A 38-year-old tattoo artist, accused of subjecting three young children to sexual and Satanic rituals, had told a police superintendent that he was possessed by demons, the Pretoria High Court heard on Monday.
The evidence by police occult expert Superintendent Rietta Everton formed part of the State’s case against Robin Malcolm Classen, who has denied guilt on 10 charges ranging from abduction and rape to indecent assault and assault.
Everton was asked to speak to the young brothers and their sister — at that stage all under the age of 12 — and had also accompanied them to the block of flats where they claimed to have been subjected to the occult rituals.
She also had an informal interview with Classen at the offices of the Pretoria Murder and Robbery Unit in July 2001. According to Everton, Classen showed her a tattoo of a rose, saying that it symbolised his love for his mother.
He also had a tattoo of words in the form of a poem on his one calf. When asked about it, he had said: ”I project the demons from my inner soul through my arms and fists towards my victims”.
When she asked him if he meant that he was possessed by demos, Classen said he was. He then explained that for him to be able to project demons from his inner soul, the demons had to be inside him.
He told her he projected the demons to his opponents, who were ”anyone on the other side of his fist”.
While Classen stared intently at her, Everton explained that people possessed by demons sometimes spoke in different voices and stared at others with enlarged pupils without seeing them. Demons could take many forms outside the body, although they were not flesh and blood. They were like fallen angels, she said.
Everton testified that ”priests” sometimes used demons during Satanic rituals as ”watchers” while they carried on with their rituals. Demons could also take possession of people without their knowledge and often took forms such as animals. Not everyone could see demons, but she had seen them, she said.
Everton said she had gooseflesh on meeting Classen and looking into his eyes. This usually happened to her when her spirit ”clashed with another spirit in the room”.
He had stared at her in a specific, manipulating way, she said. Looking at photographs of the many tattoos on Classen’s body, Everton said several of them, including tattoos of snakes, skulls and an upside-down cross, were definitely symbols related to the occult.
The children had told her about a tattoo on Classen’s private parts, but she could not identify the tattoo from the photograph.
Everton said it was clear to her that the children had been exposed to the occult. All of them, especially the seven-year-old girl, were able to make exact drawings of a pentagram and other occult symbols, including an upside down and a broken cross.
It was also clear that the children practiced astral projection, where their souls deliberately left their bodies although they were still alive.
Someone had to have shown them how, she added.
She had accompanied the children to the block of flats where they were allegedly abused, but could find no sign of the tunnels and rooms and the bodies of two young girls of which the children had told her, Everton testified.
The children’s mother earlier testified that her children feared Classen would kill them if he were released from jail. The Afrikaans-speaking mother told the court at length about the strange, inexplicable behaviour of her three children and the strange things that took place at her home.
This included her eldest son attacking his brother and sister with an axe while in a trance-like state, saying with a strange voice that the devil had told him to kill them. She also claimed the child could move objects by merely looking at them.
All three children had described strange satanic rituals to her. They said they were forced by a group of Satanists, including the accused who was the leader, to eat spiders and drink snake blood. They had also exchanged blood with their captors in a ”soul exchange”.
All three children claimed to have encountered demons, and even drew detailed pictures of the things they saw. They claimed ”the devil” sometimes moved with the accused and looked like the pale, dark-haired accused, only with red eyes, fangs and horns.
Her young daughter, who showed clear signs of sexual abuse, had told her the accused used to tie her to a pole before sexually abusing her. The child also made a drawing on her hand, which she said the group of Satanists used to draw on her before abusing her.
The mark became ”slimy” and they could not remove it for two days.
The trial continues. – Sapa