The Highgate Vampire

In his book The Highgate Vampire, Bishop Seán Manchester states that the vampiric source of the Highgate infestation first showed up shortly after the infamous vampire plague of the early 1700s, the same era as Arnold Paole and Peter Plogojowitz. He further states that an Eastern European nobleman rented Ashurst House in the early 18th century. This all seems to make sense, and it suggests that Tamás Orszag of Hungary is the most likely candidate for the identity of the Highgate Vampire. Many researchers are certainly aware of an escalation of sightings reported in Swains Lane during the Victorian era, but the contamination clearly goes further back by another hundred years.

The identity of the suspected nobleman is by no means certain, which is why no name is offered for this person in the bishop's book where speculation on such matters is avoided.
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A composite of the Highgate Vampire's appearance can be gleaned from various statements in the Vampire Research Society's archive and, of course, on public record in Bishop Seán Manchester's The Highgate Vampire (published by Gothic Press).*

Accounts provided by witnesses in the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 13 February 1970 & 20 February 1970, describe "a most unusual form [that] just seemed to glide across the path ... a pale figure ..."; "Many tales are told about a tall man who walks across Swains Lane and just disappears through a wall into the cemetery ..."; " ... a 'form' moving behind some gravestones ... the thing made no sound and seemed to disappear into nowhere ..."*

Jacqueline Beckwith, a teenager living in North Hill, awoke one night with something icy cold clutching her hand which soon went numb. The next morning revealed "deep tears in the flesh where she had forced [her hand] free."*

A ghost hunter by the name of Thomas told of "a dark shape [which] moved across the path directly in front of us." On an earlier occasion he had started to walk home with his fiancee down the lane running alongside and eventually between Highgate Cemetery. "Something was standing behind the iron railings of the gate ... upon its face was an expression of basilisk horror."*

Once again, "the thing behind the gate appeared to dissolve into the shadows of the night."*

Only when discovered in the putrid chamber of its tomb at Highgate Cemetery in August 1970 do we start to gain an idea of the full extent of the Highgate Vampire's horrific countenance. At its extirpation in the grounds of the neo-gothic derelict mansion in early 1974 the appearance is one of a heavy form, gorged and stinking with blood with eyes glazed and staring horribly, glinting with the red fire of perdition. This great leech possessed sallow, parchment-like skin beneath which a faint bluish tinge could be discerned; the colour of a three-day old corpse. It had black hair and eyebrows that were especially heavy and joined across the bridge of an aquiline nose. The mouth betrayed thin, cruel lips which drew back, almost in a snarl, to reveal sharp teeth where lodged congealed gouts of discolouring blood, the offal of the previous night's feast. Some witnesses describe a tall figure with a hideous countenance. All remark upon the eyes which burned like hot coals in a face so frightening it paralysed them in their tracks. There was also the unbearably fetid stench that accompanied this presence, rank with corruption and the stench of the charnel, which indicated an undead rather than an apparition. The last moments, some of which were captured by a 35mm camera, reveal the same "burning, fierce eyes beneath black furrowed brows staring with hellish reflection. Yellow at the edges with blood-red centres, unlike anything imaginable. Flared nostrils connected to a thin, high-bridged nose. The mouth still set in its cruel expression with lips drawn far back as if unable to contain the sharp, white teeth."*

*(The Highgate Vampire, pages 49, 54, 65, 66, 67, 68, 85, 86 & 142, Gothic Press edition)

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“A pyre was built in the centre of the large garden … We looked, but saw none of its awful contents before everything was consumed. At last it was hidden from our view ― its dark pestilence swallowed in the bright flames which leaped skyward while all beneath crackled and hissed. Several hours later all that remained was a great scorch-mark on the ground … We stood staring at the charred spot, not daring to believe it was finally over. I took a handful of grey dust from the blackened earth and scattered it to the four winds.” (The Highgate Vampire, Gothic Press, 1991, pages 144-145)

Scenes captured on panchromatic film by a camera at the time, alas, would not see the light of day in a definitive depiction of the same events for a film dramatisation by the production company whose directorate included the talented Aimee Stephenson. Bishop Seán Manchester's episcopal duties, plus Aimee Stephenson’s tragic death, dampened all desire to resurrect this ambitious project for a long period afterwards, despite numerous overtures being made. The book, however, is toady optioned for a major cinema production. Eventually Bishop Seán Manchester came to the decision not to be interviewed about the Highgate case unless it could be demonstrated it was in the public interest. The nightmare wherein the door between us and another world was almost ripped off its hinges is now a distant memory that, for him at least, must be laid to rest. "Next to the hunger to confront such a thing, there is no stronger hunger than to forget," he once wrote.
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Bishop Manchester initially wrote his book due to so many people contacting him to ask what really happened. Letters ran into hundreds, and this accumulated following the commission from Peter Underwood and his publisher, Leslie Frewin Books, to give an account of events up to and including the failed exorcism of August 1970. The bishop thought this might stem the flow, but the case itself was not yet solved, and reports of unsavoury incidents continued to filter into the columns of local newspapers. Hence the complete and unexpurgated account first published in 1985. A more intimate account was given in a special edition published by Gothic Press in 1991 where the rear fly on the dust jacket states: “[The author] recognises the immense public interest in the Highgate Vampire case which is why he has written the present volume as a final comment on what, in his own words, is ‘hopefully the last frenzied flutterings of a force so dight with fearful fascination that even legend could not contain it’.”
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It was not Bishop Seán Manchester's intention to try and convince anyone of the existence of the supernatural; yet still he receives messages asking him to do precisely that. Nor was it his wish to stimulate undue interest in these matters; though he accepts this has been an unintentional by-product. By writing a comprehensive recounting of those events surrounding the mystery, Bishop Manchester merely sought to provide a record of his unearthly experience for those who wanted to read about it.

In the wake of his book, and personal appearances where he discussed its contents, parasitical elements were not slow to engage in shameless exploitation of his work, while others decided to become what can only be described as fans. Sometimes self-styled fans became almost vampiric themselves. When denied their demands, they would behave badly, turning bitter and resentful. Thankfully such incidents have been few and far between. The majority of enthusiastic readers of Bishop Seán Manchester's work have shown immense sympathy and encouragement as reflected by the popularity of any forum where it is discussed.

Elizabeth Wojdyla

Elizabeth Wojdyla and Barbara Moriarty, two sixteen-year-old students of La Sainte Union Convent (near Highgate, London), were walking home late at night after visiting friends in Highgate Village. Their journey took them down Swains Lane which intersects Highgate Cemetery, a Victorian graveyard in two halves on a steep hill. These intelligent students could not believe their eyes as they passed the cemetery's north gate at the beginning of their downward path between the two graveyards. For there before them, amongst the jutting tombstones and stone vaults, the dead seemed to be emerging from their graves.

