MORE INTRUDERS IN CEMETERY

Highgate witch David Farrant is in jail but trespassing at Highgate Cemetery continues. The latest break-in was at the weekend when, according to police, "unauthorised people were found amongst the graves".

Police said that no graves were broken into this time and no damage was done to headstones. No charges are to be made.

Cemetery foreman Mr. Law told a Journal reporter "I can answer no questions". David Farrant and his followers broke into the cemetery a number of times to perform occult rituals. Recently he was found guilty of damaging memorials to the dead and interfering with buried remains in the cemetery. He was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison.

This week a spokesman for the cemetery authorities appeared on a BBC TV programme about vampires. He said at one time there was a hundred "normal, ordinary looking people" at the cemetery gates trying to get in to look for vampires.

Hornsey Journal, August 9th 1974.

MEANWHILE ...

DAVID FARRANT; At the very beginning of my incarceration ... it took me months, really, to get used to it. My whole time was spent trying to prove my innocence - and that's an understatement if anything because, in fact, it got so bad in the end that they kept moving me from prison to prison to stop me causing trouble. By 'causing trouble' I mean I had a few people helping me on the outside. For example, they actually took out a writ against the prison governor that couldn't be served - this was in Wormwood Scrubs by the way and his name was Timms; he's now a priest. Once he realised that someone was trying to serve a writ upon him, the next day I was moved out. And this was the pattern. It went on for years. In the end they moved me right out of London to keep me isolated.

And how did I spend the time ? Well, as I said, trying to prove my innocence was virtually a twenty-four hour job to me, because I used to be up well into the night and at the last prison I was transferred to, Blunderstone, you had your own lighting which you could turn off yourself, they didn't switch it off at ten. I was up well into the early hours doing these letters and statements, trying to get them signed, trying to sub poena witnesses. I'm not a lawyer, I never pretended to be one, but I was so determined that I found out quite a bit about the law in prison, because we still had access to the library and, although they discouraged me from getting hold of witchcraft books, they couldn't stop you from getting legal ones. And I used their own means against them by using the law.

People saw how determined I was and I'd get a lot of prisoners approach me for help with their cases; 'I've got a problem with this ... can you help me with ...'. The most common request was "Can you write a letter for me to the Court/a solicitor/ a witness'. Others would come up saying 'What can I do ? I'm innocent, can you help me ?'. Bearing in mind I had my own case to deal with on top of that, and I was also determined not to give up on what I'd been arrested and imprisoned for, which was basically 'witchcraft'. Throughout the trial I kept explaining that I didn't like the word as it conjures up visions of black magic, Satanism, nudity - the lot. I said 'I'm nothing to do with that !', and I explained in court what Wicca really involved, and I carried that on in prison. I thought, 'I've been arrested for something I've not done, and I'm certainly not going to give up something I believe in' and, if you like, I was preaching the word and that attracted a number of others. I'd speak to them and explain what mysticism was really about. It all got back to the ears of the prison authorities who didn't like it.

They categorically refused to allow me to enter my religion as Wiccan. They said you either have to be Catholic, Methodist, Sikh, Buddhist, whatever, but Wiccan wasn't recognised. Each prisoner had a card on the outside of his cell with his name, number, the length of his sentence and his religion - the common one was RC or C of E - and I wanted Wiccan on mine. It was just a matter of principle, honestly, nothing more. It was just that I rebelled. Right up to the last moment I wouldn't give in.

It didn't do me any favours, but I didn't really get any hassle from the inmates themselves, even the prison officers. I mean, to give them their due, a lot of them were very sympathetic, they sort of accepted me, they knew I was like I was and just left me alone. The hassle I got was from the Governors, assisting governors and visiting Magistrates - in other words, the hierarchy.

I'll tell you what, Kev. I'm really being honest now. At least I wasn't a hypocrite. I met so many people in there - they gave you all these chances of rehabilitation - and they used to scrounge, they used to go for it, go on these horrible courses they didn't believe in, and to the authorities it's all 'Oh yes !'. They'd go to all these group discussions and it was 'I'm sorry I ever did that. I'm going to be good when I get out'. But you hear them in private. They'd be saying things to you like 'I really took them in today. I'm going to get parole !'. That wasn't a one-off, that was right the way through the different prisons, every different sentence. I thought, 'I'm not gonna do that. To start with, I'm in here for something I didn't do' - and even if I had, I wouldn't have reacted like that. Human nature. But, I mean, that went on all the time. I just stuck to what I'd said in court. That was what I was involved in, there's nothing wrong. It's certainly not what the police say it is. It's certainly not what this court is being led to believe.

That, in a nutshell, was my attitude throughout prison.

