Casson Coven murdered Kathleen Waugh EXCLUSIVE by Richard Carvath

Monday 16 April 2018

Intelligence handled by the late Geoffrey Dickens MP accused the Casson coven, a secret Satanists' group, of being behind the 1991 abduction and murder of Kathleen Waugh. The long-lost information has come to light via a former parliamentary source, and has been confirmed by former police sources. Mr Dickens named the Casson coven after a former coven leader, Stanley Casson (died 2002). Casson was a successful businessman who ran a shoes company, Cassons & Co. Limited, along with his three sons, from a head office on Penny Meadow in Ashton-under-Lyne. He also bought and sold properties in the northwest. But it was Casson's secret life as one of the leading Satanists in England which eventually came to Dickens' attention.

Geoffrey Dickens was the Conservative MP for the Littleborough and Saddleworth constituency until his death in 1995. Mr Dickens became well-known in the 1980s as the children's champion who hunted down Satanists, paedophiles and child pornographers. In the early 1980s Dickens publicly campaigned to bring the paedophile Sir Peter Hayman to justice. Before Halloween 1992, he told a local newspaper: "This time of year is when Satanists do a lot of their recruiting and I would advise parents to make sure they know where their children are." In November 1992 he featured in a BBC Panorama programme by Martin Bashir about the Satanist ritual abuse (SRA) of children. Intriguingly the Panorama programme, 'In the Name of Satan?', appears to have vanished from BBC archives.

In his child protection work, Dickens ran an extensive network of sources, including a children's charity, councillors, police officers and solicitors. In particular, it's thought Dickens received information directly or indirectly from solicitors 1

Rupert Wood and Campbell Malone. The late Mr Wood (died 1990), a solicitor in Ashton-under-Lyne, was a freemason at the local Minerva Lodge and was well known at Ashton-under-Lyne Golf Club. Campbell Malone, now retired, was a solicitor in Rochdale in the 1990s.

In February 1992, after a five-year campaign, Campbell Malone succeeded in getting Stefan Kiszko's wrongful conviction for murder overturned. A notorious miscarriage of justice, the late Mr Kiszko spent sixteen years in prison for the murder of a young Rochdale schoolgirl, Lesley Molseed, in October 1975. Miss Molseed's murderer, Ronald Castree, was finally convicted in 2007. The stabbing of Miss Molseed bore the hallmarks of a Satanists' ritual. At the time of the murder, Castree was a 21-year-old taxi driver from Rochdale. In the 1980s, Castree began selling comics and, by the 1990s, he was running the Arcadia Comics business from a shop on Old Street in Ashton-under-Lyne.

It seems Mr Dickens first became aware of Casson coven members some time in 1992, but did not receive detailed information in relation to the Kathleen Waugh case until 1995. Several coven members were raided and questioned by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) in the 1990s, but no charges were brought against them. Stanley Casson was identified to police by two women who said he had abused them as children, but GMP took no further action.

According to Dickens, Casson was known to have associated with the notorious Satanist child abuser Michael Horgan, but whether they belonged to the same coven remains unclear. Horgan was convicted of horrific child abuse crimes in 1992, and in 2001 a national newspaper reported Horgan's direct involvement in the abduction of Lesley Molseed. In company with other Satanists, Horgan sexually abused and tortured children, including his own children, during rituals which took place in Rochdale homes and on Saddleworth Moor. Horgan was jailed after being found guilty of six sex offences in 1992.

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Horgan's victims described being drugged and injected, bound and chained, hanged from hooks, beaten and branded, raped and abused, photographed and filmed. Victims also described seeing coven members wearing hooded robes, chanting in an unknown language and handling a snake. Some of the Horgan coven's victims were no more than toddlers at the time. In common with the late Jimmy Savile, Horgan was a close associate of the late Cyril Smith MP. Though all three men abused children, Smith's motive was probably paedophilia, whereas both Savile and Horgan were motivated by their religion, Satanism.