The two schoolgirls walked in eerie silence until they reached the bottom of the lane. Here they spoke for the first time, having finally found their voice, and confirmed they had both experienced the same terrifying scene. So frightening was it that Barbara Moriarty would not talk about it again.

Elizabeth Wojdyla, however, gave Bishop Seán Manchester an account of her experience some months later. It was tape-recorded by him and was heard during a televised film documentary about the Highgate Vampire case (True Horror: Vampires).

Elizabeth recounted: "We both saw this scene of graves directly in front of us. And the graves were opening up; and the people were rising. We were not conscious of walking down the lane. We were only conscious of this graveyard scene."

A series of nightmares then began to plague Elizabeth; all with one thing in common: something was trying to enter her bedroom window at night. A deathly-pale face identical to the corpses leaving their graves appeared behind the glass pane on some occasions.

During the summer of 1969, Bishop Seán Manchester had a chance meeting with Elizabeth Wojdyla who now appeared anaemic and listless. She was nevertheless anxious to get something off her chest. Now resident in an area not too far from the cemetery, she told Bishop Manchester that her nightmares had returned with a vengeance. This time she was able to give a better description of the unwelcome spectre that haunted her nights, and, once again, the bishop tape-recorded her words:

"[It has] the face of a wild animal with glaring eyes and sharp teeth, but it is a man with the expression of an animal. The face is gaunt and grey."

Two weeks later, Elizabeth's boyfriend, Keith Maclean, contacted Bishop Seán Manchester and reported on further deterioration:

"[Her] condition has grown worse. ... She is withering away at such a rate that she is only just barely alive. ... She is being overcome by something."

This time Bishop Manchester noted the discovery on Elizabeth's neck marks which her boyfriend had already mentioned in his preamble:

"I noticed for the first time the marks on the side of her neck. ... They were two inflamed mounds on the skin, the centre of each bearing a tiny hole."

On another occasion it was found that specks of blood had appeared on Elizabeth's pillow. Bishop Seán Manchester at this point began to apply traditional vampire antidotes and repellents; especially when it was confirmed that she was more and more attracted to Highgate Cemetery and that her anaemic condition was worsening. The small cross she had always worn as a schoolgirl had been absent for some time. Bishop Manchester provided a larger crucifix made of silver and sprinkled her environment liberally with holy water. He repeated the Creed in a loud voice, applied salt, garlic and more crosses; during which procedure prayers were recited to shield Elizabeth from the innumerable crafts of Satan and all pestilence.

Elizabeth attempted to remove the impediments and further demonic assaults occurred as nightmare incidents multiplied before this feverish struggle against the predatory vampire ceased altogether.

Her appetite restored and the unhealthy, anaemic condition vanished. The punctures on her neck, bathed with holy water throughout the conflict, eventually faded. By Christmas all was well and the hideous manifestation of the Highgate Cemetery vampire did not return to haunt Elizabeth Wojdyla again. Soon afterwards she relocated elsewhere.

Comprehensive coverage of Elizabeth Wojdyla's account can be found in the following books and DVD:

The Vampire's Bedside Companion (1975, 1976)

The Highgate Vampire (1985, 1991)

True Horror: Vampires (Discovery Channel, 2004)

What Really Happened?

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“Ever since I became aware that Highgate Cemetery was the reputed haunt of a vampire, the investigations and activities of Seán Manchester commanded my attention. I became convinced that, more than anyone else, the president of the Vampire Research Society knew the full story of the Highgate Vampire which is probably the most remarkable contemporary account of vampiric activity and infestation ― and cure. Can such things as vampires really exist? The evidence seems to be overwhelming and the author [of The Highgate Vampire] is to be congratulated on his knowledgeable and lucid account of the case which is likely to become one of the classic works on this interesting and mystifying subject.”

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― Peter Underwood, paranormal researcher and author of over fifty non-fiction books about the supernatural.

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In 1990, Peter Underwood retold the events of the Highgate Vampire case (up to the discovery of the suspect tomb at Highgate Cemetery in August 1970) in his book Exorcism! (1990). He commented in chapter six:

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“The Hon Ralph Shirley told me in the 1940s that he had studied the subject in some depth, sifted through the evidence and concluded that vampirism was by no means as dead as many people supposed; more likely, he thought, the facts were concealed. … My old friend Montague Summers has, to his own satisfaction, at least, traced back ‘the dark tradition of the vampire’ until it is ‘lost amid the ages of a dateless antiquity’.”

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An encounter is alleged by Brian as early as July 1965. Brian claims the following:
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"At the time I was residing in Islington, and I'd been invited along to a student party. I was dubious as to whether to attend or not as I was worried how the hosts' several cats would react to my dog, an aged Lurcher, but assured that this presented no problem - if needs be the cats could be locked away - and lured by the promise that a girl I was set on would be putting in an appearance, I decided to give it a try. I parked my car at The Flask public house at around 8 o'clock and set off along Swains Lane with my dog. It was a beautiful, warm summer's evening, but as we proceeded along the cemetery's outer wall, I became uncomfortably aware of a curious silence. All the birds had suddenly stopped singing. The silence ... the only way I could describe it is that it was rather like being enveloped in a large woolly blanket. This should have given me some apprehension, but my mind was on the girl at the party and I just disregarded it. I was ten yards from the North Gate when I happened to look across at it. What I saw was what appeared to be black treacle flowing down and running over the wall. It touched ground and actually flowed like a big black pool of liquid into the centre of the path about six feet before me. There was an icy coldness which grew more intense with the passing seconds, literally an Arctic cold. The hairs on my neck, for the first time in my life, actually stood on end. With dusk falling full on the perimeter wall, the path was in shadow, but there was a shadow discernible within that shadow. I thought 'What am I watching ? What the f**k is this ?'. The most horrible part was - and I still have nightmares about it, still wake up in a cold sweat - it reared up. I'd estimate its height at between seven or eight feet. I'm five feet eight inches tall and it towered over me. It was enormous! It was neither solid nor transparent. My overall impression was that it was a black figure wearing dark garments which flowed and stirred in the wind - but there was no wind. The edges of what it was wearing were moving. No face. Where eyes would have been if it were human, there were just two red pits, red glows, and I was very conscious that it was looking at me. At that point I realised that I was up against an entity that was both powerful and malignant. It was radiating evil, that's the only way I could describe it. This wasn't a ghost, this was an entity. There was nothing remotely human about it. It simply was not human. As an ex-Army Officer I'd come up against life threatening situations, but faced with that thing the fear was worse than anything you could imagine. I tried to do a banishing pentagram, tried to pronounce a Latin incantation to repel evil. I could do neither. I couldn't move. My limbs were like lead. My dog was a placid old thing. It never growled as a rule, but it did on that occasion and it was ... indescribable. The growl of a wolf. But it had no effect on the entity whatsoever. The next thing I can recall, I found myself up against the wall at the top of Swains Lane. The dog had beaten me there. Its fur was actually standing on end. I've no recollection of running, but I must've done. I made my way to The Flask. The first thing the landlord said as I entered was 'No dogs'. I really needed that. I tied the poor dog up, had a couple of brandies, but I was still shaking. Eventually, I called my friend on the pub phone and asked him to pick me up. I wasn't in much of a party mood by then. I think what should be emphasised is the incredible speed with which events took place. The appearance of the entity was very swift and from the time I first saw 'the treacle' to the time it was in front of me could only have been seconds ... although it seemed longer at the time. I am unable to canvass my dogs views on the subject as it returned to 'The great kennel in the sky' a few weeks after the incident. Whether this was coincidence or not I feel is conjectural. But it did become ill a couple of days after the incident, and died not much later. From old age, according to the vet. The dog was eight years old! And the girl ? She called around to ask why I hadn't attended. Not wishing to ruin my street-cred with her I told her I 'wasn't well'."

