Illtyd Thomas

Interested parties who wish to receive documentary evidence held against Illtyd Thomas should contact Bishop Seán Manchester. In the meantime, the following facts, supported by witness testimony, are communicated to clear up any ambiguity or uncertainty that may exist:

—— When Bishop Seán Manchester and others in his church who accompanied him first made contact with Illtyd Thomas in early 1990, they did so as an existing church that Bishop Seán Manchester led.

—— At no time during Bishop Seán Manchester’s period preparing for diaconation, ordination to the priesthood and episcopal consecration was he under an Oath of Canonical Obedience to Illtyd Thomas.

—— At no time did Bishop Seán Manchester sign anything resembling an Instrument of Canonical Obedience to Illtyd Thomas. He has always maintained his independence.

—— It was always understood during Bishop Seán Manchester’s preparation for Holy Orders that he did so as an extant and independent church and, therefore, remained autocephalous before, during and after the threefold ordinations that transmitted lines of apostolic succession, which was the sole object of the exercise.

—— Three bishops took part in the episcopal consecration of Bishop Manchester in October 1991, including Bishop Michael Weston of Ealing, London, and Bishop James Henry Vermeulen of Holland.

It is uncanonical for Illtyd Thomas or anyone else to lay claim to possess power to “laicise” Bishop Seán Manchester. Illtyd Thomas claimed this after falling under the influence of a convicted felon and pseudo-occultist by the name of David Farrant in early 2007. Such allegations instantly render the claimant suspect as any action of this kind would be regarded uncanonical and without meaning by other churches. David Farrant had been waging a malicious vendetta against traditional Christians in general and Bishop Seán Manchester in particular for a great many years. Farrant had criminal convictions for malicious vandalism in a cemetery, indecency in a churchyard, tomb desecration by the use of black magic, threatening witnesses in a colleague’s sex case with voodoo “death dolls” transfixed with pins (Farrant’s colleague was later found guilty of sexually assaulting a young boy), illegal possession of a firearm, and theft from a hospital. Farrant was sentenced to a term of four years and eight months imprisonment at London’s Old Bailey in June 1974. He evinced absolutely no remorse following his release and exponentially worsened with time.

A member of the Ecclesiastical Law Society brought to our attention documentary evidence that Illtyd Thomas had a criminal conviction for theft, has blessed homosexual “unions” and has wittingly “ordained” sexually active sodomites. Illtyd Thomas also cultivated a close association with the one of the most notorious paedophiles in criminal history in the UK – Roger Gleaves – who “ordained” him sub conditione (we now possess copies of the “Instruments”) despite Illtyd Thomas always having strenuously denied this allegation against him. He is also known to have had associations with various other paedophiles, many of whom are now deceased. It had been known for a long time that Illtyd Thomas had had innumerable occult connections – including Masons, Theosophists and sundry occultists – some of whom he illicitly ordained. David Farrant, possibly Britain’s most infamous self-publicist in phoney witchcraft and pseudo-occultism, befriended Illtyd Thomas in early 2007, having been an invited guest to Illtyd Thomas’ Muswell Hill home in north London. Farrant, who lived on state benefits throughout his entire life (23 January 1946 - 19 April 2019), resided less than a mile from Illtyd Thomas in an attic bed-sitting room occupied since his parole release from prison.

Since colluding with Farrant in early 2007, Illtyd Thomas had been the subject of much discussion and concern by innumerable Old Catholic jurisdictions in the UK. It had already been decided to excommunicate Illtyd Thomas upon discovery in December 2006 that he was still alive. He had been investigated thoroughly with due consideration since documentary evidence was received in 2002.

Hence, at thirteen hundred hours, ie 1.00 pm (GMT), on the Feast of St David, the former bishop of the autocephalous Old Catholic jurisdiction known as the “Celtic Catholic Church” was duly excommunicated on the grounds of violating the sacred species and his office by ordaining and consecrating sexually active homosexuals, paedophiles, occultists and criminals; being guilty of heresy by accepting sexually active homosexual, paedophile and occultic clergy, and colluding with a malefic individual who is a pseudo-occultist, ie David Farrant, to do harm to the ministry, church and person of another autocephalous jurisdiction overseen by Bishop Seán Manchester. The excommunication was officiated and led by Bishop Manchester using the traditional formula in the Roman Rite.

Bishop Seán Manchester’s statement (published March 1st 2007) on Illtyd Thomas

“It was brought to our attention toward the end of 2006 that, much to our surprise, Illtyd Thomas still remains alive. Due to his age and infirmity, we had thought him long since deceased. Illtyd Thomas evinces no website, no internet presence, no known clergy and no known ecclesial activity beyond occasionally ordaining inappropriate candidates. In the last handful of years he has ordained and consecrated active homosexuals who were also openly Theosophist with transparent occult leanings and esoteric involvement.

“We have not maintained contact since last seeing Illtyd Thomas soon after our episcopal consecration by Bishops Vermeulen, Weston and Thomas on the Feast of St Francis of Assisi 1991. The time spent with Illtyd Thomas was less than fifteen months in which period we witnessed nothing seriously untoward save on our very last visit to Illtyd Thomas’ home in Muswell Hill, London. Homo-erotic material in the form of a calendar depicting naked males was on display which Illtyd Thomas attributed to a visitor whom he was allowing to stay at his home. We consequently never visited again and severed all contact. We had approached Illtyd Thomas in spring of 1990 as an extant Church, established some seventeen years prior, with view to the transmission of lines of Apostolic Succession. This much was achieved with our diaconation in June 1990, ordination to the priesthood in July 1990, and elevation to the episcopate in October 1991. At no time during all this were we under an Instrument or Oath of Canonical Obedience to Illtyd Thomas.

