Dramatis Personae is a web-based index of people who have played key roles in the UK family justice system.
The website describes its purpose as being "an initial reference guide for the public, journalists, historians and biographers, together with professionals, politicians and those whose lives have been impacted in the last 30 years and beyond through the traumas of English and Welsh child and family social policy".
Included are some fascinating insights into individuals such as Dr. Valerie Sinason. A psychotherapist, author and conspiracy theorist, Sinason continues to insist that Satanic Ritual Abuse is widely practiced in the United Kingdom – despite the lack of any credible evidence to support her claims.
It can't be denied that Sinason has had a colorful career. In 2001, she managed to convince Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor at The Independent, that patients at her Clinic for Dissociative Studies had discovered pictures on the internet of a man eating a dismembered baby.
Scotland Yard launched an investigation – but as it transpired, it was all a hoax, and The Independent had to publish a retraction. While certainly stretching the boundaries of taste – and artistic expression – the pictures turned out to be publicity material for Chinese performance artist Zhu Yu and his Eating People exhibit. Barbara Mikkelson at Snopes.com suggests the 'baby' was most likely constructed by placing a doll's head on a duck's carcass.
Dramatis Personae provides an excellent overview of the SRA Myth and the role it has played in UK society. According to the site – despite the efforts of 'true believers' such as Valerie Sinason – in 23 years, not a single individual has been jailed after a finding of guilt in a criminal court for offences involving a satanic ritual element, anywhere in the United Kingdom.
www.dramatis.hostcell.net