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In his anthology, The Vampire's Bedside Companion (1975), which contains a chapter with photographic evidence from the Vampire Research Society, written and contributed by Bishop Seán Manchester, Peter Underwood wrote:

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“Alleged sightings of a vampire-like creature ― a grey spectre ― lurking among the graves and tombstones have resulted in many vampire hunts. … In 1968, I heard first-hand evidence of such a sighting and my informant maintained that he and his companion had secreted themselves in one of the vaults and watched a dark figure flit among the catacombs and disappear into a huge vault from which the vampire … did not reappear. Subsequent search revealed no trace inside the vault but I was told that a trail of drops of blood stopped at an area of massive coffins which could have hidden a dozen vampires.”

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In the previous year, two schoolgirls had reported seeing the spectre rise from its tomb. Two seemingly unconnected incidents occurred within weeks of one another in early 1967. The first involved two sixteen-year-old convent girls who were walking home at night after having visited friends in Highgate Village. Their return journey took them down Swains Lane past the cemetery. They could not believe their eyes as they passed the graveyard’s north gate at the top of the lane, for in front of them bodies appeared to be emerging from their tombs. One of these schoolgirls later suffered nightly visitations and blood loss. The second incident, some weeks later, involved an engaged couple who were walking down the same lane. Suddenly the female shrieked as she glimpsed something hideous hovering behind the gate’s iron railings. Then her fiancé saw it. They both stood frozen to the ground as the spectre held them in thrall. Its face bore an expression of basilisk horror. Soon others sighted the same phenomenon as it hovered along the path behind the gate where gravestones are visible either side until consumed in darkness. Before long people were talking in hushed tones about the rumoured haunting in local pubs. Some who actually witnessed the spectral figure wrote to their local newspaper to share their experience. Discovery was made of animal carcasses drained of blood. They had been so exsanguinated that a forensic sample could not be found. It was only a matter of time before a person was found in the cemetery in a pool of blood. This victim died of wounds to the throat. The police made every attempt to cover-up the vampiristic nature of the death.

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Bishop Seán Manchester informed the public on 27 February 1970 that the cause was most probably a vampire (predatory demonic wraith). He appeared on television on 13 March 1970 and repeated his theory. The Vampire Research Society, whose specialist unit within a larger investigatory organisation (the British Occult Society which formally dissolved on 8 August 1988) had opened the case twelve months earlier, established a history of similar hauntings that went back to a time before the graveyard existed. A suspected tomb was located and a spoken exorcism performed. This proved to be ineffective. The hauntings and animal deaths continued. Indeed, they multiplied. By now all sorts of people were jumping on the vampire bandwagon, including film-makers and rock musicians. Most were frightened off. Some who interloped became fascinated by the black arts with disastrous consequences. Meanwhile, serious researchers considered the possibility that the area might be under vampiric attack from a contagion which might spread if it had not already done so. Yet there seemed to be one principal source which the media had already dubbed from the onset as a “King Vampire of the Undead.”

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Bishop Seán Manchester led the thirteen year investigation from beginning to end. There was seemingly more than one vampire for him and his research society to confront. In early 1974, however, he tracked the principal source of the contamination, which had already become universally known as the Highgate Vampire, to a neo-Gothic mansion on the Highgate borders. Here he employed the only known efficacious remedy. No vampiric spectre has been sighted in or near Highgate Cemetery and its environs since that time, and there have been no more reports of nightly visitations associated with the area and its legendary vampire. Photographs of the exorcised remains of the principal source appear on page 144 of the bishop's bestselling book The Highgate Vampire.
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Holding To The Truth

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The Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970, carried this front page report under its headline "Why do the foxes die?":

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“Mr David Farrant, 24, who reported seeing a ghost last month, 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 as 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'."

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But nowadays the same man says:

"Just to be factual, as far as this is possible; I do not - and never have - accepted the existence of 'vampires'." - David Farrant (9 May 2007 @ 04.59pm) #482 James Randi Educational Foundation Forum

Two years earlier, however, in an interview given to journalist Marc Mullen in a vain attempt to raise his public profile, Mr Farrant fraudulently claimed that the "vampire was active again," as recorded in the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 2 September 2005.

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 David Farrant in 1970 with a small sample of press cuttings.

"I do NOT believe [in] vampires. I cannot say it more clearly than that." - David Farrant (31 July 2007 @ 07:05am) #934 James Randi Educational Forum

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On the 15 July 2008 at 6.14am, Mr Farrant published on his personal blog his most hypocritical statement to date:

"Never lie, is really my motto. Just hold to the truth, and you can never really go far wrong!"
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In 1998, Dave Milner created a video with David Farrant's collaboration titled In Search of the Highgate Vampire, which largely comprises Mr Farrant seated in his bedsitting room pontificating about the haunting at Highgate Cemetery interpolated with occasional glimpses of the graveyard itself. Pictures stolen from Bishop Seán Manchester's The Highgate Vampire appear in violation of copyright law toward the video's conclusion. David Farrant ends his commentary on the video with this statement:

“As to the question of whether a vampire still exists at Highgate Cemetery, well, I can only say yes it does.”