“The comments about Illtyd Thomas on pages 91-92 of the book about our ecclesial history and its roots, The Grail Church (1995), were made in good faith. Illtyd Thomas was at that time given the benefit of the doubt. Then came Simmons’ overture to a member of our Church who had been with us from the beginning as a founder-member of Ordo Sancti Graal inaugurated at Easter 1973 (as recounted at the time in public annals and The Grail Church). The disturbing opening line from the pederast John Simmons in a letter, dated April 1st, 1995, to Br Keith Maclean states: ‘My good friend Bishop Illtyd Thomas has passed me your address and suggested that I should write to you.’ Simmons then went on to say that Illtyd Thomas mentioned to him that Br Keith Maclean was working towards his ordination and Simmons was ‘urgently looking for those interested in the priesthood.’

“John Simmons, quite apart from being invalid (Illtyd Thomas informed us that no evidence existed of him ever being diaconated which allowed for the Instrument of Release and Degradation issued in 1986 to be an appropriate course of action), had been subsequently anathematised and not without good reason. Simmons was a man with a history of deception resulting in imprisonment, who associated with pederasts, and who lived with a former rent boy. He extracted large sums of money from strangers, mostly individuals visiting from America, looking to be ‘ordained’ and ‘consecrated’ by Simmons (all on the same day) in his small garage. When John Simmons died there was no provision made for a religious service (he received a secular one), and his male lover was quickly evicted by his mother from the house they had occupied. Yet nine years after being released and degraded by Illtyd Thomas, this man was allegedly given a private address in order to write and offer to one of the twelve founder members of Ordo Sancti Graal an ‘ordination.’ This we found unacceptable in the extreme and impossible to reconcile with respect for our autocephalous Catholic Church.

“Let us remind ourselves of the offences that we know about which resulted in John Simmons receiving a jail term:

“Mr Simmons was given two-year concurrent sentences for nine admitted offences of obtaining property or services by deception in January 1984, when he asked for 45 similar offences to be taken into consideration.” (Kentish Express, March 20th, 1986).

“John Simmons, 44, has started an 18 months prison term for deception. Simmons pretended to be a missionary in West Africa to obtain sacred items from convents which he then sold by mail order from his Ashford home. Knightsbridge Crown Court was told it was not the first time Simmons has been in trouble. In 1984 he was jailed for two years for obtaining property or services by deception. And in 1986 Simmons left a trail of bad debts around Ashford. He has since been declared officially bankrupt. During the two-week trial Simmons denied six counts of obtaining property by deception and attempted deception. Some of the vestments and church ornaments he stole were said to be extremely valuable.” (Kentish Express, October 4th, 1990).

“Then there are the ‘ordinations’ received by Illtyd Thomas from Roger Gleaves. Though he has strenuously denied in the past that these ordinations took place, we received in 2002 evidence in the form of copies of the ‘Instruments’ themselves which clearly show that Illtyd Thomas was diaconated and priested sub-conditione by the notorious pederast and convicted felon Roger Charles Augustine Gleaves, Bishop of Medway of the Episcopal Apostolic Church on July 23rd, 1977, at the Oratory of St Michael the Archangel, Muswell Hill, London. This association with Gleaves is impossible to explain away. We only came into possession of these documents when a lawyer and member of the Ecclesiastical Law Society, now also a bishop, included them when he communicated the following:

“Thomas on this evidence is a liar, a thief, a sodomite, and a sexual pervert who has the temerity to describe his foul behaviour on his own church notepaper. He was ordained to all his Orders up to the priesthood by Roger Gleaves, probably the most infamous paedophile in British legal history.” (Correspondence received from Bishop Barry Peachey, May 29th, 2002).

“The documents all bear Illtyd Thomas’ very recognisable handwriting and signature. One in particular, for example, is written on Illtyd Thomas’ notepaper with his familiar seal imprinted by a rubber stamp. It is dated February 11th, 1986, and written to ‘John.’ It begins:

“I have sent the letter to Bishop Dominic, also I have enclosed the photograph of Mark, it is not a good one but no doubt it will give you some idea of what he looks like. He has a fine good body and a joy to see when he is naked.” (Correspodence from Illtyd Thomas to ‘John,’ February 11th, 1986).

“It continues for the remainder of the page in the most pornographic and unrepeatable fashion imaginable, eventually signing off with a postscript about the arthritis in his fingers. We have seen enough examples of Illtyd Thomas’ handwriting, syntax and style in the past to know this correspondence to be authentic. ‘Bishop Dominic’ is clearly Dominic Pyle-Bridges who was convicted of serious sex offences, and was reported by Russell Hotten in the Friern Barnet Chronicle, May 30th, 1985, to have been ‘consecrated’ by ‘Illtyd Thomas, an archbishop in the Celtic Catholic Church’ in a service at the Muswell Hill Centre, Hillfield Park. In the previous year, Pyle-Bridges appeared in a London court under the name Stanley Bridges and was fined £80 for committing gross indecency with two male teachers in a Soho theatre. Why would Illtyd Thomas want to even consider ordaining sex perverts such as Pyle-Bridges and Simmons while receiving superfluous ordinations himself sub-conditione from one of the most vile pederasts to have ever drawn breath?

