, I would go to the Abyss.”
A 15-year-old girl sobbed as she told the court that she was passed around among Batley’s friends as a “sex toy” and was warned that she would be murdered by “cult assassins” if she resisted.
Elaine Batley was found guilty of three charges of indecency with a child and sexual activity with a child, while Marling and Millar were convicted of crimes including aiding and abetting rape, causing prostitution, indecency with a child and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
Another alleged cult member, 45-year-old Sandra Iveson, was cleared of a single charge of indecency with a child.
Batley denied all charges and claimed that the cult did not exist, adding that the victims were “out to get him.”
The convicted cult members – who all had identical tattoos of the Egyptian Eye of Horus – were due to be sentenced tomorrow.
——–Agencies