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Mr Farrant's "vampire hunting" was never anything more than a publicity stunt. He was quickly recognised as a compulsive publicity-seeker by most who met him. This suited journalists who found in him a free meal ticket. When he appeared at Clerkenwell Court in August 1970 where he was charged with being in an enclosed area for an unlawful purpose the magistrate had to acquit Mr Farrant of that charge because it was obvious to all present, not least defending solictor Mr Jeffrey Bayes, that Highgate Cemetery cannot be described as "an enclosed area." This technicality secured Mr Farrant's release in 1970. He would not be so fortunate four years later when he was convicted of rather more serious offences relating to Highgate Cemetery. We should nevertheless remind ourselves of what the magistrate, Mr J D Purcell, said when Mr Farrant first appeared before him whilst on remand at Brixton Prison: "You should be seen by a doctor."

The interview he gave the BBC 24 Hours television team, which was transmitted on 15 October 1970, was solely because of what happened on the night of 17 August 1970 when police discovered him prowling about in Highgate Cemetery with a crudely made cross and a stake. The police had been anonymously tipped off by one of Mr Farrant's collaborators in order to guarantee maximum publicity in the media, as later confirmed by David Farrant's collaborator Anthony Hill. Without an arrest Mr Farrant would barely make a small paragraph on the back page of his local newspaper. The arrest assured national coverage and a television interview. This is exactly what he sought and it is why he orchestrated his own arrest.

What Mr Farrant reconstructed for BBC television's 24 Hours showed him going through the actions of "stalking a vampire," as occurred at the time of his co-ordinated arrest. This footage was in relation to why he was arrested and comprised of nothing else. This particular edition of 24 Hours was titled Vampires and when asked about his "vampire hunting" David Farrant did not say, "I don't believe in vampires." Far from it. He went along with the notion he had given to all and sundry that he was in the graveyard to try and impale the Highgate Vampire should he ever encounter it.

On the day after the BBC transmission, Mr Farrant appeared in a newspaper that included photographs of him allegedly stalking a vampire with his cross and stake late at night in Highgate Cemetery. Barrie Simmons, the newspaper's journalist, joined Mr Farrant, as recorded in the London Evening News, 16 October 1970:

"I joined a macabre hunt among the desecrated graves and tombs for the vampire of Highgate Cemetery. ... David Farrant, 24, was all set, kitted out with all the gear required by any self-respecting vampire hunter. Clutched under his arm, in a Sainsbury's carrier bag, he held the tools of his trade. There was a cross made out of two bits of wood tied together with a shoelace and a stake to plunge through the heart of the beast. Vampire hunting is a great art. There is no point in just standing around waiting for the monster to appear. It must be stalked. So we stalked. Cross in one hand to ward off the evil spirits, stake in the other, held at the ready. Farrant stalked among the vaults, past the graves, in the bushes and by the walls. When we had finished he started stalking all over again."
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Steve Genier

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Steve Genier of the Southern Ontario Paranormal Society.

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Self-proclaimed agnostic Steve Genier of Burlington, Ontario, Canada, describes himself as the founder of the Southern Ontario Paranormal Society and producer of Nocturnal Frequency Radio. He used to post on the internet from 1998 as "zombiman69" and also "zombi69." As well as being self-styled "leader" of SOPS, which he founded in October 2005, he is also a big fan of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. For reasons not yet entirely apparent, Mr Genier has become an apologist for David Farrant whom he first interviewed on 4 April 2009 for his blogtalk radio. The interview turned out to be nothing more than a platform for Mr Farrant to spread his familiar venom. The entire exercise quickly became open season for defaming Bishop Seán Manchester. This reveals more about Mr Genier than it does about Mr Farrant whose false and libellous allegations most have heard one hundred times before.

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David Farrant

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Much nonsense is claimed about the Highgate Vampire case on the internet by those who copy and paste manufactured twaddle from elsewhere. Steve Genier's interview with David Farrant is a prime example of someone who poorly researches their guests and, even when presented with evidence from the public archives prior to inteviewing Mr Farrant, ignores the facts in order to stick with an agenda of propagating falsehood against the author and exorcist Bishop Manchester. The agenda soon becomes apparent as it is realised that Steve Genier shares David Farrant's distaste for Christianity and is openly sympathetic to witchcraft. 

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Mr Genier joined in Mr Farrant's abuse and repeated it over and again. It was Mr Genier who insisted on identifying by name who it was they were both attacking. His purpose soon became apparent as he likened the author of The Highgate Vampire to something out of the Middle Ages. Mr Genier is not fond of Christians at the best of times, and frequently complimented Mr Farrant for being a wiccan. But David Farrant is not a wiccan and never has been a wiccan. Even wiccans give Mr Farrant the cold shoulder and want nothing to do with him. And who can blame them? David Farrant believes in nothing, as he confirmed on the James Randi Forum, 12 April 2007. Nothing, that is, besides his self-serving attention-seeking and malicious vendettas.

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David Farrant is a charlatan who clearly does not believe in the things he claims publicly. No intelligent person would take him seriously. He is a transparent bandwagoneer and a fraudster whose manufactured lies will not stand up to close scrutiny and examination. We doubt anyone could meet a more disingenuous and deceitful person; utterly void of sincerity; totally consumed by his hatred for Bishop Seán Manchester and anyone sympathetic to the bishop. Why Steve Genier would take any notice of this non-entity who will do just about anything to feed his insatiable appetite for publicity is puzzling at first glance. Perhaps closer examination of Mr Genier might help explain his own willingness to provide someone like this with a platform?

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Steve Genier stooped to defaming Bishop Seán Manchester throughout the interview which concentrated on discussing the author of The Highgate Vampire and not David Farrant whose criminal convictions in connection with Highgate Cemetery were given a very wide berth by Mr Genier. Nothing Mr Farrant said about Bishop Manchester during the interview is accurate or true. Yet Mr Genier accepted the word of the compulsive liar and convicted felon and, moreover, repeated David Farrant's malicious propaganda. Steve Genier sought no evidence for the falsehood he publicised on Nocturnal Frequency Radio because no evidence for any of Mr Farrant's lies exists.

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For example, Bishop Seán Manchester made no "vampire film" in the 1960s as claimed by Mr Farrant whom, incidentally, he met in 1970, not 1967 as alleged by Mr Farrant during the interview. Their meeting, in fact, was recorded by the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970, on its front page. Mr Farrant even told the then editor of the newspaper for that front page story that he had recently met Bishop Manchester for the first time. The retired editor of the Hampstead & Highgate Express remembers the meeting in his office where David Farrant made this statement.