“A point that often puzzles non-Catholics is that once valid Holy Orders have been bestowed, according to normative Roman Catholic canon law, there is no power on earth that can remove them. This applies even if the priest or bishop has been criminally convicted, regardless of his state of sin, and also in the event that he is heretical or simonistic. The Donatist heresy established many centuries ago that the validity of a sacrament is in no way dependent on the character or actions of the clergyman concerned. Illtyd Thomas, therefore, would remain until his death in valid Holy Orders. His lines of Apostolic Succession derived from such as +W A Barrington Evans, +A W J Williams and +Bertil Persson, and those who inherit them such as our Church, are obviously unaffected.

“The right to excommunicate, however, is an immediate and necessary consequence of the fact that the Church is a society. Every society has the right to exclude and deprive of their rights and social advantages its unworthy or grievously culpable members, either temporarily or permanently. This right is necessary to every society in order that it may be well administered and survive. The fundamental proof, therefore, of the Church’s right to excommunicate is based on her status as a spiritual society, whose members, governed by legitimate authority, seek one and the same end through suitable means. Members who, by their obstinate disobedience, reject the means of attaining this common end deserve to be removed from such a society. Notice was, therefore, served early in 2007 by Ecclesia Vetusta Catholica (a traditional Old Catholic Church in Great Britain), that Illtyd Thomas, former Bishop of an autocephalous jurisdiction known as the ‘Celtic Catholic Church’ would be excommunicated on March 1st, 2007.”

Response to Ecclesia Vetusta Catholica from David Sattman

“When I had first heard that Bishop Illtyd Thomas had been formally excommunicated with bell, book, and candle, a most solemn and ancient rite rarely used in modern times, I thought Bishop Manchester had overreacted or perhaps even overstepped his bounds. I especially thought so in light of Bishop Thomas’ advanced old age and the likelihood that some amount of dementia has set in.

“But then upon further reflection I considered how long Bishop Thomas has been associating with the avowed enemies of Bishop Manchester and the level of vitriol these people have heaped on Bishop Manchester for all these decades. Furthermore Bishop Thomas has chosen to befriend this notorious band of cut-throats and be taken into the bosom of hell by his own free will. No one forced him to do it, it was his own decision. I believe that he understands what it was he was doing and that the consequences of association with these vile necromancers and diabolists would lead to his excommunication.

“Perhaps some people may think that Bishop Manchester was rather melodramatic using the ancient rite as he did, but the gravity of falling out of the grace of the Church of God must be pointed out in no uncertain terms and that the solemn gravity of excommunication via bell, book, and candle was necessary to drive home this point.

“I pray for the possibility that Bishop Thomas may still, even at this late stage of the game, recant his association with the sworn enemies of Bishop Manchester, repent of his sins, and perhaps still enjoy a return to Christ. It seems however, that his hard heartedness will not allow this. Too bad!

“I wish the Roman Pontiff would excommunicate a few bishops within the fold of the Latin Rite. But then there is the danger of one of these people claiming ‘martyrdom’ as a sort of ‘sacrificial lamb’ on behalf of the liberals and the onset of schism.”

Response to Bishop Seán Manchester from Brother Keith Maclean OSG

“It is difficult to say anything with regard to Illtyd Thomas — you have said it all. Simmons and Thomas seem to have been birds of a feather, along with Gleaves. The early connection with Gleaves is indicative of the worst. All I can say is that you have handled the matter perfectly. That malefic and vicious opposition which you face from such people is a seal of approval on your ministry.”

Response to Ecclesia Vetusta Catholica from an Old Catholic Bishop

“We agree that the action which Illtyd Thomas threatened would be both uncanonical and unwise. He is, however, clearly very frightened of David Farrant and his judgement is impeded by this.”

Illtyd Thomas seated between diabolists Gareth Medway (far left) and David Farrant (far right).  

The Highgate Vampire

“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 book] 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.”

~ Peter Underwood, President of the Ghost Club Society, Life-Member of the Vampire Research Society, highly respected paranormal investigator and author of over fifty books about the supernatural.

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

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: “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.” And probably did! In the previous year, two schoolgirls had reported seeing the spectre rise from its tomb. One of these would eventually be interviewed by Bishop Seán Manchester. The case of the Highgate Vampire was about to open.

Bishop Manchester, then as now, held fast to traditional Christianity, having also studied the paranormal and the occult. During the 1970s and 1980s he sometimes operated covertly within occult circles to gain first-hand intelligence. This much became apparent in 1988 with the publication of From Satan To Christ and in 1997 it was again confirmed in The Vampire Hunter's Handbook.

The reason why Bishop Seán Manchester initially wrote his bestselling book (The Highgate Vampire) was 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. Bishop Manchester 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’.”

It was never Bishop Manchester's intention to try and convince anyone of the existence of the supernatural; yet still he receives correspondence 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 unintended consequence. By writing a comprehensive recounting of those events surrounding the mystery, he 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, some individuals were not slow to engage in shameless exploitation of his work. The majority of enthusiastic readers of Bishop Seán Manchester's work, however, have shown immense empathy and encouragement.

Antipathetic Elements

"Those who attack me are invariably anti-Christian, eg atheists, diabolists etc, and that is usually the reason I come under attack. As has often been pointed out: these attacks only serve to evince the efficacy of what I do. It would be more troubling if those on the Left-hand Path didn't recognise that the symbols I work with and beliefs I hold are potentially a threat." 

— †Seán Manchester

Riding the Devil

Click on the header at the top to link to the blog Fearnley willfully misrepresents & complains about.