90-year-old Stanley Casson briefly became the oldest prisoner in Britain when he was jailed for hitting and killing a young girl and her grandmother whilst driving his Ford Scorpio car in 1999. Casson was convicted of causing the deaths by dangerous driving, but was never prosecuted for any of the many crimes he may have committed in the name of Satan. According to Dickens, a former farm near Hartshead Pike was an important location for Casson's coven meetings in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. At these meetings, the Casson coven would undertake rituals which included the abuse, torture and sacrifice of animals, children and vulnerable adults.

Legend has it that Hartshead Pike was used by ancient druids for pagan rituals. Morris dancers mark the summer solstice by dancing at the Pike tower to this day. The tower on the Pike is known to some locals as the Witches' Tower. A network of old tunnels is said to run beneath the Pike. Land near the former Collier's Arms pub at the Pike was a regular venue for illegal clog fighting, at least until the 1950s. Some Satanists used to meet openly at the Collier's Arms, whilst wearing their coven cloaks, in the 1970s. In the mid 1980s a nearby disused church, St Augustine's, was desecrated by Satanists.

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Though Stanley Casson is long dead, several members of his coven are still alive today. Will GMP bring any of these Satanists to justice?

The 1991 case of Kathleen Waugh revealed serious failings in Tameside Social Services, and sadly, it was not to be the last time. Two years later, in December 1993, the Ashton & Audenshaw Reporter front page reported: "Children in care taken on red light tour." After a trip to swimming baths, social workers had taken children from a residential care home, Tiverton House (Wilshaw Lane, Ashton-under-Lyne), to a 'red light zone' in central Manchester. Children visited Sackville Street and Canal Street (an area known today as the 'gay village'). Following an internal council investigation, one social worker was fired. At the time, about a hundred children were in Tameside borough's care across nine council homes, at an annual cost of £2.1 million. Tameside Social Services evidently had a serious, ongoing problem with unsuitable staff in the 1990s, which affected both children and vulnerable adults.

Kathleen Waugh, 41, who had mental and physical handicaps, was abducted from councilrun Knowl House (Crowthorn Road, Ashton-under-Lyne) some time after 12:30 a.m. on 28 December 1991. Kathleen's disabilities were such that she could not have left the home by herself. GMP's Ashton CID mounted a major investigation to find her, but seasoned detectives were left baffled by Kathleen's disappearance. On 9th January 1992, the Ashton-under-Lyne Reporter quoted Detective Chief Inspector Colin Heelam: "We just do not know what has happened to her. I cannot understand how someone can disappear off the face of the earth..."

Kathleen was eventually found six weeks after her disappearance, on 15 February 1992. Her body had been dumped in the Derwent reservoir in Derbyshire, 26 miles from her home.

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No one has ever been prosecuted in relation to Kathleen's death. An autopsy failed to establish the precise cause of death, due to decomposition, but it did reveal traces of sedatives in Kathleen's blood. These were drugs which Katheen was not prescribed and could not have taken by herself.

The autopsy also concluded Kathleen had been alive until at least six a.m. on the 28th December. At the inquest into Kathleen's death, in October 1992, it was concluded that Kathleen had been unlawfully killed by an unknown person. Coroner Peter Revington said, "I hope someone some day will find that person who has a dark secret and bring them to justice."

In a 1995 Spectator article about Kathleen, Barry Wood wrote: "From the very beginning the response of the social services exasperated anyone who tried to get to the bottom of the affair." "Just like the Waugh family and the police, elected councillors found they were met by an impenetrable shroud of silence." "'It was just complete shutdown,' said one former member of the Social Services committee. 'We just could not get anything out of them.'"

Barry Wood also described what happened when, three years after Kathleen's death, councillor John Taylor determined to uncover the truth: "Only days after Councillor Taylor began making fresh inquiries, anonymous phone threats were made to a former care assistant at the home and to the home of Councillor Taylor." Moreover, Wood reported "two unidentifed men" shouting threats at care home workers and daubing ketchup on windows in "the middle of the night".

Geoffrey Dickens died aged 63 in May 1995. Did he learn of something really BIG in the months before his death? Something too hot to handle, even for him? We know for certain that Dickens was on to Stanley Casson's coven as being behind the death of Kathleen Waugh. And we know that Dickens believed it was murder.

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Twenty-three years after his death, might Geoffrey Dickens' final clues help somebody solve this murder mystery today?

