Radio show won't rectify Satanic ritual abuse claims despite police finding no evidence

After 18 months of extensive investigation, the police have found no evidence that the accounts of satanic ritual abuse that the radio program Argos reported on between 2018 and 2020 were true. Despite this, Argos has left the stories online unchanged, even after a request for correction, the Volkskrant reports.

In the broadcasts by Argos, an investigative journalism program by VPRO and Human, the editors reported having contact with 140 people who had experienced ritual abuse, including satanic candlelight rituals, torture, and the ritual sacrifice of babies. Argos also extensively covered “the story of Lisa.” The girl’s mother claimed that her father and other men from “the network” raped Lisa, and when she became pregnant, murdered her baby.

The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, responded with shock and established a committee to investigate. The police's Child Pornography and Child Sex Tourism Team (TBKK) also launched an investigation. Both investigations found no evidence of satanic ritual abuse.

“We conducted a very thorough and careful investigation,” Caroline Monster of the TBKK told the Volkskrant. “We used all the available resources: witness interviews, on-site investigation, forensic investigation, and so on. Despite this, none of the facts could be proven. Some claims turned out to be demonstrably false. We found no evidence whatsoever that satanic ritual abuse networks exist.”

After the police investigation was completed in January 2023, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) and the police asked the Argos editorial team to “consider follow-up broadcasts” in which claims from the previous broadcast could be rectified. That never happened.

The Hendriks Committee set up by the Tweede Kamer also concluded that organized abuse existed, but beyond the victim statements, there were no indications of networks involving satanic rituals.

Despite this, Argos continued to broadly support its broadcasts on satanic ritual abuse; however, the editors did publish a statement online saying that “in certain respects, a better distinction should have been made between testimonies and facts.”

Later in 2023, “Lisa’s” mother published the names of the alleged perpetrators online, and conspiracy theorists showed up at the home of Lisa’s father. That prompted a lawsuit against Lisa’s mother, who was sentenced to 180 hours of community service for defamation, incitement, and coercion. The judge described the woman’s accounts as a combination of “isolated facts, half-truths, and outright lies.”

Subsequently, in December 2023, almost a year after the police and OM approached Argos with investigation results and requests for rectification, the broadcasters VPRO and Human pulled the involved broadcasts about satanic ritual abuse offline. In a statement, they said that they should have “set higher standards for hard evidence, despite the convincing witness statements.” But the claims have never been rectified and still circulate in conspiracy groups.