Hate-filled blog? I don't think so. It is plain to anyone with eyes in their head where all the hate is emanating from. One really needs to reflect this troll's accusations back at her because she has created more fake accounts in fake names, ie sock-puppet accounts, than anyone I know. It doesn't bother me in the least because I am not interested in what she does. Until, that is, she attempts to disrupt the life of me and mine. Her latest act of sheer malice is to try and set the media onto me like a pack of ravenous wolves by feeding them with links to fabricated nonsense made by hostile elements baiting me in the previous century. I am a private person who ceased being interviewed by the media decades ago. But that won't stop this paranoid creature, and her Antipodean associate, from attempting to exploit a history that involved neither of them. How could it? They were not born at the time! Her only legacy is the late David Farrant's vendetta, which she now pursues by proxy.  

The hypocrisy of these people beggars belief. Three females referring to Fearnley as "Fugly" is taking things "too far."  Yet Hogg repeatedly calling Angie Mary Watkins a c**t is apparently acceptable.

Don Peek

Don Peek is Don Ecker's internet service provider who stepped in to help when Mr Ecker's previous server deleted a cache of stolen images owned by Bishop Seán Manchester. Mr Peek is also the service provider for hate sites such as Net Curtain Lurkers on which libel has been regurgitated courtesy of David Farrant for the anonymous hate-mongers in America who run that site to the delight of other anti-Bishop obsessives such as Anthony Hogg who provides links at every opportunity to the malice and defamation.

Instead of acknowledging legal (DMCA) notices as would any respectable server, Don Peek chose to ignore them and provided the confidential contents (required by law) to the offenders in each case. Thus those in America who were publishing incitements of hatred as well as infringed copyright were given the private address and private telephone number of the complainant by Mr Peek. The anonymous cowards who created Net Curtain Lurkers instantly published most of this information on their hate site.

Don Peek calls his service "Coastland technologies" and describes it as "a profitable owner-operated business that has been in business for over ten years." 

Mr Peek continues: "We own our own servers and we have them collocated.  By owning our own servers, we have complete control of how your site is hosted. We keep our customers happy.  It's not easy to find new customers so it just makes sense to give the best service we can to our current customers. This way they stay with us when it comes time to renew. We have customers who've been hosting with us over ten years.  That must have something to do with it."

Not quite. The real reason customers like Don Ecker and Net Curtain Lurkers stay with Don Peek is because he shares their extreme antipathy towards Bishop Seán Manchester and is willing to break the law by refusing to remove incitements of hatred and infringed copyright material aimed at denigrating and damaging the bishop. Other servers would instantly disable these miscreants' sites, and, moreover, have done so. But not Don Peek who appears to be very friendly towards bullies of the Don Ecker stamp.

Mr Peek's questionable service is located at:

Coastland Technologies
4820 Kiowa Lane NW
Cleveland Tennessee, 37312

United States of America 

Rob Brautigam

 

Rob Brautigam in his Amsterdam flat at a time when he was a

massive fan of Bishop Manchester whose framed photograph

(one of four images) is on the wall (top, left) in the background.

"First of all I would like to express my gratitude to Sean Manchester and a few of his associates. Thank you, Bishop Sean. Thank you Lady Sarah. What else ? Very much obliged (a little more sincerely this time) for your hospitality : Diana Brewster and son. Thank you Brother Keith. Without your help I would never have solved one of the many mysteries surrounding Sean." - Rob Brautigam

Brother Keith commented about the above sarcasm found on Mr Brautigam's website:

In June 1990, Rob Brautigam wrote to Bishop Seán Manchester at the Highgate offices of the Vampire Research Society to apply for membership in that organisation. Mr Brautigam subscribed at that time to a strong belief in the existence of real, ie supernatural, vampires and, moreover, their control. He had not yet embarked upon any newsletter or magazine production of his own; though that would soon alter.

Mr Brautigam wrote: “It has been with the greatest interest and admiration that I have occasionally read about your activities over the years. … It goes without saying that I would very much like to join your Society. So could you please tell me if it is possible for me to be a member?”

Over the following year and a half, Bishop Seán Manchester arranged three meetings with Rob Brautigam. By the second and penultimate rendezvous it was transparent that the Dutchman was not suitable membership material for a serious research society. In the interim Mr Brautigam had launched a home-produced magazine titled International Vampire. He went out of his way to compliment Bishop Manchester on his “truly magnificent The Highgate Vampire,” which the Dutchman described as “a masterpiece of vamirography.” Brautigam continued: “I have been rereading the book ever since I got it. And I am impatiently looking forward to the moment when the revised edition will be on the market” (Correspondence to Bishop Seán Manchester, 22 August 1990).

When the updated and revised edition was published some months later, Rob Brautigam enthusiastically sang its praises in International Vampire and elsewhere. By this time Mr Brautigam had made contact with Kev Demant who also admired the same author’s work. They described themselves as “fans of Seán Manchester.” Mr Demant would later apply for membership in the same research society. His application was also rejected. By his own admission, Kev Demant had nothing to contribute to vampirological research, having hitherto only read fiction on the subject. Despite being refused membership, Mr Brautigam and Mr Demant maintained a regular and amicable correspondence with Bishop Seán Manchester until the end of 1992. Some of this was to solicit contributions for Mr Brautigam’s magazine, but the direction now being taken by the Dutchman witnessed a certain reluctance on Bishop Manchester’s part to provide further material for International Vampire. Thus, by the end of 1992, the relationship had begun to sour.

At the beginning of that same year, Rob Brautigam revealed his increasing interest in a dishevelled character living in a London bed-sitting room who was sentenced to almost five years’ imprisonment in 1974 for desecration and vandalism linked to pseudo-occult rituals at Highgate Cemetery, and sending black magic threats through the post. Mr Brautigam referred to his “growing David Farrant File of Shame” in correspondence to Bishop Manchester, dated 30 January 1972, and thought the publicity-seeker to be no more than a “misguided simpleton” (something he was quickly disabused of despite David Farrant over the years having acquired the nick-name "The Devil's Fool").

