Friends of Bishop Seán Manchester: David Farrant

David Robert Donovan Farrant (born 23 January 1946) resides at the address in Muswell Hill Road, London, that was found for him when he was released on parole in July 1976 after serving a term of imprisonment for threatening people with black magic, malicious vandalism and tomb desecration at Highgate Cemetery. Bar a couple of weeks doing unskilled work when young, he has been in receipt of means-tested state benefits for nearly all of his life. Much of this existence has been spent waging vendettas against those he dislikes, which he achieves chiefly by manufacturing fraudulent stories (usually with himself at the centre) that help feed his compulsive attention-seeking and craving for publicity in all forms of media. Someone who did his dirty work on the internet for three years is Yorkshire-based Catherine Fearnley. Mr Farrant nowadays claims she was no more than his "secretary" from June 2004 to June 2007 when, in fact, she was very much his girlfriend, as well as someone who collaborated full-time in his hate campaign against a public figure Miss Fearnley has never met and Mr Farrant last briefly spoke to a quarter of a century ago.

David Farrant with Catherine Fearnley in 2004.

The person who was the target of their malicious attention, of course, was Bishop Seán Manchester who stands head and shoulders above everyone else when it comes to receiving abuse and harassment at the hands of Mr Farrant and company. Indeed, Mr Farrant has spent the last four decades disseminating gross defamation about the bishop; seeking to cause him maximum insult and injury. Family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances of Bishop Seán Manchester have not been immune from Mr Farrant’s venom, having received poisonous pamphlets through the post as well as some of them being maligned themselves in these hate tracts which often include infringed images stolen from books and websites. Mr Farrant’s life-long target for abuse is also the subject of his “Bishop Bonkers” T-shirt, as illustrated in the image at the foot of this blog. The infantile insult on Mr Farrant’s T-shirt is aimed specifically at the well known author and exorcist Bishop Seán Manchester who first met David Farrant in March 1970, but has had no contact with him since the mid-1980s when their last meeting took place following written threats made by Mr Farrant (see facsimile reproduction of written threat in From Satan To Christ, page 51).

Bishop Manchester’s adversary nowadays proclaims:

“I dare to say that ridiculous ‘fanged vampires’ simply do not exist! If there is any ‘feud’ at all, that is the main reason for it: simply because I have said publicly – and repeatedly – that such entities simply do not exist.”

Mr Farrant’s words appear on Andrew Gough’s Arcadia website where he was interviewed. Are they true? Not as far as Bishop Manchester is concerned. The bad blood between them, according to the bishop, was triggered in late 1970 when Mr Farrant made black magic telephone threats to someone known to him (but not to the bishop) who later committed suicide. Mr Farrant attempted to convince his victim and her husband that Bishop Manchester was the offender. The couple at first fell prey to Mr Farrant’s attempt to frame the bishop, but they were only persuaded temporarily. This nevetheless led to an assault on the bishop at the entrance to his north London offices, and a subsequent court case which Bishop Manchester won. It was during this case that the bishop learned about the black magic threats and realised he had been set up. David Farrant sat grinning inanely in the public gallery as it slowly dawned upon the bishop what had happened. This is where four decades of antipathy has its origin.

Bishop Seán Manchester revealed in his concise vampirological guide last century:

“[David Farrant's] alleged sightings of the vampire were to coincide with the time when he was ensconced in [Tony Hill’s] coal cellar. His wife was gone and so were the people who had helped him squander his money. His interest was not the occult at this time, but pub-crawling and the collecting of exotic birds; mostly cockatoos, parrots and macaws. This earned him the nickname ‘Birdman.’ Ironically, Hill had the nickname ‘Eggman.’ Relishing the attention he was now receiving, following his alleged sightings of a vampire, he took foolish risks and ended up being arrested in August 1970 for being in an enclosed area for an unlawful purpose. His ‘vampire hunting’ days were over.”

The Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970, records the first meeting of Mr Farrant and Bishop Manchester on its front page, under the banner headline “Why Do The Foxes Die?” The newspaper recounts:

“David Farrant … returned to the spot last weekend and discovered a dead fox. ‘Several other foxes have also been found dead in the cemetery,’ he said at his home in Priestwood Mansions, Archway Road, Highgate. ‘The odd thing is there was no outward sign of how they died. Much remains unexplained, but what I have recently learnt all points to the vampire theory being the most likely answer. Should this be so, I for one am prepared to pursue it, taking whatever means might be necessary so that we can all rest‘.”

The British Occult Society (1860-1988) was an investigation bureau which existed solely for the purpose of examining occult claims and alleged paranormal activity. It gave birth to the Vampire Research Society, which still survives, on 2 February 1970. David Farrant carried out his threat to “pursue [the vampire], taking whatever means might be necessary” and was arrested on the night of 17 August 1970. The Daily Express, 19 August 1970, reveals Farrant’s explanation:

“‘My intention was to search out the supernatural being and destroy it by plunging the stake [found in his possession when arrested in Highgate Cemetery by police] in its heart.’” The report continues: “David Farrant pleaded guilty at Clerkenwell, London, to entering St Michael’s churchyard, Highgate Cemetery, for an unlawful purpose. Farrant told police he had just moved to London when he heard people talking about the vampire in Highgate Cemetery. In a statement he said that he heard the vampire rises out of a grave and wanders about the cemetery on the look-out for human beings on whose blood it thrives. Police keeping watch for followers of a black magic cult arrested him. He was remanded in custody for reports.”

View David Farrant’s self-revelations by clicking on this video link.

The video begins with a French diabolist who befriended Mr Farrant in 1980. Together they concocted all manner of skullduggery for media consumption and their own self-aggrandisement. The shambling shell of David Farrant shuffles onto the screen some minutes into the video as he nervously speaks from outside the gates of Highgate Cemetery. Next is a scene at his Muswell Hill bedsitting room where viewers are shown photograph albums containing naked females he had duped into his malefic publicity stunts involving phoney witchcraft and pseudo-occultism. One of these wretched creatures is Martine de Sacy whose nude image in a mausoleum containing satanic symbols became vital evidence for the successful prosecution of Mr Farrant at London’s Old Bailey. This pathetic man appears oblivious to the implication of what he is displaying on screen and is clearly without any remorse. An arch-deceiver who always attempts to turns everything into something it is not, David Farrant might make an interesting case study for the psychiatrist in search of a project concerning narcissistic personality disorders, or a priest specialising in the examination of demonic possession brought about by compulsive dabbling in pseudo-occultism for publicity, but is otherwise tedious and boring.