When I was in Wormwood Scrubs, they put me in the same cell as an axe-murderer. He had actually been convicted of killing his wife with an axe because he thought she was a witch, and I suppose the prison authorities thought it would be rather amusing to see what happened if we both got put in the same cell. So, obviously I had to take certain precautions - not to frighten him or "attack" him - to make sure that I wasn't his next victim. Although he might not have had an axe, he certainly had access to prison cutlery and things he could have turned into sharp knives ... I won't say what happened but I got him moved out of the cell - in fact, in the end, I think he asked to be moved out of the cell. And interestingly enough, the prison authorities were so obsessed with witchcraft that another prisoner called Michael Ainsworth and he was a Hells Angel from Yorkshire; he was very interested in the occult and witchcraft but he thought he'd been possessed by some spirit and he couldn't sleep at night, and he actually asked me to help him get rid of the spirit for him. Well, I should add this was after the axe murderer had moved out and Michael Ainsworth had been moved into my cell - again, by coincidence he claimed to have been possessed by a spirit and the prison authorities chose to put him in my particular cell - and he used to have vivid nightmares at night and he wake up screaming; his screams were so loud that they used to wake up most of the prison wing; and the next thing you'd hear the alarm bells and prison officers would come to the door wondering what was going on. And in the end, he asked to be moved out of the cell, too. I'm just telling you the truth - if anything it sounds bad against myself, but I'm just telling you what happened - that was all I knew about it, but I learned later, through the prison grape-vine where you get so much information about other prisoners and what goes on, (the prison "grape-vine" is so sophisticated that if you really want to find something out, it spreads through the prison like wild-fire); anyway, Michael Ainsworth had approached the prison chaplain, who confirmed that he thought he was "possessed by a spirit" and they called in Neil Smith (who has now passed on) but at that time he was a rather "fanatical exorcist". And, I got this report first hand; Neil Smith placed his hands upon Ainsworth's head - according to the prison this was in the prison chapel - and he was reciting all these long prayers, and shaking Ainsworth's head to drive out the evil spirit, as he saw it. And during the course of this he was saying ... "Drive out the evil powers of David Farrant"! Now, there again is a case of a vicar, or chaplain, being influenced by the publicity, and he automatically assumed the worst and he assumed that I was responsible for the spirit that possessed Ainsworth, when it had already "possessed" him before he was even put into my cell.

I think I said to you before, I was convicted of offences I didn't commit and I saw no reason to give up what I was involved in. Not only Wicca, but other aspects of the occult, such as conducting seances, fortune telling, tarot cards and ouija boards, etc. Well, nobody could stop us making cardboard boards with letters around them and using glasses and things like that. [The reaction of the prisoners was] Very good. In fact, on most occasions, they encouraged me to do it. O.K. You could argue that it was a form of "escapism", or something because they were obviously locked up ... and it was a form of "escapism" in the same respect that religion is a form of escapism for people who aren't locked up - if you follow me? So the answer is, I carried on with all aspects of the occult whilst in jail.

In 1975, the Sunday People ran a story (I think it was titled "Naked Witchcraft in the Nick"), and what happened there was a prisoner who was quite near the end of his 7-year sentence was given home leave for one weekend; and, he went on home leave, he came back to prison, and then the story appeared, and apparently, he told the paper (and he wasn't really a friend of mine, he wasn't even that well known to me), that I conducted "naked witchcraft ceremonies", the prison was Blunderston, which involved - according to him - painting a white circle on the floor of the cell and together with other prisoners, my standing on a chair dressed only in a blanket, and performing "witchcraft ceremonies"! He also claimed, I believe, that everybody was afraid of me in there and that every night, I invariably "prayed to the stars naked", and basically, that I collected a bunch of followers in jail who became involved in Wicca. He said that I used to go into a trance - if my memory serves me correctly - and that I was never short of tea or cigarettes ... the implication being, that I had some sort of power or hold over the other prisoners... Yes, that much is true; that report appeared, I'm not denying it. If you're asking what really happened ... (pauses) ... I'm afraid the truth of the matter isn't really that interesting. The first thing is, I did not know that particular person; so I'm afraid much of that was based on his own fantasies or ideas about what he thought "witchcraft" was. You've got to remember, I was in a confined environment. I had a very sort of well known reputation. Other prisoners were obviously in a confined environment. Maybe, to them, wanting to find out about "witchcraft" - as they saw it - the occult, seances, fortune-telling, clairvoyance, telepathy, communication with people that they weren't allowed to see; maybe, to them it formed some sort of "escapism", which is why (and because of my reputation) I gathered followers - in "quotes" - but they weren't "followers" in such that it was a Coven, they were people that I was in the close proximity of, who used to come to me for help or advice; and its true that now and again we used to conduct seances or we used to make up ouija boards; and its also true that on the friday or Saturday just before that People article appeared, my cell was raided. I was "visited" ... well, about six prison officers came to the cell, unlocked it, and just said to me ... "Get outside". And the next thing I knew was, the cell was searched from top to bottom, all the bedding was thrown out, and they found certain substances - not drugs I hasten to add - but they found, for example, certain mushrooms that I'd picked in the prison grounds at Blunderston; one of them was amanita muscaria which can be used in the occult if it is used properly, and there were certain other things I was using for the purpose of these "rituals", if you like but ... well, I needed herbs because I didn't like the prison food! (Laughter). This is not meant to be frivolous! I didn't realise it at the time, but the reason turned out to be, that as the People were publishing this article the next day, they'd obviously phoned the Home Office to get confirmation, the Home Office had phoned the prison, and they panicked and they turned the cell out and found certain things in it ...

