How +quot;Satanist+quot; conman persuaded vicar to net him over 200,000 By Paul Vallely, T

                        How "Satanist" conman
                          persuaded vicar to
                         net him over 200,000
                                   
          By Paul Vallely, The Times Newspaper, April 1986.
                                   

Whether  Derry Mainwaring Knight was a Satanist or a conman, or  both, 
never  seemed  the  question at the centre of the  trial  which  ended 
yesterday at Maidstone Crown Court.

The real puzzle was always the seeming nonchalance with which a  group 
of  aristocrats  and wealthy country folk were prepared to  hand  over  
more than 200,000.

The first suggestion was that some masonic intrigue was involved.  The 
notion was prompted by an unprecedented statement by the judge  before 
the  trial  began,  in which he warned potential  jurors  that  anyone 
connected with Freemasonry would be excused service as the case  might 
prove embarrassing for them.

This  proved  to be a red herring. Masonry had links to  a  particular 
group of which it had been claimed Knight was a member but, faced with 
the expert testimony on the cult, he chose not to repeat the claim  in 
court.

But the true answer proved no less intriguing.

=================
An Atmosphere of
religious fervour
=================

The decisions to donate such large amounts were taken by the principle 
donors  in  an  atmosphere of religious fervour  in  which  they  felt 
themselves to be in receipt of direct messages from God in the form of 
pictures,  signs,  voices,  providential  coincidences  and  a  divine 
warning to distrust the senior investigating policeman as "a man  with 
five faces".

Into this crucible was thrown the final ingredient. In a circle  which 
already  included God, the Devil, a brace of viscounts, an  earl,  the 
wife of an MP and a former High Sheriff of East Sussex, it somehow did 
not  seem too fanciful to be told that the head of the  counter-church 
they  were  setting out to smash was Lord Whitelaw, the  deputy  Prime 
Minister.

Derry Mainwaring Knight was giving out religious leaflets door to door 
in the village of Newick, East Sussex, when he met the rector, the Rev 
John Baker.

WIthin  three months the ex-convict had told the rector the  story  of 
his  life,  beginning with his grandmothers involvement in  the  black 
arts  and ending shortly after he was "born again" when God  spoke  to 
him  as  he  sat on the roof of Hull Prison  during  a  demonstration. 
Knight had been serving a sentence for rape.

By  February  1984 Knight had moved into the rectory to  live  in  the 
attic.  By the following month Mr Baker had raised 24,925  from  local 
Christians  to pay off what Knight claimed were debts  to  unspecified 
moneylenders.

In  fact  a good deal of the money was ultimately spent  on  his  girl 
friend,  Angela Murdoch, and on entertaining girls including  Samantha 
Sprackling, a dancer, and Julie Tremain, a prostitute.

Within  48  hours Knight fell into a trance in which he  informed  the 
rector  that he had been dedicated to Lucifer at the age of eight  and 
that he held high office in a Satanist order based in Essex.

Within  six  weeks, by May 21, Mr Baker had raised a  further  18,900, 
which  he  paid  in cash to Knight, who said he  needed  it  to  repay 
Satanic debts as a prelude to leaving the order.

When  that  source showed signs of drying up, Knight made  the  sudden 
disclosure  that he was bound to Satanism by certain items of  regalia 
which  he  had to purchase and them destroy. Within three  months  the 
rector had handed over 12,435 more.

In  September  1984, Knight announced that further  artifacts  existed 
which  enabled  him to be controlled from afar  through  two  platinum 
discs inserted in his forehead by a Satanist surgeon.

By  October  22 Mr Baker had given Knight another 34,750  in  used  50 
notes.

By  November  the rector had begun a fifth series of  payments  for  a 
different set of regalia.

By  February 15, 1985 the rector had donated 98,500 in used 50 and  20 
notes.  By  May 10 a further 25,600 had changed hands to repay  a  new 
Satanic debt.

Mr  Baker  had  approached  wealthy  local  people  who  were   mostly 
sympathetic to his own evangelical approach to religion. One such  was 
Mrs Susan Sainsbury, the wife of Mr Timothy Sainsbury, Conservative MP 
or Hove, and  a millionaire member of the supermarket family. She  had 
been "born again" in 1975. Over a period she gave him 79,895.

Mr  Michael  Warren,  a farmer, magistrate and  former  High  Sheriff, 
another evangelical Christian gave 36,000. Lord Hampden, a  "committed 
Christian"  paid  39,250.  Mr Gorden Scutt,  a  company  director  and 
officer of a Christian trust, gave 25,000. Other donors included  Lord 
and Lady Brentford and Lord March.

It was then that Dr Eric Kemp, Bishop of Chichester, became concerned. 
He met Knight and asked a number of Anglican specialists in the occult 
and Satanism to intervene.

Most  of  the  experts were unconvinced.  Several  questioned  Knights 
sincerity.  Even  those who did not throw doubt  upon  Knights  claims 
expressed  disquiet  about whether the best way to save  someone  from 
Satan involved the payment of large amounts of 50 notes for  artefacts 
and regalia.

The  reservations  of the experts persuaded tow other members  of  the 
aristocracy, Lord and Lady Ingeby, not to make a donation.

But with the exception of Lord March, those who had by now contributed 
heavily  decided  to carry on. Towards the end of 1984 they  formed  a 
donors group.

The  Bishop  of Chichester asked the Rt Rev Mark  Green,  the  retired 
Bishop of Aston, to attend one meeting early in 1985 and report back.

Bishop  Green  clearly  found  the tone  unchanged,  and  if  anything 
heightened,  at the meeting to which two experts on exorcism had  been 
invited.

=================
Special Messages
Came from God
=================

At  the  next  meeting the rector produced a  detailed  reply  to  the 
arguments  of  the  exorcists.  His  wife,  Alison,  added  a  lengthy 
memorandum on why the operation should continue.

Bishop Green sent the documents to Dr Kemp who contacted the police.

On March 13, Knight was arrested and questioned for two days about the 
payments.  Soon  after he was released on bail he got  the  rector  to 
persuade Lord Hampden, to buy a 37,000 Rolls Royce for Knight's use to 
maintain his status in Satanist circles.

On May 23, shortly before a further 200,000 was to be handed over  for 
the  purchase  of a Satanic throne, Knight was arrested,  charge  with 
theft and remanded.

When court officials came to list the initial hearing before the local 
magistrates they had to send to London for a stipendiary. The chairman 
of the East Sussex Magistrates Association was Mr Michael Warren,  the 
former High Sheriff who had himself donated 36,000.