The person Rob Brautigam referred to as a "simpleton."

The Dutchman’s exchanges with Bishop Seán Manchester ended abruptly on 20 December 1992 with confirmation that he had entered into correspondence with David Farrant, while also giving the impression that this contact was now over. “As to my brief correspondence with Farrant,” wrote Brautigam, “you can start breathing again, for there is no point now in continuing it any longer. … I still admire you as a most gifted writer, and nothing can ever change that. I will continue to think of it as a privilege that I have had the pleasure of meeting you and corresponding with you” (Correspondence to Bishop Seán Manchester, 20 December 1992).

Bishop Manchester wrote further, but gained no response and was never to hear from Mr Brautigam again. The puzzle was solved some time later when it became clear that Rob Brautigam had entered into an alliance with David Farrant.

The Dutchman started to describe himself as a major vampirologist; indeed “the only vampire expert in the Netherlands,” which to many came as something of a surprise to those who were genuinely expert. This sudden claim, something of a revelation to Bishop Manchester at the time, appeared in the Dutch Sunday tabloid Zondagsnieuws in 1992. Reggie Naus, a Dutch correspondent in contact with BishopManchester, wrote:

“About a year ago he appeared on a Dutch talk show alongside Chorondzon Vanian, a vampiroid in a black tuxedo, wearing sunglasses inside a studio, with long sharp fangs in his mouth. After Vanian told the audience he would live forever, Rob Brautigam told them a vampire would go out at night and ‘drink fresh blood from young virgins.’ I find it rather curious that a ‘vampire expert’ would believe a vampire can only drink the blood of virgins” (Correspondence to Bishop Seán Manchester, 21 March 1996).

Mr Naus would reveal a disturbing development: “Brautigam's website seems to have become a meeting place for vampiroids, with contact advertisements of people claiming to be 450 years old and similar nonsense” (Correspondence to Bishop Seán Manchester, 15 May 1999).

Mr Farrant on "a late night jaunt" in Highgate Cemetery in 1970.

David Farrant's fraudulent claim that he was somehow part of a serious investigation into the supernatural goings on at Highgate Cemetery are exposed to the light of day when anyone who actually knew him at the time is heard. Farrant's first wife, Mary, was certainly around and she gave testimony as a defence witness under oath at her husband's trials at the Old Bailey in June 1974. This is what was recorded in a national newspaper by a court reporter:

“The wife of self-styled occult priest David Farrant told yesterday of giggles in the graveyard when the pubs had closed. ‘We would go in, frighten ourselves to death and come out again,’ she told an Old Bailey jury. Attractive Mary Farrant — she is separated from her husband and lives in Southampton — said they had often gone to London’s Highgate Cemetery with friends ‘for a bit of a laugh.’ But they never caused any damage. ‘It was just a silly sort of thing that you do after the pubs shut,’ she said. Mrs Farrant added that her husband’s friends who joined in the late night jaunts were not involved in witchcraft or the occult. She had been called as a defence witness by her 28-year-old husband. They have not lived together for three years” (The Sun, 21 June 1974).

The concensus view four decades ago was that Mr Farrant amounted to nothing more than a lone publicity-seeker in search of a convenient bandwagon to jump on. This opinion was reached due to the plethora of first-hand evidence from his contemporaries who knew his claims to be bogus. His publicity stunts nevertheless landed him in jail with a prison sentence of four years and eight months.

“Farrant was a fool. Fascinated by witchcraft … he couldn’t keep his interests to himself. He was a blatant publicist. He told this newspaper of his activities, sent photographs and articles describing his bizarre activities” (Peter Hounam, Editor, Hornsey Journal, 16 July 1974).

Another newspaper reporting on a court appearance where Mr Farrant had apparently orchestrated his own arrest (this time in a churchyard, where witchcraft had supplanted vampires as his vehicle for publicity) recorded:

“Mr P J Bucknell, prosecuting, said Mr Farrant had painted circles on the ground, lit with candles, and had told reporters and possibly the police of what he was doing. ‘This appears to be a sordid attempt to obtain publicity,’ he said” (Hampstead & Highgate Express, 24 November 1972).

Following his brief six month stint as a lone “vampire hunter,” David Farrant hung up his cross and stake and replaced them with pentagrams, voodoo dolls and ritual daggers. This led to further arrests and a stiff prison sentence. Far from showing any remorse for his behaviour, Mr Farrant has exploited his criminal past to the full in a life devoted to phoney witchcraft, pseudo-occult claims and malicious pamphleteering.

Rob Brautigam, however, states on his Dutch website that David Farrant has been “investigating the phenomena in Highgate Cemetery from the very beginning.” This is impossible, even were it plausible. When the vampiric spectre was first being sighted at Highgate Cemetery, Mr Farrant would have been a mere teenager. He was living on the Continent when the phenomenon reared its head to two convent schoolgirls which brought it to the attention of Bishop Seán Manchester. Indeed, France was where he met his Irish wife, Mary Olden. Newspaper reports, court records, and various interviews on tape at the time, confirm that David Farrant only learned about the rumoured vampire when he drank in local pubs in January 1970. He somewhat unconvincingly claims to have seen it himself around this time, and wrote the following to a local newspaper:

"Some nights I walk home past the gates of Highgate Cemetery. On three occasions I have seen what appeared to be a ghost-like figure inside the gates at the top of Swains Lane. The first occasion was on Christmas Eve. I saw a grey figure for a few seconds before it disappeared into the darkness. The second sighting, a week later, was also brief. Last week, the figure appeared long enough for me to see it much more clearly, and now I can think of no other explanation than this apparition being supernatural. I have no knowledge in this field and I would be interested to hear if any other readers have seen anything of this nature." - David Farrant, "Letters to the Editor," Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 February 1970.