At that time, the governor's name was a person called John Symonds, and when they searched my cell, they found a parchment - or should I call it a "magical document! - on the wall of the cell (it was a pentagram and certain symbols which I won't go into), and right in the middle of this was a triangle with the initials "J.S." in it. And it freaked them out. Well, it certainly freaked the governor out! I've still got that document to this day, because it was never taken off me by some strange coincidence.

Apart from the legal stuff, when I had time to spare I wrote a few articles. I sent one to New Witchcraft which was used, and I mean, every single word was used. It was written on old scraps of paper, anything I could get together because obviously, they wouldn't have given me official writing paper to do that, apart from which, it would have been stopped anyway. That was smuggled out and used. I also wrote one for Penthouse, because ... they'd played up the sex angle in court and all the papers were implying ... I thought, well, it's a magazine, they could be half-serious. I mean, bloody hell, it was sold in W.H. Smiths ! So I wrote to them. As far as I can recall, it was an article about witchcraft, what really went on in Wicca and, more to the point, what didn't. That we regarded sex as a pure and natural thing, that it only became abused and corrupted by the minds of men. And they only sent the article back ...

Now, the Governor got hold of it, he called me up to his office. 'Did you write this ?'. Of course, I couldn't deny it because I'd signed it. They must have realised that it had been smuggled out and I lost a weeks remission. He said 'Right, you're going down the block for seven days', which is a loss of privileges. I mean, you weren't actually put on bread and water, they'd stopped that by then, but you lost everything, no radio, no association. They considered that as a sort of ghastly punishment, but to me, I loved it because I just liked isolation, didn't bother me at all. But the point is ...

In the attempt to prove my innocence, I had another letter smuggled out, because obviously, I couldn't post anything [of this nature] to the then Prime Minister, Harold Wilson. It was a three page document complaining about my case and all the injustices. Wilson's secretary, Marcia Williams (now Lady Falkener) wrote back confirming that 'The PM is in receipt of your letter, your allegations are going to be fully investigated', something along those lines. That was sent direct to the prison. The Governor called me up. Same thing; 'Did you write this ?'. 'Well, it's clearly been written on my behalf ...'. It was signed by me and everything. Nothing happened. There was no loss of remission or anything. Because it had come back from the Prime Minister, that was OK. They wouldn't dare do anything about it. That's just an example of the bloody hypocrisy.

APPEAL HEARING

The outcome of Mr. Farrant's appeal hearing on 17 March 1975 was another body blow. True, the sentance pertaining to the sheets and pillowcases was made concurrent, as was month in lieu for the firearm fine, while the order that he contribute £750 toward the cost of convicting him was quashed. But where the charges that really mattered were concerned, it was a different story.

The panel remarked the Judges thinly veiled animosity toward the accused, but that was as good as it got. "The six months was the maximum on that count but as it was concurrent and was not wrong in principle or manifestly excessive there was no reason to interfere. There were two important aspects about the other cemetery count. First although it might be there was only minimal physical interference by Farrant with the coffin and the skeleton in it there was an element of showing indignities to the dead. Second the court was bound to take into account the possibility that others would be tempted to behave in the same way unless it was made clear that such conduct would lead to a deterrent sentence. The two years was right in principle and on the facts a lenient sentence".

As to the interferences with Reid and Westmore, it was decided that, while Mr. Farrant may well have been able to justify his intervention on behalf of Mr. Pope to himself, the mailing of voodoo dolls to the police was (and remains) pretty much shorthand for "Lock me up for a very long time" and Mr. Argyles sentance, far from being harsh, was lenient in the circumstances. They concurred with the judge that, if Mr. Farrant felt so strongly about Mr. Pope's alleged maltreatment, there were several legal channels he might pursue (as to whether he should have much faith in them was not a matter they could advise on. Several leading members of the vice squad having recently been handed lengthy jail sentances for their corrupt dealing with Soho porn barons).

To add insult to injury, incredibly, on that very same day, one James Harmsworth, 22, a man of previous good character, also appeared before this same panel in relation to an appeal against his own fifteen month sentance, having "pleaded guilty to damaging a burial vault, unlawfully opening coffins and removing parts of deceased persons therefrom, theft and deception". Harmsworth and unidentified others had entered a vault in a disused cemetery, broke open and stripped the lead from coffins, and removed the bodies. The lead was "melted down and sold it to scrap dealers". In addition to the to 15 months for the damage, Mr. Harmsworth had received 12 months for opening the coffins and stealing the lead and a further nine months for deception, all concurrent.

Here, as quoted in the CRIMINAL LAW REVIEW [Sweet & Maxwell September 1975 p. 524-5], is what the Court of Appeals ruled in his case

" The cemetery had been disused for many years and had become overgrown and used for secular purposes. There had been no complaint from local residents or affront to them. There was a marked distinction between this case and one where a cemetery was in use, and contained the burial places of men of distinction and so attracted visitors, and where great public affront could be expected to arise from damage or desecration, An immediate custodial sentence was justified but 15 months was too long and there would be a sentence of nine months on each count concurrent.