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DPP vetoed prosecution in Kathleen Waugh case (Ashton-under-Lyne Reporter, front page, 29 October 1992) Police investigating the death of Kathleen Waugh would have liked to have prosecuted one person but were stopped by the Director of Public Prosecutions because of lack of evidence. The council will be carrying out its own investigation into Knowl House, the home where Kathleen lived, and will be looking for evidence of instances of malpractice. If any more evidence about Kathleen's death comes to light, it will be passed to the police in the hope that any prosecutions can take place. Some members of staff are likely to be disciplined within two weeks. Depending on the results of the investigation, dismissals are possible. Councillor Shirlie Stonier, who regained the social services committee chair in May after a year-long break, is understood to be determined to get to the bottom of the matter. At the time of Kathleen's death, Councillor Stonier was not head of the committee, but since her return she has done much to help to tighten up procedures in all the borough's homes. There are many points which still remain unanswered. Why did it take so long for the police to be told that there was an unauthorised visitor to Knowl House on the night of Kathleen's disappearance? Why has nobody come forward to tell what really happened? Tameside Confidential will be in a position to reveal the results of the council's disciplinary actions as soon as they are completed.

'I hope someone, some day, will find that person who has a dark secret and bring them to justice.' - Coroner Mr Peter Revington. Inquest report: Page 11.

Puzzle remains of how Kath met end (Ashton-under-Lyne Reporter, page eleven, 29 October 1992) WHY and how Kathleen Waugh died will remain unanswered - that is until someone comes forward, Tameside coroner Mr Peter Revington said at the inquest. He recorded an open verdict. The coroner believed that some unknown person abducted her and threw her into the Derwent Dam, where her body was discovered six weeks after she went missing. However, the inquest into the death of 41-year-old Kathleen, from Ashton, revealed breaches of regulations and accusations that practices at Knowl House, Crowthorne Road had been slack for years. Knowl House, for people with learning disabilities, which was her home for

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most of her life, was closed last April. An admission was made by Tameside Social Services that the administration of prescribed drugs was not as safe as it should have been. Regulations were tightened up until the closure. A fatal dose of an antidepressant not prescribed to her was found in Kathleen's blood. However, the court heard that it was practice to leave those drugs intended for her flatmate in the top of Kathleen's wardrobe. But the coroner said that whatever irregularities occurred was a matter for the social services to launch an inquiry. For him there were several possibilities: ⦁

Kathleen climbed out of her window of her own accord, and of that he was not convinced.

⦁

If she had gone out of the fire door the alarm would have gone off.

⦁

She was killed at Knowl House and her body taken to the dam. "She was abducted while conscious, but she could scream. The puzzle remains."

Staff said Kathleen could not walk far, that she had trouble swallowing and could not tie the laces on the trainers in which she was found. The windows had also been locked and checked on the night. Forensic science had come up with no tangible clues about what happened and how she died. Even the cause of death was obscured by the decomposition of her body after six weeks. "Someone, somewhere - they know the answers concerned with her death," said the coroner. "She could not have got very far unaided, certainly not 26 miles to the Derwent. Somebody must have taken her." This was despite what the coroner said was a police investigation of great breadth and depth. "It is impossible for this court to find solutions. I hope someone some day will find that person who has a dark secret and bring them to justice." Kathleen went missing sometime between 12.30am and 9am on December 28 from her flat. She and her friend Agnes shared facilities but had separate bedrooms. Living in the flat was preparation for moving into the community. Under the policy of Care in the Community, Knowl House was being run down and serviceusers were found homes where they would live with 24-hour support. Because of the overlap between the two types of service, staff support was more than adequate, assistant director of social services Mr Charlie Barker told the hearing. However, the inquest found what the coroner said were "flagrant breaches" of regulations. ⦁

Drugs were being given to clients by personnel who should not have done so.

⦁

This practice had possibly gone on since before 1984.

⦁

Officers had given Kathleen drugs to keep her calm when there was no

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need for them. ⦁

Former staff who were banned from the premises were still paying visits.

⦁

Care assistants were told not to tell social services that a banned person was there on the night of the disappearance.