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He also falsely alleged that Bishop Manchester stated on television on 13 March 1970 that Mr Farrant was intended hunting the vampire at Highgate Cemetery on that very same night. It was David Farrant's published intention to take it upon himself to pursue the vampire and Bishop Manchester warned against this plan, but no mention was made of when this would happen. Mr Farrant had suggested he would do so in the same edition of the aforementioned newspaper and, indeed, he did hunt the vampire on the night of 17 August 1970, which was a thwarted attempt that led to him being arrested by police in Highgate Cemetery and appearing before Clerkenwell Court. When interviewed by the BBC about his arrest in the following October, Mr Farrant reconstructed his "vampire hunt" - complete with cross and stake - for the cameras. Recordings of both these programmes are available to those who want to hear the facts for themselves. The Highgate Vampire CD contains these interviews from 1970. It can be obtained from Gothic Press.

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So utterly boring and lacking in charisma is David Farrant that he found himself obliged to read passages from Bishop Seán Manchester's The Highgate Vampire to keep things vaguely interesting. These pathetic, stammered attempts were risible! Mr Farrant, of course, read nothing from his own self-published pamphlets because there is nothing in them worth repeating! Moreover, they totally contradict what exists on public record four decades ago.

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David Farrant

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Most revealing about Steve Genier's interview with David Farrant is that much of it was spent discussing Bishop Seán Manchester who, needless to say, was not present to defend himself. The Canadian "paranormal researcher," as he likes others to see him, was particularly eager to identify the bishop by name and no less keen to libel him whilst fawning over Mr Farrant who could barely string a comprehensible sentence together.

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Incredibly, Genier asked absolutely no questions about Mr Farrant's criminal convictions relating to Highgate Cemetery. Nor anything about Mr Farrant's other crimes. One is bound to ask why? After all, having been found guilty of indecency in a churchyard in November 1972, David Farrant, in June 1974, was found guilty of malicious vandalism and tomb desecration at Highgate Cemetery, as well as being found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice by sending black magic threats to police witnesses. These threats comprised voodoo dolls impaled with pins. There were other crimes relating to theft and firearms. Mr Farrant received a prison sentence of four years and eight months at London's Old Bailey's central criminal court.

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Steve Genier was far more interested in hearing David Farrant libel Bishop Seán Manchester.

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It is quite obvious that Mr Genier has fallen for Mr Farrant's propaganda hook, line and sinker. He declared what an "honour" it was to be able to speak to the ex-convict and proceeded to attack Bishop Seán Manchester, calling him a "bogus bishop" and repeating David Farrant's completely unsubstantiated allegations. That Bishop Manchester is a properly consecrated member of the episcopate is not questioned by priests and bishops; so why by Steve Genier? Moreover, Bishop Seán Manchester's ecclesial standing has been tested before his peers and a panel headed by the Anglican Bishop Richard Holloway who found in favour of Bishop Manchester when the matter was adjudicated following an unfortunate slight by an amateur radio station who immediately afterwards apologised and stated that it was not their intention to cast any doubt about the validity of the bishop's holy orders and episcopal consecration.

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There is no likelihood of Steve Genier ever doing the same, but, at least, those involved in the paranormal now have his number. How can such a man be trusted by other researchers?

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On 1 June 2009, Steve Genier invited David Farrant back onto his blogtalk radio for yet another interview. Lo and behold, Mr Farrant repeated verbatim down the telephone what he had mumbled in his previous interview. Yet again Mr Farrant read at length from Bishop Seán Manchester's The Highgate Vampire; and the passages were exactly the same ones he had stammered and stumbled over back in April. Perhaps he should give up trying to read other people's works and stick to reading from his own self-published pamphlets? At least, the words in his efforts are kindergarten; and so is the spelling and grammar! This was once again an admission that he has nothing interesting of his own to share and is entirely dependent on Bishop Manchester to attract an audience. Yet further interviews with David Farrant followed on Nocturnal Frequency Radio, all with the same format and agenda.

More interviews were to follow which merely duplicated everything that had gone before. It is almost hilarious to witness Mr Genier being in awe of someone like Mr Farrant who cannot string a sentence together in comprehensible English most of the time, and when he does he only ends up contradicting himself over and over again. On 1 May 2011, yet another interview with David Farrant took place where listeners (it's hard to believe there are any) were subjected to more of the same. This time the two anti-Christians were briefly joined by Richard Syrett who had interviewed the bishop for his television programme The Conspiracy Show back in February 2011. It aired exactly one month before the pre-recorded interview with Steve Genier was transmitted. Mr Syrett, a Greek Orthodox Christian, obviously felt uncomfortable and soon made his excuses to quit the interview in mid-flow. He wrote to Bishop Manchester:

"I was asked onto this internet radio show to promote my TV show and relate my experience of travelling to the UK and meeting you. I was not told Farrant was going to be on with me, or at the very least, it was not my understanding he would be on with me. I was cordial with him and yes I told him I regretted not being able to meet him whilst over there. But I gave you my word he would not be interviewed for my show and I meant it. For me the Highgate case is closed and I have no intention of ever interviewing Farrant. It was an awkward situation being thrown on air with him. I tried to handle it as best I could."

The interview with Mr Farrant about Bishop Manchester and the Highgate Vampire case took all of thirty-three minutes of exceptionally tedious banter between the host and his assistant (about nothing remotely supernatural) to begin.

One hour and thirty-nine minutes into the interview, David Farrant claimed to Steve Genier that Bishop Seán Manchester is banned from entering Highgate Cemetery while also claiming that he himself is not banned. Yet Mr Farrant also admitted that he had to hide within a group of other people so as not to be discovered when he took a booked tour at the cemetery in 2006. Mr Farrant obviously feels that he is banned, whether he is or not, otherwise why act so deviously and hide away from the tour guide and FoHC officials?.

"I am certainly not banned as Mr [sic] Manchester has been," said David Farrant while speaking to Steve Genier, one hour and thirty-nine minutes into the interview on Nocturnal Frequency Radio.

For the record, Bishop Manchester is not banned from Highgate Cemetery, and never has been. He was a personal friend of the previous chairwoman of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery and FoHC still send him their publications. He has visted the cemetery many times over the last four decades and is always received warmly by those in charge.

Mr Farrant, with Mr Genier's encouragement, had earlier claimed he had been in touch with the Dutch Old Catholic Church, the American Old Catholic Church [sic] (there are any number of autocephalous Old Catholic Churches in the USA) and the Vatican, all of whom he alleged knew nothing of Bishop Manchester. The Dutch Old Catholic Church ceased to be Catholic some time back, and is now Protestant. It is also in favour of women priests and allows same sex unions for which it performs "marriages." Bishop Manchester would be horrified to be associated wih them, and regards them as heretical in the extreme. The Old Catholic Churches in America have befriended Bishop Manchester, as evinced on his Facebook pages, but, again, they are for the most part far too liberal for the bishop whose jurisdiction only extends within the confines of the British Isles.

