Boy ‘Haunted by Evil Spirit’ taken away from home.
A boy who was said to have started a £70,000 school blaze while he was possessed by an evil spirit was taken from his home by a court yesterday. The boy, who has gone through an exorcism ceremony to try to get rid of the spirit, was put in the care of the local authority. He had pleaded not guilty to starting the fire, which destroyed a science block at a secondary school in Braintree, Essex, because, he said, he was “possessed” at the time. At an earlier hearing Mr Peter Perrins, for the boy, told Braintree juvenile court that to be guilty of the offence he needed to have exercised free will.
The Rev. Christopher Neil-Smith, the vicar of St Saviours, Hampstead, who had been called in to perform an exorcism service on the boy, said he gave off evil vibrations after the ceremony. He said the boy had improved after the service.
The court was also told of poltergeist activities at the 13-year-old boy’s home, in which heavy furniture was hurled about.
At the resumed hearing yesterday, magistrates studied reports from psychiatrists before deciding to remove the boy from his home. Two other boys aged 11 and 13, who were said to have helped to start the blaze, were put on probation for three years.
Daily Mirror, 27th March 1971.