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Checks were not carried [out] to see clients had taken their medicine.

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Deputy officers did not know the potential danger of drugs because they had no training.

⦁

Deputy officers had changed the council's own rules on drug administration without the knowledge of senior officers such as Mr Barker.

As far as he was concerned there were tight rules which he assumed the three deputy officers in charge would abide by. Mr Barker said the deputy officers were given training to use a new Boots drugs medication system: they had no reason to know about the drugs. He also said that a former member of staff, Mr Mills, had been sacked because he was not in his opinion a "suitable person to be [in] a place with people of learning disability." Mr Barker also said that after the disappearance of Kathleen his department had brought in the area pharmacist to check drug procedures at all council residential homes for people with learning disabilities. In only Knowl House were there faults. The deputy officers at Knowl House - Jennifer Caldwell, Sheila Farrington and Garry Merriman - were in equal charge of the home, which was under the overall charge of Stephen Baxter. He is now unemployed and living in Kirkwall, Orkney, and refused to attend without compensation to cover travel costs of £800. The coroner said it would only cost £200 and had offered that. In a statement he sent to the court he said it was not his job to get involved in the day-to-day running of the home but he felt there were inadequacies on management and training on drug handling. Care assistant Dawn Morrison shed some light on where Kathleen had got the drugs which were in her bloodstream. She said that at a team meeting of officers and care assistants a decision was taken to keep Agnes' drugs in a wardrobe in Kathleen's room. However, she doubted whether Kathleen could have reached them or that she would have found it easy to take them. Kathleen's own medication, seen as dangerous, was kept locked up. She also said that Agnes did not always take all her medicine, so there could have been a build-up of drugs lying in their packs in the wardrobe. She was not to know how potentially dangerous the amitriptyline was because she said they had never been given training. It was said by Dawn of deputy officer Mrs Caldwell that she had given

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Largactil, a tranquiliser, to Kathleen "when there was no need for it." On Kathleen's disappearance Dawn said Kathleen could not lace up her boots or walk very far without being assisted. Asked if she should have questioned the management practices she commented: "I felt the deputies knew what they were doing." Fellow care assistant Allison Allcroft said she did not know that drugs were the responsibility of the deputy officers. She also questioned Kathleen's ability to have taken any drugs without help. Colleague Sharon Dobson asked about training but was sent a leaflet saying there was none available. Another colleague, Bernadette Jones, said she had been asked by Mrs Caldwell not to say anything about former care assistant Ian Mills being on site that evening. Mr Mills said he had popped in to say hello to staff "as a way of unwinding after his work" nearby. He recalled that "window locks were inadequate" and there was a need for security lights around the building. There had been prowlers and "I once came across one in Knowl House at the top of the stairs." Mr Mills chased after him but lost him. Defending herself against criticism, Mrs Caldwell said she had not disregarded the rules on drugs. "It was taken at a meeting because they (Kathleen and Agnes) had a house and were going out into the community." She also said Agnes's drugs were for bedwetting: she never knew they were also an anti-depressant. Neither was it wrong, she believed, to allow care assistants to administer drugs. She had started as a care assistant in 1984 and it had been common practice then. Mrs Caldwell also denied that Kathleen had been given her drug unnecessarily. ___________________

COUNCIL STATEMENT The following statement has been issued by Tameside Council.

THE death of Kathleen Waugh was a shock to everyone concerned, and the council's sympathy goes out to her family. However, both the cause and circumstances of her death remain a mystery. When the police enquiries were concluded, the council carried out its own internal investigation. As a result of this, four members of staff remain suspended pending disciplinary action. The council has had, for many years, a clear procedure for administering drugs to residents in its home. According to the coroner, there had been a "flagrant breach" in that policy at Knowl House at the time of Kathleen's death. He also stated that there is no evidence that Kathleen died from an overdose of the drug amitriptyline. A check was made of drugs procedures in the council's other homes and they were found to be operating correctly; however, steps have been taken to ensure that staff receive additional training in this important area. A review of the management structure of the learning disabilities service has been undertaken by the council and the district health authority during 1991, and new managers were appointed and took up

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post during the early part of 1992. The council's services and those of the health authority are now combined under a single management, and the new management team is reviewing existing policies and services in conjunction with parent and other interested parties.

