Anonymous Host

Books, magazines and other media shared stories about occult abuse and individuals working in relevant fields began hearing more about the topic from overseas colleagues.

An American therapist named Pamela Klein, who was a witness in a number of ritual abuse cases in the US, spoke at a conference in Wellington about diagnosing ritual abuse.

She was later found to have exaggerated and even falsified her qualifications,

In September 1991, 11 weeks before Ms Magnolia called the creche to report a possible case of abuse, Christchurch was hosting a family violence conference.

Included in the schedule were some workshops about ritual abuse.

Two councillors from the city of Wellington told attendees that there were middle-class pedophile rings operating throughout the country.

Even though no actual cases had been uncovered, they had interviewed three victims and 20 others had sought help.

They pointed to similar cases in the United States, where there was talk of satanic ritual abuse taking place on a grand scale.

On the same night that the conference began, New Zealand's 60 Minutes program ran a story about a pedophile ring that was rumoured to be present in Christchurch.

The rumours dated back to 1988, when a doctor first reported that child patients were telling horrific stories about sexual abuse perpetrated by multiple offenders against groups of victims.

After repeated interviews with police, the children began to report being taken to private homes and gay bars where they were abused, filmed and threatened.

Lots of adults were present, as well as lots of other children.

They described vehicles driven by the offenders and gave physical descriptions of their abusers.

Principals of schools throughout the city were warned that their students were possibly being recruited for a quote, child pornography ring.

In August 1988, 30 police officers executed simultaneous search warrants at six different properties.

An elderly man at one residence was found to possess naked photos of underage girls and was subsequently arrested.

None of the other searches produced results.

Although police worked hard, they couldn't find any evidence of the pedophile ring everyone was talking about.

But rumours of the ring continued to circulate, with some Christchurch residents certain that there was an underground community of gay men who were producing and distributing child abuse material.

This persisted, despite the police reassuring them that they had investigated the case extensively and had even looked into a number of high-profile businessmen whose names had been reported.