Organised ritual abuse and its wider context: Degradation, deception and disavowal, Sex abuse allegations in the Assemblies of God

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- Organised ritual abuse and its wider context: Degradation, deception and disavowal  

- Sex abuse allegations in the Assemblies of God

 

 

Organised ritual abuse and its wider context: Degradation, deception and disavowal  A research review and analysis by Dr Elly Hanson Commissioned by the Hydrant Programme and NAPAC  July 2025.... describes abuse

The organised sexual, physical and psychological abuse of children (and often adults) by a group of individuals who use rituals as a form of prolonged and repeated torture (often alongside other forms of abuse) with the aim of controlling, silencing and terrorising their victims. As part of this control, perpetrators train children into a supernatural belief system, which they may or may not believe themselves. Ritualised abuse typically involves family members (for example, parents and their associates abusing their children) and starts when children are young (the UK National Police Chiefs’ Council definition of ritualistic abuse, used within the Complex and Organised Child Abuse Database - COCAD)....

In the UK, there have been at least 14 cases in which people have been convicted of sexually abusing children and their use of ritualistic practices in this process was widely acknowledged, either within the criminal or family courts.6 Nine of these involved more than one perpetrator. In addition, there have been convictions for sexual abuse similar in nature to organised ritualistic abuse, involving multiple family members sadistically sexually abusing and/or torturing their children, as well as forcing them to have sex with others, over the course of their childhoods.7....

In 1982, couple Malcolm and Susan Smith together with Susan’s sister and husband, Albert and Carole Hickman, were convicted for crimes relating to the sexual abuse of four children ranging in age from one to 15 years old. Malcolm Smith convinced the children he was ‘Lucifer’, and this was said to be ‘largely a subterfuge by which children and young girls were ensnared’ (The Guardian, 1982). ...

In 1998, the daughter and stepson of a convicted sex offender, Michael Horgan, came forward to speak out in detail about the abuse that he had subjected them to, in protest at him being released after having served only half of his ten-year sentence (McMullan & Revell Walton, 1999).  He had been prosecuted alongside five others in 1992 for the organised, ritualistic abuse of several children, the youngest being two, yet media attention appears to have been scant at that time....

In 1992, an extensive investigation was launched in Wales following a ten-year-old boy’s disclosures to his foster carers of sexual abuse of himself and other children by his father and other adults. Other children corroborated his allegations, leading to a trial of 12 individuals, of whom six were convicted. The jury heard that children aged from two years old upwards were sexually abused in isolated barns and sheds in Pembrokeshire and subjected to a terrifying mix of violence, threat and ritualistic practices....

In 1998, eight people based in Devon were convicted for a total of 100 years for sexual abuse offences spanning 35 years. This abuse was intergenerational, involving grandparents who had taught their children to abuse their own, and sadistic, involving razor blades, pick-axe handles, pitch forks and knitting needles (the latter used in abortions) (Lakeman, 1998; Lindy Brown, interview). These abusers not only raped the children (aged 3-15 years old), but also invited friends and neighbours to do so....

In 2023, eight individuals in Glasgow were found guilty of crimes of child sexual abuse and/or other forms of child maltreatment, and in early 2025 seven of them were given life sentences for this abuse.9 Five of these individuals were found guilty of attempting to murder a young girl.... Four children in total had been subjected to sexual abuse, gang rapes and violence by the group. Two individuals were also found guilty of child neglect....

3. The nature of research into organised ritualistic (and related) abuse. It was in the late 1980s that research into organised ritualistic child abuse first really began, and over the course of the 1990s a sizeable number of studies were published, primarily case series of therapists’ patients who reported this abuse (for example, Coleman, 1994; Fraser, 1990; Young et al., 1991), but also including analyses of state and voluntary sector organised abuse cases (including those involving ritual), as well as professional surveys and an analysis of helpline data (for example, Gallagher et al., 1996; Scott, 1993). Since then, it appears studies have been less frequent, although three research projects have substantially deepened insight and understanding. In 2001, Sara Scott published a seminal study involving twelve in-depth life history interviews with survivors of ritual abuse, following a wider survey completed by 36 (Scott, 2001). This was followed in the early 2010s by Michael Salter’s research of similar methodology with 21 survivors of organised child abuse (16 of whom reported ritualistic elements) and professionals supporting this client group (Salter, 2011, 2012, 2013a, 2013b, 2017, 2019).10 And then more recently, in Germany a research group has explored the issue through survivor and professional surveys alongside analysis of submissions on this topic to the German Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual abuse, all-in-all resulting in eight academic papers (for example, Schröder et al., 2018, Schröder, Nick et al., 2020). In addition, case series, surveys and other analyses continue to be published, contributing to the broader body of knowledge....

4. Lives navigating ‘everyday’ abuse and cruelty  Most survivors of organised ritualistic abuse report adult family members as their primary perpetrators (Salter, 2012; Schröder et al., 2018; Schröder, Behrendt et al., 2020a; Scott, 2001). Looking across life histories recounted by this group of survivors, we see both striking diversity and commonality. On the one hand, there is wide socioeconomic variance – some describe families that are highly affluent and well-connected, whilst others those that are struggling with poverty and debt. In addition, some are highly regimented and project an image of ‘the perfect family’ whilst in others there is chaos and mental health difficulty visible to the outside eye. However, across practically all the recorded accounts of survivors of intrafamilial organised ritual abuse, there are common themes of dominance and control (usually exerted most forcefully by fathers); neglect of children’s emotional (and often physical) needs; and routine cruelty towards them – especially towards girls (Scott, 2001; Salter, 2013a). Essentially these survivors report navigating childhoods in which those tasked to care for and protect them were instead colossal and constant sources of danger.12 The abuse this group of survivors recount includes routine sexual abuse from family members that typically started in their early years, often involved sadistic elements, and interweaved with other forms of abuse as well as neglect....

5. The dimensions of commercial and imaged child sexual abuse Alongside this ‘everyday cruelty’ many victims of organised and ritual abuse are also bought and sold to be raped (pimped and trafficked) and have their sexual abuse photographed and filmed (to make child sexual abuse material: CSAM). In their survey study of 165 self-reported survivors of organised abuse (88% of whose included ritual),16 Schröder, Nick et al. (2020) found that 91% reported commercial sexual exploitation, and 90% reported that their abuse involved CSAM production. And in their parallel survey of healthcare professionals who support survivors of organised/ritual abuse, even higher proportions reported that their clients’ abuse included these elements (96% and 94% respectively). Complementing these findings, a study that instead focussed on CSAM survivors found that many reported this CSAM abuse to be driven by organised groups, often involving family members (Canadian Centre for Child Protection: C3P, 2017).

 

Of the 150 international survivors of CSAM they surveyed, 74 (49%) reported organised abuse. This group experienced sexual abuse that on average started younger and lasted longer than the other respondents – 82% reported that their abuse started when they were aged four or younger, and 51% reported it lasting 16 or more years, followed by 22% reporting it lasting 11-15 years. In 82% of these cases, the primary abuser was reported to be a family member, most typically the victim’s father (38%) followed by both parents (19%). Nearly a third (31%) of this group reported abuse by a person in a position of authority (of these, 35% mentioned a doctor or more; 30% teacher(s); 26% police; and 26% clergy), and 51% respondents mentioned at least one adult woman as an offender....

Historically, research into CSAM has often neglected the organised and intrafamilial dimensions to much of its production (Itzin, 1997; Salter & Wong, 2023), and similarly efforts to tackle children being bought and sold for rape (also known as child sex trafficking) have not always paid due regard to how much of this is driven by family members and paedophilic abuse groups (Itzin, 2001; Pacheo et al., 2023; Raphael, 2020). As noted above, this commercial sexual exploitation (pimping and the rapes that follow) is often reported by ritual abuse survivors as another horrific part of their maltreatment. Survivors describe how these elements of their abuse involving filming and/or being sold to others often involve humiliation, shame, cruelty and sadism, and the profound degradation of being so objectified and commodified (for example, C3P, 2017; Pacheo et al., 2023; Raphael, 2020; Salter & Woodlock, submitted)....

6. The nature and dynamics of organised ritual abuse

When organised abuse involves rituals and supernatural narratives, what do these comprise? How are the rituals consistent with victims’ wider experience of abuse, and how are they set apart? What offender-victim dynamics do they involve and what offender strategies are at play? This section explores these and related questions, with the aim of developing a deeper understanding of the nature of this abuse and the psychology at play. Rituals in the broadest sense are practices that follow a convention or habit. Often however, the term ‘ritual’ is used to more specifically mean what are termed in sociology ‘special collective ritual events’ (Knottnerus, 2014). These rituals (from here on in, how ‘ritual’ is used in this report) involve multiple participants engaging in activities with a distinctive form, at set times and separated from everyday social practices (Knotterus, 2014).

Examples of such rituals include religious ceremonies, political rallies, and commemorations of important historical events. They are central to the human experience and occur across history and cultures.  These ritual events, entwined with the narratives that support them, have particular power and so are frequently designed and used by those with nefarious intentions to control others (see for example, Delano & Knottnerus’ (2018) analysis of the Khmer Rouge’s use of ritual). And this appears to be a primary purpose of the rituals and related ideologies of ritual abuse, alongside their related use as justification and inspiration for extreme cruelty.17

Survivors of ritual abuse generally report this abuse as being less frequent to the other forms of abuse they were experiencing – taking place as organised ceremonies; often on specific calendar dates; involving an immediate circle of abusers or larger numbers (essentially paedophile rings coming together); and comprising a series of extreme tortures and abuses that are given ideological or religious justification (for example, a family pet being ‘sacrificed’) (Behrendt et al., 2020; Salter, 2013a; Sarson & MacDonald, 2008; Schröder, Nick, et al., 2020; Scott, 2001)....

6.1 Ideologies and themes
Schröder, Nick, et al. (2020) surveyed 165 adults reporting a history of organised abuse, 88% of whom named the involvement of ideology / ritual within it.18 Of this group, 72% reported Satanic ideology, 35% racist or fascist, and 30% ‘religious or free church’ (this category included Christianity, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Freemasonry). Smaller numbers reported Germanic, witchcraft, military or Kaballah narratives.19 These proportions were roughly similar to those reported in a parallel survey of therapists who worked with survivors of ritual abuse, who were asked what ritual ideologies their clients disclosed (Schröder et al., 2020). In Scott’s (2001) smaller survey of 36 survivors in Britain, 20 indicated that their abuse involved Satanic ideology; five named Mormonism, Roman Catholicism, Fundamentalist Christian, Masonic, neo-Nazi or Wicca (one naming two of these); and the remaining 11 were split between not knowing and being unwilling or too fearful to answer. The ideologies perpetrators draw upon will in large part reflect their cultural backdrop – mainstream beliefs and practices provide material that is co-opted and twisted into an abusive belief system, working to add credibility and power to it....

6.3 Acts of abuse and torture
What behavioural shape does this cruelty typically take? What abusive practices do these supernatural ideologies enable and these rituals comprise? In the survey of 165 survivors in Germany conducted by Schröder et al. (2020) discussed above, 96% reported that they were subjected to near-death experiences and 93% reported isolation with sensory deprivation. Similar percentages of the 174 surveyed therapists reported hearing disclosures of these forms of abuse in their work with survivors (97% and 95% respectively). And such experiences are also recounted by survivors in interviews (Scott, 2001; Salter, 2013a), heard in some court cases (for example see Lakeman, 1998; Miller, 1995; Scott, 2023), and documented in clinical case and helpline reports (Sarson & Macdonald, 2008; Scott, 1993). In their review of 37 patients with dissociative disorders who reported ritual abuse, Young et al. (1991) found that all of them reported near death experiences as part of the abuse, and 27 disclosed that they had been buried alive in coffins or graves....

10.3 Practices of disbelief and silence
The discourse of disbelief is inseparable from the practices that follow from it – practices that interactively work to keep it in place in a vicious spiral (Nelson, 2016). Such ‘practices of disbelief’ include hostility towards people who persist in calling attention to the issue, and their derogation and ridicule. To do so therefore carries significant reputational risk and so is understandably necessarily avoided by many. Relatedly, there is the practice of societal silence – around organised child abuse generally and ritual abuse in particular – from the media, from academia, and relevant societal institutions (notwithstanding notable exceptions) (Salter & Woodlock, 2023). Despite survivors continuing to disclose to helplines, therapists and trusted researchers, their experiences are rarely heard publicly. As noted, after the mid-1990s, research publications have declined. In tandem, the rigorous in-depth research that has been published has largely been ignored (Scott, personal communication). In the UK, statutory multi-agency child protection guidance went from including a definition of organised child abuse in 1991 to removing all mention of it by 2013 (Davies, 2014, 2016). The latest edition (HM Government, 2023) continues with this omission, and while it gives a definition of ‘extra-familial harm’ which includes the example of ‘modern slavery and trafficking’, it provides no definition of intrafamilial harm, let alone the organised and ritual abuse that this can include.57 This may encourage, or at least colludes with, statutory services applying higher thresholds to the investigation of this abuse (also see section below on disclosure and professional responses).

The principle seemed to be ‘let’s try not to investigate’; I thought ‘how much evidence do you want before we do?’ – it was far beyond what we’d usually need
Former Detective Chief Inspector Clive Driscoll on how allegations of ritualized abuse were approached within a UK police force

Organised intrafamilial and/or ritual abuse cases that do reach the courts are afforded scant media coverage, whilst in parallel the rehearsed story of ‘satanic panic’ is routinely used as a cautionary tale by commentators drawing attention to more modern (alleged) hysterias (for example, see Barnes, 2024; Joyce, 2021). Podcasts, documentaries and online sources such as Wikipedia58 continue to highlight and challenge conspiracy fictions, whilst giving no airtime to established cases and perpetuating the false dichotomy that ritual abuse must either be the product of conspiracy fantasies or non-existent (for example, Mostrous et al., 2022)....

Conspiracy theorising and logical errors in the discourse of disbelief

Claims that organised ritual abuse does not exist in the Western world must somehow deal with the evidence that it does. Several strategies are employed in this endeavour including:

• Simple omission – claiming that evidence which does exist does not (for example, convictions for ritual abuse)
• Applying a false dichotomy, as discussed above (‘either it’s a conspiracy theory or it doesn’t exist’ – rather than logically acknowledging that real cases and conspiracy theories can co-exist). In this endeavour, the views of those who take it seriously are misrepresented or caricatured
• Dismissing all recovered memories as false memories, despite the psychological and forensic evidence to the contrary59
• Holding a suspicion of Dissociative Identity Disorder and its origins in trauma, despite all the evidence to the contrary
• Asserting widespread malpractice by social workers. They are said to manipulate children into ritual abuse allegations because they see it everywhere, having been ‘contaminated’ by workshops and self-professed experts. A large scale review of referrals to police and social services (involving information from a diversity of sources) could find no evidence of such practice (Gallagher, 2001).
• Similarly, presupposing that huge numbers of therapists are applying methods that lead their clients to develop whole libraries of false memories (this is usually required to explain the numbers of people disclosing ritual abuse in anonymous surveys, on helplines, and the like). Not only do we lack substantive evidence that this is even possible (Brewin & Andrews, 2016),60 it would entail multiple therapists risking their reputation and livelihood (by going against professional codes of conduct) for no obvious gain....

https://www.hydrantprogramme.co.uk/assets/NPCC-Organised-ritual-abuse-and-its-wider-context-Degradation-deception-and-disavowal-July-2025-v2.pdf 

 

 

 

How a Christian college ministry glorified a sex offender and enabled him to keep abusing students  Daniel Savala urged generations of Chi Alpha members to get naked in his Houston sauna. Why did Assemblies of God pastors keep bringing teenagers to his home? A revered missionary challenged his young followers to live for Jesus; it was all part of his plot to get them undressed, he confessed later.
Article describes abuse

Aug. 4, 2025 By Mike Hixenbaugh HOUSTON — Daniel Savala leans back in a cloth armchair, raises his right hand and swears before God that what he’s about to say is the truth.  Looking into the camera, the Pentecostal missionary speaks in slow, measured sentences, describing how, for decades, he gained the trust of college students who came to his ivy-draped bungalow in search of spiritual guidance. Using scripture, he convinced them they could open up about uncomfortable topics like pornography and masturbation. Then he would strike, touching their penises and pressuring them to touch his, all under the guise of bringing them closer to Jesus.  “I knew that I was wrong,” Savala says in the video, filmed by a lawyer in 2023. “But I did it anyway.” ....

 

In the two years since Savala recorded that confession at his home in Houston, lawyers, activists and whistleblowers have worked to untangle how a convicted sex offender with an eighth-grade education managed to convince scores of pastors and young Christians to put their faith in him — and why church officials repeatedly failed to stop him.

In police reports, lawsuits, online forums and interviews with NBC News, dozens of boys and young men have described how Savala spun his own twisted version of the Gospel. He taught them that seeing each other naked in his backyard sauna was essential to becoming true brothers in Christ — or, as he put it, “nudity is unity.” For those struggling with lustful temptation, he offered a counterintuitive solution: group masturbation, sometimes while listening to Christian worship music. He pushed some of his disciples further; in lawsuits, signed statements and criminal filings, at least 10 have accused him of sexually abusing them.

“He would say things like, ‘Hey, you know it’s OK to masturbate,’” said Joseph Cleveland, who says Savala groomed and sexually abused him for a decade beginning in 2004, when he was 15. “‘Because we’re brothers, we can do it together.’”

The pastors who shepherded hundreds of high school and college students to Savala’s home were part of Chi Alpha, a Christian ministry that evangelizes on university campuses. Students seek out Chi Alpha to connect with God and each other, through small Bible studies and rollicking worship services — and, for more than 30 years, through Savala. Generations of Chi Alpha leaders hailed him as a spiritual savant who could answer life’s deepest mysteries.

The boys and young men who devoted themselves to Savala called him “Papa Daniel,” “God’s vagabond” and “the holiest man alive.” At his direction, teams of students built the backyard sauna that became the site of his alleged crimes. So wrapped up in his teachings, his followers often didn't see themselves as victims until years or decades later. At least one of the college students Savala sexually exploited later became a pastor and brought his own boys to learn from his master inside his darkened sauna.  The reward for that minister’s devotion: Like Savala, he now faces the possibility of life in prison.

Savala’s ministry collapsed in early 2023 when several men came forward, some anonymously, to accuse him and some of his protégés of sexual abuse and exploitation, triggering a wave of criminal charges, lawsuits and pastor dismissals. Savala was arrested, and at least six Chi Alpha pastors, leaders and students who studied under him were charged with sexual abuse....  It wasn’t the first time officials with the Assemblies of God, the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination, have been accused of mishandling sex abuse allegations. In May, an NBC News investigation revealed how church leaders dismissed repeated abuse allegations against a charismatic children’s pastor named Joe Campbell in the 1980s, allowing him to remain in ministry for years as more alleged victims came forward....

Chi Alpha had a clear opportunity to break ties with Savala in 2012, when authorities in Alaska charged him with sexually abusing boys as a youth minister in the 1990s. Instead, ministry leaders in Texas rallied to his defense, sending a staff member to Alaska to pay his bail and — after Savala pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of a minor — organizing a letter-writing campaign to ask the judge for leniency. After a stint in jail, Savala went right back to hosting Chi Alpha students at his home in Houston....

In the decade that followed, at least half a dozen people contacted Assemblies of God officials in Texas and at the denomination’s national headquarters in Springfield, Missouri, alerting them that Chi Alpha was exposing students to a sex offender. These whistleblowers wrote emails, made phone calls and spoke up at internal meetings. Again and again, they were dismissed or ignored, NBC News found....

In a statement to NBC News, the Assemblies of God said it directed Chi Alpha leaders to stay away from Savala after receiving a report about him in 2018. Five years later, after receiving “reports of sexual abuse,” the denomination said it “took appropriate actions,” leading to the dismissal of more than a half dozen ministers with ties to Savala.....

In the summer of 2012, Eli Stewart, one of the top Chi Alpha pastors at Sam Houston State, wrote an urgent plea to ministry leaders and alumni: “Our dear friend Daniel needs you.”
Savala had recently been indicted in Alaska after he was accused of sexually abusing several boys at a church in the 1990s. Two of the boys, now men, had filed police reports, and Savala traveled there to face charges. Chi Alpha leaders had already dispatched a junior staff member to Alaska to pay Savala’s $10,000 bail and hired a lawyer to defend him.  Now Stewart was calling for collective action.

Describing the allegations as “an absolute attack of the devil,” Stewart wrote that Savala was preparing to take a plea deal — not to reduce his sentence, but to protect the families of the men falsely accusing him. He called on his Chi Alpha brothers to write letters to the judge: “If you have children and would be comfortable having Daniel stay in your home or having your children at Daniel’s house, the judge needs to know that.”....

Savala’s victims have come to view his 2012 conviction as a line of demarcation. With his abuses out in the open, it was the moment when ministry leaders should have broken free from Savala’s influence, but instead chose the opposite path....

Over the next decade, the pattern repeated again and again. People came to church leaders with concerns about Savala, and those warnings went unheeded.
Ron Bloomingkemper Jr. had quit Chi Alpha at Sam Houston State in the late 1990s after he says Savala asked him to masturbate together. He was outraged years later, in 2013, when he learned of Savala’s child sex abuse conviction and continued connection to the ministry.  Bloomingkemper said he called Tim Barker, a pastor and the superintendent of the Assemblies of God regional council that oversees the denomination in south Texas. Barker seemed concerned, Bloomingkemper said, and he promised to investigate. After a few months, Bloomingkemper called again.  “I said, ‘I’m following up about the Daniel thing.’ And he goes, ‘I completely forgot about that.’”  That’s when Bloomingkemper said he realized: “They’re not going to do anything about this.” Frustrated, he said he dropped the issue and tried to move on....      https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/thomas-pinkerton-youth-pastor-arrested-sex-abuse-baltimore-maryland-rcna224311 

‘He’s helping himself to your kids by the help of Chi Alpha leadership’: Student organization put Aggies, minors in contact with sex offender Nicholas Gutteridge May 1, 2023   https://thebatt.com/news/chi-alpha-organization-took-students-to-church-with-links-to-a-sex-offender-article_793cdc2e-e876-11ed-907b-d33f4dd8cad8-html/ 

Former youth pastor arrested after allegedly sexually abusing at least 6 teens
The alleged abuse occurred from 2006 to 2010 at the pastor’s home and at an Assemblies of God church in Baltimore County, Maryland, authorities said.
Aug. 11, 2025 By Elizabeth Chuck and Mike Hixenbaugh

This article is part of “Pastors and Prey,” a series investigating sex abuse allegations in the Assemblies of God.
Thomas Pinkerton Jr. used to tell children in his youth group in Maryland that it was normal for a pastor to kiss boys on the lips, because that’s how Jesus greeted his disciples, according to an arrest warrant made public last week.

Kissing was just the beginning, several men from Pinkerton’s former youth group told police.
Pinkerton, 52, a youth minister known as Pastor Tommy, is being held without bond following accusations that he sexually abused six teens from 2006 to 2010 while working at Central Christian Church, an Assemblies of God church in Baltimore County. He was extradited from his home state of Georgia to Maryland last Wednesday to face 24 felony and misdemeanor counts in Baltimore County. His attorney, Justin Hollimon, said he pleaded not guilty.

An arrest warrant said the alleged abuse included inappropriate touching and kissing of six teenagers in Maryland, who ranged in age from 13 to 19. The warrant said the alleged abuse happened at the church and at Pinkerton’s former home in Maryland. A seventh man reported abuse by Pinkerton in Georgia, according to the warrant, and that report was referred to authorities there, officials in Baltimore County said. Pinkerton, who has worked as a traveling evangelist in recent years, was “completely shocked” by the charges, his attorney said Monday....

Detectives believe there may be more victims and have asked anyone with information to come forward.... Pinkerton’s arrest comes as the Assemblies of God, the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination, with nearly 3 million members across 13,000 churches in the United States, is grappling with a string of child sex abuse allegations.
As part of an ongoing investigation into the denomination’s handling of abuse claims, NBC News published an investigation last week based on interviews, emails, court filings and police reports that examined how an Assemblies of God college ministry guided hundreds of students to the home of Daniel Savala, a convicted sex offender lauded by some as “the holiest man alive.” Days later, Assemblies of God leaders addressed the issue of sex abuse in the denomination during a biennial gathering in Orlando, defending their handling of the Savala case while also pledging to make changes to prevent similar abuses in the future. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/thomas-pinkerton-youth-pastor-arrested-sex-abuse-baltimore-maryland-rcna224311