Wicca's World (Ashton-under-Lyne Reporter, page seven, 22 October 1992) (EXTRACT) ...Saddleworth MP Geoffrey Dickens, well-known for his crusades against Satanism, warns parents to keep an eye on their children during Halloween. He said: "... I am at war with those who practise black magic." ... "This time of year is when Satanists do a lot of their recruiting and I would advise parents to make sure they know where their children are." ...

MP tells of child sex-abuse clergy (Mossley & Saddleworth Reporter, page ten, 27 March 1987) TORY MP Mr. Geoffrey Dickens says "a hornets' nest of child sex abuse" among Church of England vicars in Manchester is being uncovered by the charity, Childwatch. The Littleborough and Saddleworth MP, a Childwatch trustee, says five cases are under investigation within the city and he is confident that, eventually, charges will be brought. Some of the children are believed to be as young as six. Mr. Dickens, an active campaigner for the protection of children, justifies going public with the information because Childwatch wants more children who have been sexually abused to come forward and talk about their ordeals. Mr. Dickens said: "We know these things are going on, but having the information and securing a conviction to stop it happening again is another thing altogether. It is the old problem of uncorroborated evidence." He continued: "The vast majority of vicars and other churchmen are quite normal and safe, it is only one or two who let the side down. Sometimes, it is homosexuality, sometimes it isn't. It is very sad." Mr. Dickens stressed that Childwatch took its investigations slowly and cautiously and would not point the finger of suspicion prematurely. The police had become involved in at least one of the cases and he expected

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to be told more in two to three weeks' time. "Obviously the Bishop of Manchester will be informed, and as for what to do in the future, we will probably also involve the Archbishop of Canterbury," said Mr. Dickens. "Unfortunately, this sort of thing is not confined to Manchester, Childwatch does seem to have stirred up a hornets' nest there."

but

"They are, nationwide, not all Church of England churchmen who are involved, but in Manchester they are and I can't help thinking that this cannot be mere coincidence." Mr. Dickens continued: "It is a nasty business, but someone has to speak out on such matters." Mrs. Dianne Core, founder of Childwatch, said: "The clergy involved are in a position of trust in the community and a lot of young, innocent children are falling into the hands of these unscrupulous people." She feared that the alleged cases were the tip of a horrible iceberg, and appealed for more information. "We need to build up a case to put to the Church so we can force the Church to do something about it," she said. Mrs. Core refused to go into details about the five cases investigation, but said children as young as six were involved.

under

Some cases were reported by the children, others by their parents. "In some cases, the whole community knows and does nothing about it," she said. "We have evidence that there is a severe problem of homosexuality in the Church but a lot of it has been covered up by members of the Church," she said. Some churchmen co-operated with the Childwatch team, tendency to guard the Church and not protect the young.

but

there

was

a

Child-sex cult must be stopped, says MP (Mossley & Saddleworth Reporter, page seven, 06 January 1984) MP Geoffrey Dickens is taking action to eradicate the "very disturbing, quite sickening" activities of a cult in Greater Manchester which allegedly lures children into having sex with adults. The member for Littleborough and Saddleworth, a fervent campaigner for the abolition of the Paedophile Information Exchange - which advocated the legalisation of sex between adults and children - will be bringing several incidents to the attention of the Home Secretary, Mr Leon Brittan. They are alleged to have occurred in the Moston and Harpurhey districts of East Manchester. A local woman claims children as young as nine are being lured into the arms of the sect. She

says

her

eight-year-old

daughter

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was

forced

to

witness

sexual

acts

between a male adult member of the group and two young teenage girls. She told the Reporter: "The guise of religion attracts the children, and once they are under its influence it can do no wrong in their eyes." The woman, who lives in Moston, says the illegal activities have been going on for at least eight months. "The children go to Bible classes at private houses but they stay until one and two in the morning sometimes. Their parents don't know where they've got to and they would find it hard to believe what could have gone on," she said. As soon as Mr Dickens heard the complaints he made sure that the local police had done all they could to investigate the matter. He said he did not want to cause widespread alarm but advised parents always to find out where their children went to and who with. He added: "Anyone who desires sex with children should not be at large in our society. The laws to protect children are adequate if used intelligently. Offenders should be brought before the courts." A police spokesman said: "The matter was investigated at the time it was reported and it has not been re-opened."

