The granddaughter of Britain's last convicted witch has launched a fresh
campaign to gain a posthumous pardon for Helen Duncan, jailed at the
height of World War Two as a threat to the nation.

I'd say it's about time.


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Campaign to pardon Britain's last convicted witch

By Paul MajendieMon Jan 15, 8:25 AM ET

The granddaughter of Britain's last convicted witch has launched a fresh
campaign to gain a posthumous pardon for Helen Duncan, jailed at the
height of World War Two as a threat to the nation.

"I will carry on fighting to clear her name," said Mary Martin who still
vividly remembers being taunted in the playground in 1944 as "witch
spawn."

"The memories are still fresh. It was so unfair. She was totally
innocent. It was ludicrous she was ever taken to court," the 72-year-old
told Reuters.

Duncan, a medium who conducted seances across Britain, was arrested at a
time when officials feared details of the upcoming D-Day landings in
France could be revealed.

She disclosed -- allegedly through contacts in the spirit world -- the
sinking of two British warships long before the news was officially made
public.

She also told the parents of a missing sailor that his ship, HMS Barham,
had sunk. That was true, but to preserve morale, the sinking was not
announced.

Found guilty of witchcraft, Duncan was jailed for nine months.

Martin said wartime leader Winston Churchill called the conviction
"tomfoolery."

When re-elected in 1951, Churchill repealed the 1735 witchcraft act but
Duncan's conviction was never quashed. She died in 1956.

Martin petitioned Britain's Home Secretary (Interior Minister) in vain
in 1999. Now she is determined to try again, bolstered by support from
Gordon Prestoungrange, holder of a medieval Scottish barony.

In 2004 he used his position as the local baron in the coastal town of
Prestonpans to pardon 81 women and men executed for witchcraft in the
16th and 17th centuries.

"When Mary Martin was growing up as a youngster, it was a real stigma,"
he told Reuters. "The wound is still open today."

He said the campaign on www.prestoungrange.org/helenduncan/ had taken on
an international dimension with backing from the Witch Museum in the
Massachusetts town of Salem, where in 1692 20 girls, men and women were
executed for witchcraft.

Prestoungrange says the time is right for a pardon in Britain: "The 300
soldiers executed for cowardice in the First World War have been
pardoned... we are now also apologizing for the slave trade...

"This was a bizarre decision. They were looking at some way of silencing
the lady. They actually thought she was on the inside as a spy with
information from somewhere. They were fearful she had access to official
secrets. The case was ridiculous."


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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070115/wl_nm/britain_witch_dc
--
John Hachmann aa #1782

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire

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