Satanic panic

Even at the time, the satanic abuse fever that gripped some social services departments in the late 1980s and early 1990s appeared other-worldly. The lurid claims of well-organised human sacrifices and ritualised abuse seemed at best improbable. A succession of inquiries confirmed that the heady atmosphere in which determined social services professionals pursued these allegations resembled 17th-century Salem more than late-20th-century Britain. Not a single conviction for satanic practices followed.

source: Article 'Satanic panic'; www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,542-1977 595,00.html; Times Online (The Times); 10 January 2006