Hoaxed · Tortoise Media

Secrets and lies | Ep 1

September 22, 2022·37 min·3 clips

In their final police interview, the children reveal Abraham threatened to bury them in a field and drown them unless they kept repeating the abuse story.

1. 'Hoaxed' episode one (Tortoise, 2022), reported by Alexi Mostrous, traces the origin of the Hampstead conspiracy hoax from a 2014 Morocco holiday to a global conspiracy theory still active eight years later. 2. Mostrous is accompanied by producers Gemma Newby, Xavier Greenwood, and Imi Harper; Ella Gariva (also known as Ella Draper) is the central interviewee, and Sabine McNeil provides recorded testimony. 3. The episode's core thesis is that Hampstead is not an isolated hoax but the template for modern satanic panic conspiracy theories, connecting to QAnon, Pizzagate, and Salem witch trials. 4. Ella Gariva is introduced as a Russian-born yoga teacher and nutritionist living in Hampstead who came to the UK in 1998 and later divorced, eventually settling with two children from a relationship with an actor named Ricky. 5. In April 2014, Ella met Abraham Christie at a vegan chocolate-tasting party in North London; Abraham, from Tottenham, promoted hemp-juice smoothies as a healing elixir and quickly moved into Ella's home and became involved in the children's care. 6. In July 2014, Ella, Abraham, and the children travelled to Morocco on a family holiday; it was there that the children first made allegations of systematic abuse by their father, teachers, and an organised paedophile ring operating from their Hampstead school and church. 7. The allegations escalated to claims of ritualistic infant murder, cannibalism, and a cult of approximately 175 individuals led by Ricky, the children's father. 8. On their return to the UK on September 3, 2014, Ella began recording videos of the children repeating their allegations; Mostrous declines to play these, noting the children looked tired and were asked leading questions. 9. Abraham's brother-in-law Jean Clément, a special constable, called Scotland Yard after hearing the children's account, and the children were taken to Barnet Police Station to be interviewed by DC Steve Martin. 10. A police search of the church on September 10, 2014 found no evidence; a drive to identify addresses on Ella's list of 175 supposed abusers produced nothing. 11. On September 11, one of the children told DC Martin how Abraham had coached them, describing the water torture — being made to kneel while warm water was poured over their heads — and spoon beatings used to enforce the story. 12. The police removed the children from Ella's care and placed them in temporary foster care; in their final police interview on September 20, both children fully recanted, explaining that Abraham had threatened to bury them in a field and drown them if they didn't keep repeating the allegations. 13. The police closed the investigation on September 20, recording no crime against the father or any of the 175 named individuals — and also recording no crime by Abraham, who was never questioned despite the children's account of his coercion. 14. The case moved to the family courts, where Ella fought to prevent her children being placed with their father Ricky; she dismissed her legal aid lawyers and began representing herself. 15. Ella was introduced to Sabine McNeil, a 76-year-old former CERN scientist turned Mackenzie friend who had become obsessed with what she saw as failures in the UK family court system. 16. McNeil launched a public petition that gathered 16,000 signatures for the 'return of the two whistleblower kids to their Russian family,' and was given access to all the confidential court material by Ella. 17. In February 2015, as the High Court prepared to rule on the children's custody, McNeil published the children's police interview videos and Ella's list of 175 named individuals online — framing it as a direct ultimatum to the judge. 18. One blog republishing the material reported 25 million hits in its first seven days; the judge ordered the material taken down but it was already being reposted across social media globally. 19. The episode uses a documentary-style narrative format with real police interview audio and interviewee recordings; Mostrous's narration draws explicit parallels to cultural reference points including Stranger Things and QAnon. 20. Listeners interested in disinformation, conspiracy theory origins, or the legal and social mechanics of how private child abuse cases become global phenomena will find the most value.

As heard by us

An interview-led look at the Hampstead allegations that stays anchored in uncertainty.

The episode starts in a police interview room, then opens out into the Hampstead allegations and the family holiday to Morocco where Ella's children first made claims of systematic abuse.

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Why you'd press play

The Morocco trip is where the allegations first crack into the open, and the story turns.

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