Cult leader Colin Batley, from Kidwelly, west Wales, whose quasi-religious cult preyed on young children and held occult rites, has been found guilty of rape and carrying out perverted sexual acts on children and adults.
Batley was the self-styled high priest of the group, which operated from a series of homes in a cul-de-sac in the seaside town.
He and five other alleged members insisted throughout the five-week trial that no cult had ever existed. But the jury dismissed that, finding him guilty of more than two dozen acts of sexual perversion linked to his activities in the cult.
They included 11 separate rapes, three indecent assaults, causing prostitution for personal gain, causing a child to have sex and inciting a child to have sex.
The jury also found him guilty of six counts of buggery and four counts of possessing indecent images of a child.
His wife, Elaine Batley, 47, was convicted of sex-related charges after the trial, as were Jacqueline Marling, 42, and Shelly Millar, 35. All lived in Kidwelly. […]
Colin Batley is said to have forced a number of his victims into prostitution and claimed 25% of their earnings.
In one instance, the trial heard, Batley tried to force a pregnant schoolgirl to give birth. The girl, who had been raped by a cult member, was told all children conceived within the cult belonged to it.
New cult members, often deeply troubled children, were forced to go through an elaborate initiation ceremony. At its heart would be sex with an adult, with anyone unwilling to take part warned they risked being killed by a cult assassin.
During the trial a local newspaper, reporting on the testimony of a 15-year-old victim of the cult, wrote:
“The Church” had religious texts — such as The Book Of The Law and The Equinox — and members were supplied with laminated copies.
The court heard how members of the group would meet on Sunday evenings to hear passages from these texts being read aloud. During these meetings, Batley would tell members about The Realm and The Palace.
“He would say The Realm was Heaven and The Palace was where he was from,” said the witness, who admitted becoming a prostitute at the age of 18.
“He said all the tests I had done would get me to The Palace and I’d be looked after by the gods.
“But if I failed the test, I’d go down to The Abyss, which was Hell. At the time, I believed what he was saying and that’s why I did what he said.”
The jury at Swansea Crown Court was told of ceremonies with women dressed in robes, all tattooed with the ancient Egyptian Eye of Horus protection symbol.
And the quasi-religious sect in which members had “swinging” lifestyles was said to have been influenced by the arch satanist and practitioner of black magic, the late Aleister Crowley.
Sections from his controversial works The Book of The Law, Equinox of the Gods and The Book of Magick were said to have been read out at shadowy sect ceremonies in members’ homes in the cul-de-sac of Clos yr Onnen.
At one, an altar was set out with a goblet of red wine, an incense burner and salted bread and sect members later disrobed, or in their words “became skyclad” and had sex. […]
Five complainants, whose identity is protected by law, came to the trial to describe how they were taken or lured to the homes at Clos yr Onnen and subjected to sex attacks, even on some occasions being forced to have sex while being filmed.
They were so terrified of Colin Batley they gave evidence via CCTV, some of the female complainants breaking down and sobbing as they recalled what happened.
They said others, who have not come forward, were also made to perform unspeakable acts.
Cult expert Ian Haworth, Cult Information Centre, said the group led by Colin Batley appeared to show many of the classic traits of a cult.
“People fall under the control of the leader who does with them as he chooses and they will obey orders accordingly,” Haworth told BBC Wales:
Mr Haworth has worked as a full-time specialist, consultant and expert witness in cultism since 1979, informed by his own experience as a former member of a cult.
He told BBC Wales that cult leaders often used techniques such as food and sleep deprivation to break people down.
This could happen in a matter of three of four days, he explained.
“It seems to work best on people with very healthy minds,” he said.
“A lot of people imagine that people that get involved in cults must be troubled or warped in some particular way to start with, and that’s rarely the case.”
Mr Haworth said between 500 and 1,000 cults were operating throughout the UK.
Quasi-religious cults are groups that use religious texts, terminology or images in order to justify activities members would normally consider to be illegal or otherwise unethical. The religious aspects are use to brainwash followers into accepting and/or participating in such activities.
The Swansea Crown Court judge has told members of Batley’s cult that they face long prison sentences.
Listen to Chief Inspector Richard Lewis of Dyfed-Powys Police statement to the press following the guilty verdicts against Colin Batley in the west Wales sex cult case:
