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A High Court Family judge has condemned the incalculable harm to children caused by baseless allegations of a satanic child abuse cult operating in north London.

Mrs Justice Pauffley said the nonsense had been posted as part of an internet campaign which had attracted four million visitors worldwide.

The impact has had ‘devastating consequences’ for two children aged nine and eight.

She’d been asked to investigate by Barnet social services and had conducted a two week fact-finding exercise at a family court hearing in London.

In her public ruling she said none of the satanic cult allegations were true and described the people who sought to perpetuate them as ‘evil’ or ‘foolish’.

She said the children’s mother and one of her supporters had published information online in breach of orders.

The judge said the children had been made to produce stories through ‘relentless emotional and psychological pressure as well as significant physical abuse.’

She said:

Torture is a strong word but it is the most accurate way to describe what was done to the children.

Both children were assaulted […] by being hit with a metal spoon on multiple occasions over their head and legs, by being pushed in to walls, punched, pinched and kicked. Water was poured over them as they knelt semi-clothed.

The long-term emotional and psychological harm of what was done to the children is incalculable. The impact of the internet campaign is likely to have the most devastating consequences…

The Judge said the children’s mother had vanished and there were rumours that she had fled abroad.

The judge wholly exonerated people who had been subject to baseless allegations.

In the summary of her ruling she emphasized:

•    There was no satanic or other cult at which babies were murdered and children were sexually abused.

•    All of the material promulgated by the mother now published on the internet is nothing other than utter nonsense.

Police inquiries were continuing.