Whoever is approached at the Vatican, or England's Westminster Cathedral, with all the facts regarding Bishop Manchester's lines of apostolic succession and episcopal consecration on 4 October 1991 will confirm that he is a valid, albeit irregular, bishop ("irregular" only because he does not come under papal universal jurisidiction, nor would want to). It is a valid line (or lines) of apostolic succession which determines whether someone is a bishop or not, and Bishop Illtyd Thomas, Bishop Michael Weston and Bishop James Henry Vermeulen episcopally consecrated Reverend Seán Manchester at which point he inherited many lines of apostolic succession and became a bishop. On 1 July 1993, Bishop Seán Manchester was enthroned amid Glastonbury Abbey's ruins as Bishop of Glastonbury. On 20 February 2002, he became Presiding Bishop for the Traditional Old Catholic Church in Great Britain.

Many have observed that if you extract the bishop from any interview David Farrant gives, the latter is left with nothing original to say; if you extract the bishop from anything Mr Farrant has self-published, David Farrant is left with nothing to write about; and if you extract Bishop Seán Manchester from Mr Farrant's life, the interloping charlatan would go completely unnoticed. It is only by exploiting the name of his arch-nemesis and riding on his coat-tails that David Farrant can raise the slightest interest or attract attention to himself. And so it has been for over four decades. 

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Black Magic, Curses And Demons

John Pope meets and has a drink with David Farrant in 1973.
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David Robert Donovan Farrant was born on 23 January 1946 at 34 Shepherds Hill in London. He claims 1964 as the year of his wiccan initiation, but in interviews given throughout the 1970s and 1980s he told reporters he had been initiated into witchcraft by his mother at a much younger age. The age thirteen was sometimes offered which is the age he would have been in 1959, the year of his mother’s death.

Mr Farrant tells us he attended Preparatory School in 1955 where he did not make friends:

“After only a few days, I realised that I’d entered an altogether hostile environment; within weeks, I’d come to hate everything about the place - including most of the teachers. Most of these were ‘mindless buffoons’ trying desperately (if not largely successfully) to impound worthless drivel otherwise viewed as ‘needed intellectualism’; but the headmaster was particularly bent on applying these principles, and before long we clashed ferociously. He seemed to take exception to the fact that I couldn’t get on with the other boys, as well as my persistent inability to take any serious interest in the lessons. … he eventually wrote an outraged letter to my father (I cannot recall the exact point of contention) demanding the removal of my ‘bad influence’ from his school. I’d finally manoeuvred myself from his clutches.”

No reason is provided as to why David Farrant hated everything, including teachers and pupils, about this school which was in Hendon, something he omits, apart from his obvious contempt for everything and everyone he encountered. The boarding school in Sussex was Hawkhurst Court, which he also fails to identify. Here he fared no better than before, having to “study meaningless rubbish” and “mix with brain-washed children.” He readily admits: “I ran away twice from my ‘prison’ in Sussex and was expelled again from another school.” This last school, too, remains unidentified by him. It was Thornlow in Weymouth, Dorset. One is obliged to turn to a book by Bishop Seán Manchester to discover these facts where it is revealed that “his school career ended two years after entering a private school in Weymouth at the age of thirteen. Attempts to belong to a theatre club in Hornsey ended again with his expulsion.”[1] Mr Farrant makes no mention of the Mountview Theatre Club he joined at the age of fifteen whose director, Peter Coxhead, expelled him within no time for throwing potatoes and dustbin lids at other students.

The telling piece of information in Dark Secrets on that “bleak March day in 1959” in mid-term - while he was still at boarding school - was news of his mother’s illness. Mr Farrant reveals how his “emotions [were] lost in a sea of indifference.” What he fails to properly explain is how he had learned witchcraft from his mother and possibly been initiated by her. After reading only ten pages, starting with chapter one, the reader is already into chapter three which begins in 1963 where in “a large secluded house in Barnet” he tries to convince the reader of his initiation “in the Old Religion of Wicca” by a silver-haired lady who was in her late forties. This was Helen who owned the Barnet house. There is no doubt that Helen existed. John Pope knew her long before he knew Mr Farrant. Whether Helen initiated David Farrant after months of instruction in her home where he professes to have “become possessed of potent occult Knowledge” is quite another matter. He claims to have entered the first degree in 1964 where he “later learned that for some reason (which I have never been able to fully understand) that I’d been regarded as some new-found ‘Avatar’ of Wicca).”

He says that “several” were present, but fails to identify anyone besides Helen. Nor does he indicate who exactly regarded him as a new avatar and why they should so regard him? An avatar, after all, is deemed to be a deity in its earthly manifestation. Mr Farrant seriously appears to be suggesting that Helen and the group who were allegedly present at his initiation viewed him as the incarnation of some sort of “god.”

No mention is made by David Farrant of him taking the second degree of initiation. We go straight from the first to the third degree in 1966, as he had “advanced considerably in my knowledge and understanding of the secret mysteries of Wicca and Magic” when he “moved into unfurnished accommodation near Highgate, north London, and soon succeeded in forming my own Wiccan Circle, or Coven. I still kept in touch with Helen (indeed, still attended most of the major gatherings at Barnet), but was fast concluding that I had learnt all Helen could teach me and that further Knowledge could only be obtained through ‘experimentation’ with the ‘forbidden’ rituals.” He had only just ceased being a teenager when he decided silvery-haired Helen could teach him no more, and then proceeds to explain “one aspect of magical practice into which I wanted to delve more thoroughly (and one to which Helen had been particularly opposed) was the highly secretive method of using sex during magical ceremonies to ‘summon up’ and communicate with powerful outside entities by using, or directing, sexual energy. … I set about these rituals with fervent determination.”

If he did it was certainly not for another seven years. Nobody knew David Farrant especially well in the 1960s. He was something of a loner. Bishop Manchester spoke to the majority of those who did know him, including Anthony Hill, and none of them ever heard Mr Farrant make any mention of witchcraft or the occult. In 1966 he was already with Mary Olden whom he met in Bordeaux from where they went to Spain. Here they remained until their wedding at St Joseph’s, Highgate, where Mary gave birth three months later to the first of their two sons. Jamie and Danny are not mentioned by Mr Farrant. This is hardly surprising considering he has not seen Danny since they were born and he was only recently reunited with Jamie after an absence of over forty years. Mary Farrant denied under oath in court that David Farrant and his friends had any occult involvement; something her husband claimed he and his associates had been immersed in since the mid-1960s and earlier:

“Mrs Farrant added that her husband’s friends who joined in the late night jaunts were not involved in witchcraft or the occult.”[2]

Dark Secrets is no more than a fantasy where few truthful statements can be found. Mr Farrant’s first job as an assistant storeman for Woolworths at the age of fifteen (he was dismissed after a fortnight) and other brief occupations he held - a hospital porter, underground train guard and labourer - are completely expurgated. Needless to say, Bishop Seán Manchester receives the customary libellous attributions from Mr Farrant who surpasses himself at the opening to a chapter titled “Hymn to Pan” by the allegation that the bishop “incurred a criminal conviction for making black magic threats” when, in fact, he has not received a single criminal conviction (or any other kind of conviction) in his life. Indeed, it was David Farrant who made the black magic threats to which he alludes. His history of doing so could fill volumes. Furthermore, Bishop Seán Manchester has alreadly chronicled this matter in at least two of his published works.[3]

It is nevertheless in “Hymn to Pan” where Mr Farrant reveals: “As luck would have it, around this time, a Society member [John Pope] discovered a large disused mansion that proved ideal … for further ceremonies.”

David Farrant had previously explained why Highgate Wood was suddenly out of bounds. John Pope felt inspired to call upon and meet Mr Farrant after reading an article by Sue Kentish in the News of the World, 23 September 1973:

“By day, 29-year-old David Farrant is a hospital porter. But at night, he takes on a far less valuable role. … But for the results of his actions, this scruffy little witch could be laughed at. But no one can laugh at a man who admits slitting the throat of a live cat before launching a blood-smeared orgy. Or a man who has helped reduce at least two young women to frightened misery. … I found him totally besotted by witchcraft and the occult and ready to do anything in pursuit of both. Time and time again, he told me he only did what was ‘necessary,’ or ‘demanded.’ Throughout, he maintained he was a genuine witch who did not worship the devil, indulge in sexual orgies or relinquish all standards of good. But his own story, corroborated by others, proves otherwise. … With a shrug of the shoulders he admitted mercilessly pursuing grievances.”

Mr Farrant is then quoted as boasting: “My curses have never failed, as far as I know. Situations have always righted themselves after I’ve put the curse on. Others will tell you how I reduced one man to a mental breakdown and in the end he begged me to remove the curse.”

Bishop Seán Manchester challenged David Farrant to curse him and do his worst as Mr Farrant left Barnet Magistrate’s Court in November 1972 after he had been convicted and fined for indecent behaviour in the churchyard of St Mary-the-Virgin where he had recently conducted a supposed necromantic Hallowe’en ritual with a female who just happened to be related to the local newspaper reporter who covered the story from the churchyard to the court room. The prosecution justifiably accused Mr Farrant of informing the press and police of what he was doing as a sordid attempt to obtain publicity. Mr Farrant did not accept Bishop Manchester's challenge at first, but later changed his mind and issued threats in the national press to the effect that he intended to “raise a demon” to destroy the bishop by “killing a cat,” adding that “blood must be spilled but the animal would be anaesthetised.”[4] It did not happen. David Farrant failed to deliver the curse and refused to confront Bishop Manchester in person. The bishop nevertheless tried to persuade Mr Farrant to be exorcised, the first of many such attempts, at Easter 1973. But David Farrant was having none of it. Bishop Seán Manchester felt even back then that exorcism was the only answer in Mr Farrant's case and issued many further invitations reaching into the twenty-first century.

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The arrest of David Farrant and Victoria Jervis in November 1972.
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David Farrant refers to his churchyard antics in his autobiographical account:

“I decided to conduct a ritual in the churchyard at Hallowe’en, the purpose being to see if I could ‘communicate’ with the spectre … I chose an assistant called Victoria Jervis [who] was not personally involved in ‘ghost hunting’ … her lack of experience didn’t really matter. By coincidence, her cousin was a reporter on the Barnet Press.”

Also by coincidence, she was Mr Farrant’s girlfriend - something he did not feel worth mentioning.

“Midnight was soon marked by the chiming of the church clock, but before the chimes had died away, black-clad figures came charging out of the darkness.” These turned out to be policemen who promptly arrested the couple. “Miss Jervis was visibly shaken by the incident,” Mr Farrant explains. It might have been just another night’s work in pursuit of self-publicity for him, but it was obviously something Miss Jervis did not bargain for when she allowed herself to be duped into participating in this scandal. Despite her “lack of experience,” naked photographs of her supposedly engaged in occult ceremonies would later appear in New Witchcraft magazine[5] - courtesy of David Farrant - by which time she had long since ditched him after recovering from a nervous breakdown. They never met again after the 1972 case.

The next major publicity stunt involved John Pope who was attracted to a derelict house where there had been talk of satanic ceremonies in previous years. It was also now confirmed to be the most significant place of demonic contagion in the Highgate case. Nobody, save those at opposite ends of the struggle between light and darkness, would enter this neo-gothic mansion which locals clamoured to have razed to the ground - an ambition that was eventually realised. It had a sinister history of dark and disturbing forces; so much so that it was eventually abandoned when it was mysteriously gutted by fire in 1971. Strange and terrible things happened in this place. And it was believed by many to be possessed.

Just how Mr Pope came to hear about the house is uncertain. The local press had already featured stories about the house:

“Neighbours talk of strange goings-on at night and mysterious flickering lights in upper windows. … Investigating the reports, Journal reporter Roger Simpson and photographer Ted Stormer came across unmistakable signs in a top floor room of a witchcraft ceremony. … Residents refuse to walk past the house, which looms behind overgrown trees.”[6]

Bishop Seán Manchester, too, found those symbols when he investigated. They represented a brand of diabolism originating with Crowlianity. Just as Highgate Cemetery had attracted every type of depraved dabbler in the black arts, so, too, had this new location. Even Mr Farrant and Mr Pope visited the old house after reading about it in the press. Evocations to sinister forces took place in the week following publication in a local newspaper. The ceremony also caused a fire. Police arrested both participants on December 13th and they were each charged with arson, but later acquitted. In that week of sheer lunacy where demons were evoked, they attempted to follow in the footsteps of earlier diabolists who had brought something from Highgate Cemetery to the basement of the house; something predatory and demonic. David Farrant’s account three decades later stretches the time scale considerably and embellishes the ceremony. Fortunately, John Pope was interviewed closer to the time. What Mr Pope reveals in his recorded interview [available on a CD titled The Black Witch Project] bears no comparison to the description offered by Mr Farrant. “David brought along these newspaper reporters with him,” Mr Pope explained. We also learn that “David cast a circle in a manner [that Pope was] not familiar with.”

What we do discover, newspaper journalists notwithstanding, is David Farrant and John Pope making some sort of attempt to raise a demon using a black magic ritual. Mr Pope, albeit already demonically oppressed, was well versed in the dark arts and occult ceremonial. Mr Farrant might have been participating for publicity, but John Pope was in deadly earnest.

