Hampstead hoax
The Hampstead hoax was a series of false allegations starting in 2014 that a Satan-worshipping paedophile ring of about "175 parents, teachers, and religious leaders" had been abusing children in the Hampstead area of north London. Police found no evidence of paedophilia, abuse, murder, or Satanism. The alleged abusers were nevertheless subjected to harassment, death threats, and online abuse that continued until at least 2022. It later emerged that the two children who had made the initial allegations had been threatened by adults into making them.
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