Joshua Cookson, convicted of murdering an acquaintance at his mobile home in 1999 wants a federal court judge to require Maine prison officials to allow him to practice Satanism as a religion.

Cookson is allowed to practice Satanism in his own cell, but he wants permission to practice with others.

Plans by a group to hold a “satanic exorcism” at the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall prompted citizens to telephone and e-mail the city, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

In Tuesday’s Oklahoman, Civic Center officials confirmed that the Church of the IV Majesties has booked one of the smaller rooms at the Civic Center for a meeting on Oct. 21. The group’s leader said they will perform a parody of a Roman Catholic exorcism.

Satanic cults constitute a world in which evil reigns, so keeping them clandestine is essential. But one young German woman has dared to speak openly about growing up in such a cult.

Brigitte Hahn, the sect commissioner for the Catholic Diocese of Muenster, says 30 victims of such Satanic cults have sought help from her office. Some of the women described black masses, which also included ritualistic abortions and even murder.

Six members of a Satanic cult were jailed for up to 20 years in Russia on Monday for four murders in which they “ritually sacrificed”, dismembered and then ate their teenage victims in a forest.

The members of the gang called themselves Satanists and earlier carried out animal sacrifices, Komsomolskaya Pravda, the Russian daily, reported, citing investigators.

The leader of a satanic sect that practiced orgies as part of the initiation of adepts has received a 20-month prison term.

Aleksandr Kazakov, 25, was found guilty of creating an organization that violated human and civil rights, and of indecent actions directed at a minor. His right-hand man, Denis Danshin, 23, received a year-and-half suspended term.

The sect named “Nobilis Ordo Diaboli” – or the “Noble Order of the Devil” – was engaged in the secret worshiping of Satan in the republic of Mordovia in central Russia since 2003..

Irving Davis, convicted of raping and killing a 15-year-old El Paso girl, has asked a Texas appeals court to throw out his death sentence, arguing that jurors should not have been told about his new religion — Satanism.

The revelation, defense lawyers argue, violated Davis’ free exercise of religion and improperly prejudiced jurors against the 27-year-old inmate.

Prosecutors counter that allegiance to the Church of Satan was relevant information for jurors, who had to determine whether Davis should be put to death as a continuing threat to society.

Seven young members of a satanic sect have gone on trial in Russia accused of four gruesome murders in which they “ritually sacrificed” their victims before cooking and eating parts of them.

The case is being held behind closed doors but local media say all seven defendants admit their guilt. They are officially charged with murder, theft and the desecration of human remains.

The last hours of Kimberly Simon’s life in 1985 were likely spent with a group of young men who worshiped the devil, tortured cats, used hallucinogenic drugs and sexually abused women, according to investigators who have been probing her homicide for the past 16 months.

By disclosing the new information, investigators hope to stir public interest in watching the “America’s Most Wanted” episode scheduled to feature Simon’s case.

A North Carolina couple whose crimes were linked to Satan worship pleaded to misdemeanor charges and will serve probation, a defense attorney said.

The case against a third person was dismissed last January.

The leader of a satanist sect in Russia’s Republic of Mordovia that included more than 60 members has been arrested and the group shut down, investigators announced on Wednesday.

Investigators said the members rented a house where they “conducted cult ceremonies, including illegal acts of alcoholic binge drinking, sexual practices and antisocial behavior.”

In the basement, officers find candles, Larry’s ritual knife, stained with DNA from one of the girls, a symbol of Baphomet, representing Satan and believed to have occult power, bells and an amulet with an inverted pentagram — all items used in rituals described in “The Satanic Bible.”

Larry tells police he has a spell notebook in his and Marla’s bedroom closet. The notebook contains drawings from the book “Pagan Ways,” references found in the occult fiction book “Necronomicom” and page numbers corresponding to “The Satanic Bible,” including one specific spell.

An Evangelist preacher, his wife and their four-year-old daughter were all found dead inside their home at San Jose de Guanipa in El Tigrito, an oil town in Anzoategui state, east-central Venezuela, last Friday.

Investigators are working on a theory that the multiple slaying was carried out by people from some sort of satanic cult. They say the inside walls of the house had been painted with slogans suggesting such a connection.

The three girls and one boy, all described as Goths and aged 16 and 17, were allegedly forced to drink alcohol by the gang before they were attacked.

The killers then allegedly lit a bonfire under a tree near their cottage in Russia’s Yaroslavl region, 300 miles north-east of Moscow, where they cooked and ate their victims’ body parts.

The parents of a South African schoolboy accused of killing a fellow student with a sword said Thursday that he had experimented with Satanism and was bullied.

“We regret to say that it appears that Morne experimented with Satanism and that it gave him a kind of protection for his psyche,” Machiel and Liza Harmse said in a statement in the Afrikaans daily newspaper Die Beeld.

Harshbarger’s tale begins at home in Indiana, where a lack of religious guidance combined with his parents’ divorce led him to become a bitter, disaffected teen with an appetite for the sensational, including tales of supernatural phenomena.

While in college, he befriended a co-worker at his day job who was already a Satanist. The two made plans to form their own cult and set about recruiting members.