Children 'hung from hooks in sex-video orgies' (Rochdale Observer, page ten, 21 November 1992) ALLEGED sex orgies at a Rochdale house, where a father invited "all and sundry" to take part in sessions with his daughter and stepson, were described at Manchester Crown Court on Wednesday. The father [Michael Horgan] is accused of 20 offences including conspiracies to carry out sexual attacks, and physical assault. Four men and a woman of 42, also from Rochdale, deny charges of sexual abuse. Mr Guy Gozem, prosecuting, claimed that others who had incidents which dated back to 1982, were not in the dock.

taken

part

in

He said the abuse occurred in five or six homes where the family had lived, in the Rochdale area. The girl, now 15, wept as she told how the woman was dressed as a nurse at sex sessions which were filmed by a cameraman. She said: "We were told we were playing 'doctors and nurses.'" "Those people treated us as though we were a dummy or a doll." "We were given pink tablets, and injections which made us dead happy. we were not happy, we were crying."

But

"The injections made us feel we could jump high buildings and fly." The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she and her halfbrother were regular victims of sex abuse.

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She claimed those who took part were in the dock. had taken part.

She also named others who

She sobbed as she described how a cameraman filmed the acts in the attic of one house. If they cried or screamed with pain, the camera lights were switched off and they were ordered to look happy for the filming. She also alleged that a couple in the dock, and an Asian couple, performed sexual intercourse, and said her 44-year-old father also took part. The girl said there were hooks in the ceilings of the houses, where she, her step-brother and their mother were strung up from ropes by their father. She said: "We would hang from the hooks as disgusting sex videos were played and we were all sexually abused." Her father, who often wore an Elvis Presley T-shirt, would sometimes beat her with his Presley belt. He forced her to wear outfits of either red or black leather with miniskirts. On one occasion, her father stripped her naked and tied her to a lamp-post in the street. Weeping, she said: "He just did not care - he treated me like a tart." Mr Gozem said: "When the mother realised what was happening, her husband threatened her, and his treatment of her was almost unforgivable." "She was beaten into submission happening to the authorities."

so that she would not reveal what was

"As the years passed, the treatment of the children worsened." "There was violence, and others were permitted - positively invited - to take part in the sexual abuse." "At one home, there was an attic, fitted up for orgies, where the husband invited others to take part." "The children were sometimes drugged and also filmed for video." "Anyone who cared could join." "The children were abused by all and sundry." He said the man and his wife enjoyed what they saw so much, that they had sexual intercourse themselves in front of the children. The trial continues.

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'Sex-victim' collapses in court (Rochdale Observer, 21 November 1992) (This article reports on the same trial as the article above) MINUTES after reliving the nightmare of being an alleged sex victim while a child, a Rochdale youth collapsed in the witness box at Manchester Crown Court on Thursday. He had recalled being branded on the chest with a hot knife by his stepfather when he said he was going to tell his teacher what was happening. Yesterday, Mrs Justice Ebsworth said that the youth, now aged 20, had received medical treatment but would not be fit to resume giving evidence against his stepfather and five other Rochdale people until next week. He had described the time when, as a small child, he was tied to his bed with a clothes line. He said: "I was covered in cream while my father abused me in front of several Pakistani people. One of them was taking photographs." "Then my stepfather had sexual intercourse with a Pakistani man."

Children in care taken on red light tour (Ashton & Audenshaw Reporter, front page, 02 December 1993) Three Tameside council officers have been suspended following allegations that children in care were taken on a tour of a red light district in Manchester. The staff, all from the social services department, were ordered home after a tip-off from another officer. It is believed the trip to Manchester took place after children from Tiverton House, in Wilshaw Lane, Ashton, had been taken swimming at Marple Baths. The parents of all the children involved were informed of the allegations in writing, and social services chief Councillor John Taylor ordered an immediate investigation.

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