Dad, I wish I was normal

At that moment my heart breaks. My precious daughter thinks she’s not normal. I have not protected her enough. I have not done enough. I have completely failed Elizabeth. This is the worst moment of my life.

The 1980s and 1990s produced a wave of moral panic over child abuse, a tsunami of irrational and delusional hysteria that swept the cultural landscape, leaving behind injustice and tragedy on a grand scale. Millions of lives were impacted – including those of my family.

Child care workers were accused of the unimaginably grotesque abuse of children in day care centres. Satanists and cult members were believed to conduct elaborate ceremonies, including the ritual sacrifice of crateloads of babies. Hundreds of thousands of women under recovered memory therapy recalled unspeakable abuse, often satanic ritual abuse, by family members and friends. Many of these women were diagnosed with multiple personality disorder.

Each family impacted by this hysteria has its own story to tell. This is my story about the tragedy that struck my family.