Letter: Satanic abuse is all too true

WE WERE extremely concerned by the leak of the report carried out by Professor Jean La Fontaine on satanic abuse ('Government inquiry decides satanic abuse does not exist', 24 April).

If your information was accurate then the report (carried out by one anthropologist who has not spoken to adult survivors) blames religious fundamentalists and untrained people for putting this subject on the map.

It would be so reassuring if this were true. However, our evidence and views are different. As two of the 40 trained health service contributors to Treating Satanist Abuse Survivors, published last month by Routledge, we have direct experience of dealing with this subject. We would like to encourage a broader, multi-disciplinary approach to this difficult subject, as Lord Justice Butler-Sloss recommended in the Cleveland Report.

Rob Hale

Consultant Psychiatrist/

Psychotherapist

Valerie Sinason

Consultant Child

Psychotherapist

Tavistock Clinic

London NW3