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Mr Farrant points to the spot where he allegedly saw a vampire in this newspaper photograph of his meeting with Bishop Seán Manchester.
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David Farrant claims that he first met Bishop Seán Manchester in “late 1967.” Bishop Manchester assures that he first met Mr Farrant in "early 1970." Mr Farrant conveniently slips all manner of unsubstantiated allegations into this three years discrepancy. For example, he has latterly claimed he was entertained with a screening of an 8mm horror movie made by and starring the bishop, and that the papier mache vampire he claims appeared in that movie is what also appears in photographs of the corporeal shell of the exorcised vampire in Bishop Manchester's published account The Highgate Vampire (Gothic Press, 1991) and in television programmes featuring images from that book. Bishop Seán Manchester strenuously denies this and invites anyone who saw such a movie as described by Mr Farrant to come forward and be identified. He states that no such movie was ever made; that Mr Farrant was not someone he would have considered entertaining in his home; and that, even when they did eventually become acquainted in early 1970, he only visited Mr Farrant at Tony Hill's coal bunker in Archway Road and later at Mr Farrant's bedsitting room in Muswell Hill Road, London.
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This is what David Farrant alleged in 2009: “I first met [Bishop Seán Manchester] in late 1967 in a pub called The Woodman in Highgate. I had brought Mary back from Spain to London in March 1967 after she had discovered that she was pregnant. We got married in a Roman Catholic Church in September 1967 and it was around this time that we used to frequent The Woodman pub just across the road from where we were living in Highgate. Mary had become friendly with a young mother nicknamed ‘Zibby’ who was married to a man named Tony [Hill] and sometimes the four of us would go into The Woodman and spend a few hours there. Now, at this time, a small trio jazz band used to play in the Saloon bar from a make-shift wooden platform at the back. There was somebody on drums, an electric guitarist and another individual [Seán Manchester] who played the saxophone.”
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So far there is no mention of them meeting by Mr Farrant. In his self-published “autobiography,” however, which first made its appearance in 2009, David Farrant claims: “I learned that he had an avid interest in ‘ghosts’ and the supernatural, although he was later to say that his ‘speciality’ was vampires. He suggested that we must all meet up again when he wasn’t playing, and have a chat about the subject.”
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This claim is contradicted by Mary Farrant who denies her husband's interest in the supernatural at this time, or indeed him knowing Bishop Seán Manchester in person, even if he heard Tony Hill mention him in conversation. Mary Farrant might eventually have become aware of the bishop from whatever Mr Hill told her when they spent six months living together. She met Bishop Manchester only once when Mr Hill and Mary Farrant called on Bishop Seán Manchester when they first "eloped." They wanted him to put them up for the night, but the bishop would not become involved and refused. Bishop Manchester was also acquainted with Mr Hill's wife, Elizabeth, and did not want to be compromised.
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David Farrant could have learned of Bishop Seán Manchester’s paranormal interests from Tony Hill with whom Mr Farrant was only superficially acquainted at the time due to Mr Hill’s increasing interest in Mr Farrant's wife who worked as a barmaid in the evenings at The Woodman; though Mr Hill would have known nothing about any case his old employer was involved in. Bishop Seán Manchester was neither acquainted with Mr Farrant or his wife, Mary, but knew Tony Hill from the time Mr Hill worked part-time in Bishop Manchester’s darkroom in the 1960s when the latter ran a photographic studio in Islington. Mr Hill was also employed in the mornings as a milkman in North West London.
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Tony Hill and Mary Farrant became an item and ran off together for six months. Bishop Seán Manchester did not personally know David Farrant, but was vaguely aware of having seen Mary Farrant work as a barmaid and met her just once she "eloped" with Mr Hill for six months. When Mr Hill returned to his wife and Mary returned briefly to her husband it was not long before David Farrant was declared bankrupt and became evicted from his flat. By which time Mary Farrant had left her husband with their two children and returned to her parents in Southampton. The next time Mr Farrant saw her was at the Old Bailey in June 1974 when she was called as a defence witness on his behalf. She confirmed under oath that her husband had no interest in ghosts, witchcraft or the occult, and that Mr Farrant's visits to Highgate Cemetery were for "a bit of a laugh and a joke and to look round." Court reports published in newspapers confirmed this.
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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. 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 Farrant at London's Old Bailey.
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"The first occasion was on Christmas Eve. ... The second sighting, a week later, was also brief. Last week, the figure appeared, only a few yards inside the gates. ... I have no knowledge in this field and I would be interested to hear if any other readers have seen anything of this nature."
If we roll forward some four decades and listen to an interview Mr Farrant gave on Nocturnal Frequency blogtalk radio in 2009 he claims to have had only one sighting. That, at least, is what he told Steve Genier when interviewed. He repeated the claim when he was soon afterwards interviewed by Andrew Gough on Arcadia. The reality is rather more prosaic. David Farrant had no sightings and merely boarded what he perceived to be a convenient publicity bandwagon.