Mr Farrant wrote to Bishop Seán Manchester prior to his arrest in August 1970 and also during his remand at Brixton Prison. What he wrote is completely at odds with his later claims and certainly supports the recorded facts according to Bishop Manchester, ie that David Farrant was nothing more than a lone, would-be vampire hunter who acted solely to achieve self-publicity in the media; someone who had absolutely no connection whatsoever to the investigation already in progess into the supernatural happenings at Highgate Cemetery.

The last word (as found on his website) goes to the Dutchman:

"Sincere and well-meant thanks to David Farrant, who was willing to discuss and share his information about the case (unlike some). Thank you very much, David." - Rob Brautigam (14 April 2009)

Kev Demant

 

Kev Demant (while in a pub drinking with David Farrant).

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"If we have to nominate one single expert in this world who seems to know absolutely everything about the Highgate case, I will definitely put my money on Kev Demant."

- Rob Brautigam (14 April 2009)

The gangly spectre of Kev Demant, “an avowed Seán Manchester supporter,”[1] posted fan mail for three years before turning unpleasant. Much of his correspondence referred to his drab high-rise council block existence in East London’s Whitechapel area, his infrequent excursion to this or that morbid place, failure to catch transmissions of Bishop Seán Manchester on television and radio, and the inane ramblings one might expect from a self-proclaimed obsessive. Mr Demant and his wife, Christine, met Bishop Manchester just twice - each time at a public event where they chatted very briefly before the occasion itself demanded Manchester's full attention. The couple also caught the back of the bishop's head at a third venue during an ecumenical gathering in Westminster Cathedral, but without tickets they could not sit close enough to make contact. Bishop Seán Manchester had no reason to question the Demants’ motives beyond their very obvious enthusiasm shown toward his books. In common with Jennie Gray, the managing editor of Udolpho, and others - including their pal Rob Brautigam - The Highgate Vampire was to become the Demants’ favourite book of all time:

“I am constantly reading books on horror and the supernatural and can quite honestly say that no book has ever had quite the same effect on me.”[2]

When the revised and updated edition was published in the summer of 1991, Mr Demant immediately wrote:

“The definitive edition of The Highgate Vampire now holds pride of place in the Demants 1,200 plus ‘library.’ I hope you will excuse my lapsing into unashamed fandom for a moment to tell you I love the book - an intriguing, beautifully produced masterpiece of the supernatural. Nobody is producing anything like it in the present day - from the cover onward it looks and is unique … I hope I’ve not been too gushy, it is just that I truly admire and respect you and your work.”[3]

Kev Demant at the time he supported Bishop Manchester.

When the Demants met the managing editor of Udolpho, Jennie Gray, in July 1991 at the first get together of Miss Gray’s Gothic Society, the occasion was recorded and transmitted by BBC Radio Four’s Kaleidoscope on the last day of the month. Mr Demant’s voice was picked up, out of those present, to be heard protesting:

“Actually, we’re not really in with this lot; we’re more into Seán Manchester.”

The following week, he described Miss Gray’s society as belonging to an “older age group, very middle class etc. We looked, felt, indeed were totally alien in such surroundings.”[4]

The Demants nevertheless formed an association with Miss Gray and Mr Brautigam, who were already in contact with each other. Bishop Seán Manchester recognised the potential in Christine Demant’s talent for line drawing, and offered to showcase some of her illustrations in a couple of his published works. One of these was his first novel for which the bishop provided photographs to direct and influence the outcome of her drawings; most of which proved to be almost facsimiles of the originals. Her line drawings also feature in the most recent edition of The Highgate Vampire. Most people agree that these two books portray the very best of her work.

The Demants would sometimes sign their correspondence “Kev and Chrissie (friends and fans)” - and their praise was not reserved for merely one topic. Kev Demant proclaimed From Satan To Christ to be “a valuable exposé of present-day Satanism and the charlatans who lure the innocent onto the Left-hand Path.”[5]

This last statement is worth remembering in view of what came to transpire in the period ahead where a complete about turn occurred, and these two books became targets for their vilification.

Not wanting to lose a unique opportunity for her specialist magazine, Jennie Gray commissioned Kev Demant to conduct an interview with Bishop Seán Manchester who was gradually persuaded and hesitatingly consented. Bishop Manchester's schedule, however, prevented a face to face interview, which obliged Mr Demant to ask questions on Miss Gray’s behalf via correspondence and the bishop answering them through the same medium.

“This is certainly a strange way of conducting an interview,” he wrote. “Jennie sets the questions, you do all the hard work and I get my name to the results! … I hope I can do you justice.”[6] A week later, having received Bishop Seán Manchester's answers, Mr Demant replied: “You have not balked at the more ‘difficult’ questions.”[7]

When he saw Jennie Gray’s expurgated outcome in print, Kev Demant was quite obviously less enthusiastic:

“To be honest, I don’t know what to feel about the article, a somewhat sanitised version of the material submitted. Many of your responses have been truncated while my own contribution has been edited, certain sentences have been rewritten (badly in my opinion and without my consent) and ultimately censored. … I wonder what all these aesthetes, decadents, intellectuals and yuppies who constitute the readership are going to make of it all!”[8]

It did not take long to discover what they made of it all. Within a month all six hundred copies sold out. Miss Gray ordered an unprecedented extra hundred copies. Her magazine had reached its peak. On December 14th, Kev Demant wrote: “Somehow I think it is your prestigious interview which had much to do with the favourable response.”

Rob Brautigam at the time he supported Bishop Manchester.
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Kev Demant had also peaked. Having made innumerable scathing criticisms (some in print - often his correspondence containing the addendum “you can quote me on that”), he launched an astonishing attack out of the blue, and lauded David Farrant whose illicit pamphlet Beyond the Highgate Vampire he suddenly approved and advertised, albeit confessing that he had turned into one of the “quislings” who were “beating a path … to [Farrant’s] door.”[9]

In the same article, Mr Demant now described and promoted himself as “Britain’s premier vampirologist.” This last claim was the most bizarre because it had been apparent throughout his correspondence with Bishop Manchester that neither of the Demants knew anything much about vampirology.

Kev Demant had provided an account of his only “practical” experience to Bishop Seán Manchester:

“I visited St Mary’s churchyard, Harrow-on-the-Hill, last Thursday for the first time in over a decade. The cemetery is still magnificently gloomy and atmospheric, indeed it hasn’t changed at all. When I was a kid my friends and I used to think it was haunted - it certainly looks as though it ought to be. There was a lot of vandalism and spray-painting on the tombstones - and I can’t recall whether it was satanic or not. My friend and I decided to have a look around there after dark, but were unfortunately dissuaded from doing so by the arrival of a bunch of rather ugly looking bikers. So ended my ghost-hunting days. Not exactly Montague Summers, I’m afraid.”

In the same letter, Mr Demant also mentioned Mr Farrant’s Beyond the Highgate Vampire:

“The pamphlet hardly seems to have made a ripple, not surprising really … Having quoted [without consent] those two extraordinary sequences from your book in their entirety I thought he might have given you a few new customers.”[10]

But for the efforts of Kev Demant, Jennie Gray and Rob Brautigam in the years to follow, the home-produced pamphlet of David Farrant's would have sunk without trace.

Rob Brautigam with Bishop Manchester in Highgate Cemetery.
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Rob Brautigam had now also started to blow his own trumpet without any real justification, describing himself as “the only vampire expert in the Netherlands.” This preposterous claim, something of a revelation to Bishop Seán Manchester, appeared in the Dutch Sunday tabloid Zondagsnieuws in 1992. Reggie Naus, a Dutch correspondent whom the bishop knew, wrote:

“About a year ago he appeared on a Dutch talk show alongside Chorondzon Vanian, a vampiroid in a black tuxedo, wearing sunglasses inside a studio, with long sharp fangs in his mouth. After Vanian told the audience he would live forever, Rob Brautigam told them a vampire would go out at night and ‘drink fresh blood from young virgins.’ I find it rather curious that a ‘vampire expert’ would believe a vampire can only drink the blood of virgins.”[11]

Mr Naus revealed a disturbing development: “Brautigam’s website seems to have become a meeting place for vampiroids, with contact advertisements of people claiming to be 450 years old and similar nonsense.”[12]

Rob Brautigam as he looked in 2010. 

A visit on the internet to Rob Brautigam’s website at the turn of the century revealed links to other sites that were overtly satanic, promoting Aleister Crowley and such like. David Farrant’s squalid pamphlets were now on offer courtesy of Mr Brautigam’s advertising.

Kev Demant and his two associates in “fandom” probably became treacherous and disloyal because they desperately wanted the quick fix of immediate gratification - not unlike the gutter press - whereas Bishop Seán Manchester has always been a very private person, a lesson learned early in life when he awoke and found himself plastered across newspapers. He would always be willing to answer technical queries in response to correspondents; otherwise general fan mail was dealt with by one of the bishop's secretaries. Mr Demant and Mr Brautigam managed to pass through the net. Mr Farrant, meanwhile, courted attention and colluded with absolutely anybody willing to play his game. Perhaps frustrated by Bishop Manchester's aloofness and need for privacy, Mr Demant and Mr Brautigam slowly turned to Mr Farrant for their fix.

 Sylvaine Charlet - a friend of Bishop Seán Manchester.

Just a few of months earlier, Mr Demant had declared: “I’m just somebody who admires you and your work which I think is important and never less than interesting.”[13] He assured Bishop Manchester in private correspondence: “To my mind the best work has been done by Montague Summers and yourself - two Englishmen!”[14]

Kev Demant's correspondence ended abruptly in December 1993. He and Mr Brautigam were now gaining succour for their Highgate Cemetery obsession from Mr Farrant. In the meantime, some observers were becoming aware of anomalies in Jennie Gray’s treatment of Bishop Seán Manchester and his published work in her magazine. Writing under the pseudonym of Lyndall Mack (Peter Mack being her father), Miss Gray described Bishop Manchester in 1994 as an “arrogant Sherlock Holmes of the spirit world … [who] recounts [Farrant’s] ludicrous incompetence with fierce disdain,” adding, “all the rest are fumbling amateurs, mere sightseers, gawping at what they cannot possibly understand.”[15]

The text contained misrepresentation of the facts and potential defamation. Miss Gray’s replies in private were nothing less than polite, but she ignored the falsehoods drawn to her attention: “I think you have entirely missed the point. … The Highgate Vampire as a book [is] an A1 classic which will be read for hundreds of years to come. I think if you had taken better note of the general content of Udolpho you would not have fallen into the error which you have of interpreting the article as a vitriolic attack.”[16]

Three years later, Jennie Gray wrote an article that tells of her childhood in the late 1950s in Highgate, London, before she was relocated in the early 1960s by her parents: “A great deal of the charm of Highgate Cemetery was precisely that it was forbidden territory. I understand entirely why the vampire hunters kept going back there a decade later. … I am only sorry that my family left Highgate too early - and that, as a consequence, I missed the party.”[17]

Missing the party seems to be the bone of contention, source of sour grapes and latent resentment turned malignant evinced by Miss Gray, Rob Brautigam and the Demants. Bishop Seán Manchester felt they should be grateful they missed the “party”: "That truly nightmare scenario is something they cannot possibly begin to comprehend."

