- Epsteinvestigation - 3rd October 2025
- Praise indeed! - 2nd October 2025
- Pseudo-sceience… - 2nd October 2025
During 42 years in journalism (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon) for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, exposing the terrible damage caused by fraudsters and the awful effects of absurd practices was paramount, with this now put centre stage by a new book by another journalist about the supernatural.
Out of bad comes forth bad.
There is little good that comes out of a conman’s tricks, or a belief in the supernatural.
The only positive thing about them comes when this charlatanism is exposed by people like me.
All of this is highlighted for me (perhaps oddly!) by a new book called ‘Chasing the Dark Encounters with the Supernatural’ by The Times journalist Ben Machell.
In it he shows, for example, that in the 1980s one scientist worked on a theory of ‘perceptual space’, which is supposedly a shared consciousness that we are all plugged into, but it sounds like the sort of rubbish druggies come out with when they are gouching out on the sofa.
Unfortunately fraudsters or conmen like this are everywhere in our world (knock three times for yes etc.), and the damage that is inflicted by them can be tremendous.
I remember presenting two consecutive programmes on ‘satanic child abuse’, with the thesis being how believing wrongly that there was a huge amount of it, had driven vulnerable people mad.
There WAS evidence of child abuse by people worshipping satan, and today Surrey Police (SP) warn: “Abuse linked to faith or belief is where concerns for a child’s welfare have been identified, and could be caused by, a belief in witchcraft, spirit or demonic possession, ritual or satanic abuse features; or when practices linked to faith or belief are harmful to a child.
“Any abuse that takes place against those who are branded (or labelled) either as a witch or as having been possessed by an evil spirit is unacceptable. Significant harm (including murder) can occur because of concerted efforts to ‘excise’ or ‘deliver’ evil from a child (or vulnerable adult).
“What to look out for
“Indicators of child abuse linked to faith or belief include the following:
- physical injuries, such as bruises or burns (including historical injuries/scaring)
- a child reporting that they are or have been accused of being ‘evil’, and/or that they are having the ‘devil beaten out of them’
- the child or family may use words such as ‘kindoki’, ‘djin’, ‘juju’ or ‘voodoo’ – all of which refer to spiritual beliefs
- a child becoming noticeably confused, withdrawn, disorientated or isolated and appearing alone amongst other children
- a child’s personal care deteriorating (eg rapid loss of weight, being hungry, turning up to school without food or lunch money, being unkempt with dirty clothes)
- it may be evident that the child’s parent or carer does not have a close bond with the child
- a child’s attendance at school or college becomes irregular or there is a deterioration in a child’s performance
- a child is taken out of a school altogether without another school place having been arranged
- Wearing unusual jewellery/items or in possession of strange ornaments/scripts.”
In the United States of America (USA) the fear is no less profound.
Several years ago the Department of Justice (DoJ) published a hard-hitting article about it, saying: “Satanism provides a fertile field for such underworld activities as child pornography, drug dealing, and sexual abuse.
“The author verifies stories of child abuse practices as part of Satanic cult rituals, arguing that secret cults practice ritual child sexual abuse, mutilation, and murder as criminal black arts.”
But believing it is widespread, and that only an army of Christian fundamentalist believers can confront it, may drive emotionally vulnerable people into taking up residence in a padded cell!
While not as bad as this, the effects of fraud in other areas can also be terrible – financial dealings.
For instance, I have been inundated with pleas for help by victims of one South Wales conman who was jailed for serious drug offences and exclusively exposed by The Eye, yet had become a special constable with the police.
Former convict Howard Williams now goes by the name of ‘James Johnson’, but one of our sources has pointed out that this is actually his FOURTH change of identity, because in the past he has also defrauded people using the names of ‘James Daniels’ as well as ‘Alfie Elkins’.
Several years ago, after Williams (this original name will be used) was jailed for his latest prison term, South Wales Police (SWP) proclaimed on Facebook (FB): “Two men behind multiple cannabis factories worth up to 600k have been put behind bars. Following an investigation carried out by the Mid Glamorgan Organised Crime Unit, six large-scale cannabis factories were linked to two men.…Ashley Carter, aged 35 from #Rhondda, and Howard Williams, aged 46 from #Cardiff, were sentenced at Merthyr Crown Court”.
Williams has admitted to being imprisoned, but described it in a FB post as a “short while”, when his convictions in fact total years. He claimed: “…when I was younger I did spend a short while in prison for fraud in the UK”.
Yet his prison terms did not amount to a ‘short while’. Apart from, over 10 years, spending more than four of them in jail convicted of 25 deception counts (even before his most recent conviction), he has been made bankrupt FOUR times – in 2002, 2010, 2015 and 2023.
Williams has announced on social media his engagement to a woman called Danni (or Danielle) Greer while he was still married to someone else.
During his ‘career’ as an ‘Estate Agent’, the anger of one individual was clear on a property website: “He (Williams) makes you pay circa £10k deposit and then disappears into the sunset”.
As a post like this shows, the trauma caused by this individual (as with the belief that satanic child abuse is extensive) is very real, but exposing it has NOT been easy.
I have been subjected to a torrent of abuse on social media from Williams and his supporters, following discoveries by journalists on my website The Eye.
My friends, wife and children, have been as well.
In one tirade he wrote to me on FB: “You write total lies about people (The Eye – we only report facts), bully to the point of harassment and suicide, and will not answer a direct email? This is not journalism this is a mixture of Phil Parry (The ex journalist) and (others) you are pure scum!!!!! Let it be publicly known that The Eye does NOT care about people it just lies to make fictitious stories up. BULLYING, LIES, MENTAL HEALTH ABUSE TO NAME BUT A FEW!!!!!”.
In another he said: “I am have contacted you (sic) numerous times before asking why you consistently, stalk, bully and harass me? … You so far have asked the following for comments:
Thief
Abuser (The Eye have never said Williams is an abuser).
Liar
Sex Offender (The Eye have never said Williams is a sex offender).
Drug user (The Eye have never said Williams is a drug user, just that he has dealt in illegal drugs).
Apart from insults like these, his ex-business partner, Sam McManus (also known as ‘Georgeson’), has first-hand knowledge of his lies. He has admitted he too was conned by him and that Williams was a ‘sick man’. Mr McManus explained how he was deceived along with everyone else, and told The Eye: “He (Williams) has fooled many people and I can only be grateful that there are good investigative journalists like you guys who expose greedy people like him. It is embarrassing to admit that I am yet another victim of his greed”.
So believing in absurd practices (or engaging in awful ones) can have appalling effects – and it is up to people like me to call them out…
The memories of Phil’s astonishing decades-long award-winning career in journalism (during which he has charted the criminal career of Welshman Williams from the beginning) as he was gripped by the rare disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
‘Chasing the Dark Encounters with the Supernatural’ by Ben Machill is published by Abacus.
Tomorrow – almost every day new worrying information emerges about the now-dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein (or his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell) hiring underage girls for well-known clients, but there has been little focus on how investigative journalism played a key role, when for Phil, this is a crucial factor.