Let us return to David Farrant's blog of 9 July 2009 because in it he continues when he allegedly met Bishop Seán Manchester in "early 1969" (having suddenly revised his "late 1967" claim from a week earlier):
"He [Seán Manchester] said that the ‘ghost’ I had been reported as witnessing at Highgate Cemetery might indeed be one such ‘real’ vampire!"
Yet David Farrant first "reported" his ghostly apparition in February 1970, not late 1969. And he did so to the Hampstead & Highgate Express. This was his overture in the press before which he had not reported anything to anyone. The casual observer is obliged to agree with the bishop. They first met in March 1970.
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Bishop Seán Manchester’s version of events is recorded in his introduction to The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook (Gothic Press, 1997): “It was whilst blowing a long jazz solo on the tenor saxophone in The Woodman, Highgate, where [Farrant’s] wife worked some evenings as a barmaid, that Farrant first caught sight of me in 1968. I would remain oblivious of him, however, until the beginning of the next decade. Who knows what went through his mind as he listened to my improvised harmonic structures, accompanied by a perspiring rhythm section, in that dimly lit venue for modern jazz aficionados? It was not his kind of music, but he mentioned it when I interviewed him in 1970.”
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On pages 62-63 of the same book, Bishop Manchester reveals: “His 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.”
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The Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970, (pictured at the top of the page), records the meeting of David Farrant and Bishop Seán 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 disovered 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 vampire theory was suggested last week by Mr Seán Manchester … Mr Farrant and Mr Manchester met in the cemetery at the weekend.”
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The Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970, (pictured at the top of the page), records the meeting of David Farrant and Bishop Seán 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 disovered 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 vampire theory was suggested last week by Mr Seán Manchester … Mr Farrant and Mr Manchester met in the cemetery at the weekend.”
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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 on 2 February 1970. Mr 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."
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View David Farrant's latter-day self-revelations in a French television interview he gave in 2008 here: <>.
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View David Farrant's latter-day self-revelations in a French television interview he gave in 2008 here: <>.
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Satanist Jean-Paul Bourre and David Farrant at Highgate Cemetery in 1980.
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. 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 Farrant at London's Old Bailey.
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Bishop Seán Manchester’s belief in predatory demonic entities known as vampires is David Farrant's excuse for branding him “Bishop Bonkers.” Mr Farrant even wears a T-shirt in public carrying the infantile slur emblazoned across it, and employs the term on his and other people's blogs. Hypocritical as this juvenile behaviour is, it masks something significantly more malevolent about David Farrant which, coupled with a history of deceit and degeneracy, leads Bishop Manchester and many others to reach the conclusion that David Farrant is most probably demonically possessed.
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.The Evening News, 29 September 1970, referred to the would-be "vampire hunter" as “Allan Farrant” in the above caption because he had given police the false name of “Allan Farrow” when arrested in Highgate Cemetery on the night of 17 August 1970. He was known locally as “Allan” among his acquaintances for reasons only understood by himself, but it was not his real name. Some newspapers reported him as being “Allan Farrow” while others adopted hybrids like the one above. Some, of course, managed to unearth his correct name, ie “David Farrant.” One or two bizarrely chose to publish his second name by referring to him as "Robert Farrant."
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David Farrant published on his personal blog, 2 July 2009: "I first met [Seán Manchester] in late 1967 in a pub called the Woodman in Highgate." On the same blog one week later, 9 July 2009, he claimed: "You asked how I first actually spoke to [Seán Manchester] ... I believe it was in early 1969." Such inconsistency and revisionism, pus the layering of one falsehood on top of another falsehood, reminds us of Mr Farrant's self-proclaimed sightings of the vampire phenomenon at Highgate Cemetery. His earliest published statement was in the form of a letter he wrote to the editor of the Hampstead & Highgate Express which appeared on 6 February 1970. In that published letter, Farrant claims to have witnessed "a grey figure" no less than three times:
"The first occasion was on Christmas Eve. ... The second sighting, a week later, was also brief. Last week, the figure appeared, only a few yards inside the gates. ... I have no knowledge in this field and I would be interested to hear if any other readers have seen anything of this nature."
If we roll forward some four decades and listen to an interview Mr Farrant gave on Nocturnal Frequency blogtalk radio in 2009 he claims to have had only one sighting. That, at least, is what he told Steve Genier when interviewed. He repeated the claim when he was soon afterwards interviewed by Andrew Gough on Arcadia. The reality is rather more prosaic. David Farrant had no sightings and merely boarded what he perceived to be a convenient publicity bandwagon.
Let us return to David Farrant's blog of 9 July 2009 because in it he continues when he allegedly met Bishop Seán Manchester in "early 1969" (having suddenly revised his "late 1967" claim from a week earlier):
"He [Seán Manchester] said that the ‘ghost’ I had been reported as witnessing at Highgate Cemetery might indeed be one such ‘real’ vampire!"
Yet David Farrant first "reported" his ghostly apparition in February 1970, not late 1969. And he did so to the Hampstead & Highgate Express. This was his overture in the press before which he had not reported anything to anyone. The casual observer is obliged to agree with the bishop. They first met in March 1970.
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