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David Farrant, Deborah Davis and John Pope summoning up a demon.
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David Farrant’s version of events states:

“The ritual was attempted three times; twice without success and the third time with unexpected consequences. To assist, I enlisted the help of a young magician called John Pope and a girl called Debbie - an American singer on vacation who was greatly interested in magic. … Nudity was essential as Pan was a Nature Deity and clothes hampered natural inherent forces within the body; forces that were needed unimpaired to build up psychic energy within the Circle. It was only then, shielded by protective force, that it was safe to intone the evocation, or Hymn to Pan, whereby the Deity could be summoned to appearance. If successful, He would appear in a blaze of greenish light in the form of a golden-haired wraith whose eyes radiated tremendous power and knowledge, at the same time betraying the bestial side of His nature. … On no account must any mortal meet his gaze or look upon His face. … Some of these words were so dangerous to utter that they even had to be written in code form, but under magical Law they had to be answered once spoken.”

Mr Farrant insisted: “Nudity was essential.” Yet John Pope confirms that throughout these rituals David Farrant failed to disrobe. Mr Pope was not so coy and stood completely naked throughout much of the ceremony.

David Farrant insists Deborah Davis - a Californian blues singer who was high on cocaine - did not participate in the third ritual because she was “so petrified by the past attempt that she refused to enter the house again.” The place had an evil atmosphere which emanated from the basement - somewhere neither Mr Pope nor Mr Farrant ventured.

Not unlike the Hallowe’en incident at a Barnet churchyard in the previous year, “loud footsteps echoed throughout the house; as if a hoard of demons had run amok and were searching for the two intruders who had dared to defile their sanctuary. The next moment the door was flung open and half a dozen policemen surrounded the Circle. Two of them rushed to the fire and proceeded to stamp it out while another who introduced himself as Inspector John Townsend uttered the greeting ‘Good Evening, Mr Farrant’!”

How many times could David Farrant keep getting away with this ploy? It would not be long before the police tired of being used to guarantee him press coverage and a raid on his cluttered home which housed a black magic altar beneath a vampire image was only weeks away. Mr Farrant - who had no idea what he was doing in terms of ritual magic at the derelict house - nonetheless invited a demon to take possession of him on his last attempt at the ceremony. Bishop Seán Manchester reveals in his book The Highgate Vampire that the place was contaminated with a predatory supernatural presence in its cellar and John Pope understood how to raise demons. So was this the point when David Farrant became possessed? Or was it earlier in 1971? The problem with the earlier incident is that we only have Mr Farrant’s word and the word of his collaborating girlfriend; whereas the December rituals were in the presence of John Pope, Deborah Davis, newspaper reporters and, briefly, the police.

Mr Farrant skirts around the alleged “invoking” ceremony of September 1971 at Highgate Cemetery in the account about his life which he self-published in 2001. In fact, he makes no mention of it. Closer to the time it was of prime importance; so much so, he reflected on those events from his prison cell in 1975 and wrote a rambling article which he then mailed to Brian Netscher, the editor of New Witchcraft.

It is not difficult to understand why David Farrant today might find this article hugely embarrassing. At the time, he felt he had nothing to lose, having been recently sentenced to almost five years’ imprisonment. Like the derelict house ritual in mid-December 1973, this ceremony occurred at an eerie and sinister location where the Highgate phenomenon was also active. Moreover, the ritual Mr Farrant claims to have performed is supposed to have invoked the predatory demonic entity, ie vampire, which existence in 1971 he did not question. This is what he revealed in his article:

“This ceremony performed in Highgate Cemetery finally proved beyond doubt - at least as far as most psychic investigators are concerned - that the majority of sightings and stories relating to the phenomena were true. Unfortunately, however, such proof will rarely be acceptable to the hardened sceptic; but we had at least succeeded in establishing to our satisfaction not only that the Highgate Vampire did exist, but the very nature of the phenomenon and those factors which had primarily caused its existence. Of course, while it could not be irrefutably stated that this demonic entity was the direct result of Satanic activity, it can reasonably be said that such activity was certainly the cause activating some age-old supernatural enigma.”[7]

His New Witchcraft article was accompanied by seven photographs, including Mr Farrant in Highgate Cemetery, Mr Farrant with a naked female before the image of a horned “deity” in his bed-sitting room and yet more naked females. Two photographs of Victoria Jervis appear which were used without her knowledge or consent. Similar pictures in a national newspaper - accompaning one of Mr Farrant’s concocted witchcraft stories - badly shocked her. One of the photographs in New Witchcraft were of David Farrant and Martine de Sacy naked together, apparently kissing in bed. Why this was included is difficult to comprehend, but it is the first and last time an image ever appeared of Mr Farrant without any clothes. For that we should, at least, be grateful.

David Farrant’s article is so at odds with what he has subsequently stated publicly on the matter of the Highgate Vampire and his pseudo-occult activities at the graveyard in question that it deserves closer inspection. In his article he says that “Bram Stoker was influenced by the Highgate Vampire when he wrote ‘Dracula’ … written with typical Victorian authority.”[8] In the series of pamphlets that began appearing in 1991 he disclaims all belief in vampires in general and the Highgate Vampire in particular. His patronising style adopts some very familiar terms which crop up whenever he writes anything about the subject he knows so little about. For example: “For the sake of the uninitiated” and “I still remain bound by the Oaths of my Grade as High Priest not to disclose certain incantations, the names and sigils used for conjuration and banishment, and the secret form of Ritual” etc. There is a reason for non-disclosure. David Farrant is absolutely clueless about the occult. There is also a reason why he makes no mention today about his New Witchcraft article. It totally contradicts his latter-day revisionist claims. 

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[1] Reference to Thornlow and Hawkhurst Court in The Highgate Vampire by Seán Manchester (British Occult Society, 1985, p78). Repeated without naming schools in The Highgate Vampire by Seán Manchester (Gothic Press, 1991, p109).
[2] The Sun, 21 June 1974.
[3] From Satan To Christ by Seán Manchester (Holy Grail, 1985) & The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook by Seán Manchester (Gothic Press, 1997).
[4] Sunday Mirror, 8 April 1973.
[5] Full page photograph of a naked Victoria Jervis in New Witchcraft magazine (issue 4, 1975, p35).
[6] Hornsey Journal, 7 December 1973.
[7] “Invoking the Vampire” by David Farrant (New Witchcraft, issue 4, 1975, p38).
[8] “Invoking the Vampire” by David Farrant (New Witchcraft, issue 4, 1975, p34).