Kev Demant, prior to his radical shift in loyalty, published that Bishop Manchester had a “reluctance to suffer fools gladly,” adding, “that he is genuine in his beliefs is, I think, beyond question.”[18]

As the flame of the old century flickered, and first-hand memories of the case dimmed, the hunger to re-invent those times attracted fools like moths to a candle that had almost spluttered its last. Supposed “fans” who later transformed into mean-spirited malcontents have been relatively small in number. The experience of Bishop Seán Manchester nevertheless serves to underline the necessity for a moral agenda. The Demants were not involved in the occult, certainly not at the time of their correspondence with the bishop. They were anarchic members of Class War with an almighty chip on their shoulder against anyone they deemed to be grand. Jennie Gray and Rob Brautigam were fascinated by decadence and subversive behaviour. They failed to recognise their spite - so immersed were they in it - all of which conspired to some small extent to make Bishop Manchester even further remote and inaccessible.

The more they consorted and colluded with David Farrant, the more their material became sick and twisted. Christine Demant turned to producing semi-pornographic and profane illustrations designed to be as unpleasant and defamatory as possible. The only persons interested in her efforts were similarly dysfunctional individuals with an axe to grind. One of her drawings, produced in 1995, depicts the bishop grotesquely bloated in episcopal attire. In the top right-hand corner is an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus revealing a two-fingered gesture. Blasphemy would become her stock-in-trade. Her husband resorted to parodying all that Bishop Manchester represents, and, in a transparent piece of sour grapes in the second issue of a smutty newsletter he was now editing for David Farrant, referred to Sylvaine Charlet as having been included in Bishop Manchester's Highgate account “for the opportunity of regaling us with photographs of himself in the company of a beautiful French superstar” when, in fact, there are no pictures of Sylvaine in the Gothic Press edition.

People slowly become the sum of their choices, and are influenced by what they allow themselves to absorb. Many Bishop Manchester encountered along life’s journey were not aware, or, at least, refused to acknowledge, that they had chosen the Left-hand Path and turned to darkness. The illusion is that theirs is a more exciting and rewarding journey because imaginary evil is "romantic and varied." But evil in reality is gloomy and monotonous, barren and boring.

Kev Demant having a drink with David Farrant.

Sylvaine Charlet has remained a valued colleague and friend of Bishop Seán Manchester with whom exists an affinity that transcends time. Back in the late 1970s they played lead rôles opposite each other for a French film dramatisation that attracted a cult following with art-house audiences[19]. Sylvaine Charlet and the bishop have always remained close friends as well as colleagues; each to the other providing inspiration and encouragement in an increasingly uglier world.

To this day, Kev Demant still continues to publish his pernicious propaganda using hidden subdomains in foreign lands to host illegal material of a defamatory nature peppered throughout with stolen images, some of which are altered and modified to suit his agenda. False attribution and misdirection are the principal stratagems of his ugly vendetta. His anti-Bishop Seán Manchester hate material is reliant on  the input of a compulsive liar (Mr Farrant), a self-proclaimed Satanist (Mr Pope) and a malefic occultist (Mr Medway). Mr Demant, who admits to being an anarchist, is indeed the sum of his choices. He dwells in a depressing world of dark shadows in which he obsesses about a man he met briefly at two public occasions a long time ago; a man whom he feels obliged to malign in the most vicious manner imaginable as some latter-day clone of that original compulsive whose existence is locked in the distant, dismal past: David Farrant.

Anthony Hogg would remark: "Kev Demant and Gareth Medway are better reps for Dave than Dave himself." This is true because the aforementioned have a grasp of the English language and Mr Demant has a dry sense of humour which occasionaly surfaces amidst the venom he spits. Whereas Mr Farrant is totally void of humour, and is yet to discover how to spell and understand the basics of English grammar. Even if he possessed these it would still leave the reader with an ugly and unimaginative narrative creaking at the seams with his predictable obsessions. His writing skills are pretty much non-existant, which makes Mr Farrant a very poor representative of himself when it comes to putting pen to paper. Kev Demant does a far better job at spinning Mr Farrant's badly presented propaganda of unconvincing falsehood about Bishop Manchester. 

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[1] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 8 October 1991).
[2] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 20 May 1990).
[3] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 13 August 1991).
[4] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 5 August 1991).
[5] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 17 February 1991).
[6] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 20 February 1992).
[7] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 27 February 1992).
[8] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 7 September 1992).
[9] “Suspended in Dusk" by Kevin & Christine Demant (Udolpho, Summer 1997, p32).
[10] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 23 March 1992).
[11] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Reggie Naus, 21 March 1996).
[12] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Reggie Naus, 15 May 1999).
[13] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 19 August 1993).
[14] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 14 August 1992).
[15] “The Highgate Vampire Revisited” by Lyndall Mack (Udolpho, September 1994, p30).
[16] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Jennie Gray, 9 November 1994).
[17] “Growing up by the Boneyard” by Jennie Gray (Udolpho, Summer 1997, p6).
[18] The Ghost Story Society Newsletter (issue 7, 1990).