Welcome	Rules And Regulations	Forum	Pentarianism	What Is Wicca ?	Wiccan Beliefs	13 Wiccan Principles	Wiccan Law of Power	Witches Rede of Chivalry	The 9 Satanic Sins
The 9 Satanic Statements	The 11 Satanic Rules On Earth	Religion	Buddhism	Polytheism	Time storms in the matrix	Time Travelers	Traveling Madly Through Time	Auras	Astral Projection
Past Life Regressions Exercise	Zodiac Signs	Celtic Symbolism	The Seasonal Festivals	Englands Last Witch Trial	The Art of Casting Spells	The Sleeping Prophet	Automatic Writing	Seance	Preparing For A Seance
Suggested Security Programs	Charcter Map

There are those convinced she had genuine powers and that she was only silenced by the police because she revealed military secrets through her mediumship. But equally there are those convinced she was simply a fraud, duping the bereaved of their money. We may never know for sure. At the moment the conviction for witchcraft stands.

However, the Hampshire Chronicle can reveal for the first time some of the information kept in the secret files of the Crown Prosecution Service since 1944. The original files have been made available to Hampshire Chronicle editor Alan Cleaver as they have been deemed to be no longer "sensitive". They contain a wealth of information about the trial but also about the atmosphere in Britain in 1944.

This was a time when tens of thousands had lost loved ones in the war and they were often desperate for proof they had survived the grave. This was an atmosphere in which the burgeoning movement of Spiritualism boomed and in which mediums like Helen Duncan were attracting large audiences. Perhaps Helen's downfall was that she charged people to attend her seances, giving her a motive for fraud.

So it was that in January 1944 the police attended one of her seances at 301 Copnor Road with the intention of catching Helen red-handed. Helen, as was usual in seances of this kind, sat in a cabinet-type structure behind a curtain. The room was kept dark to encourage the arrival of the spirits. As the audience waited, Helen slipped into a trance and soon the white spirit figures emerged from the curtain.

The"spirits" spoke to the audience and some were believed to be the souls of those who had died many years before. As one figure stepped in front of the curtains, Constable Cross reached to grab it and, taking his cue, Lieutenant Worth shone a torch [flashlight] on the form. Cross had a good hold of Helen but the white sheet seemed to vanish.

The files still record Cross's statement: "As I grasped it by the arms, I saw clearly by the light of a torch switched on that it was Mrs Duncan. Mrs Duncan was thrusting a white cloth which she appeared to be holding in front of her down towards the floor. I saw the white cloth drop to the floor. Holding Mrs Duncan with my right hand I attempted to seize the cloth with my left hand but at this moment it was pulled violently away by someone in the audience on the left of the cabinet."

The Spiritualists claim the 'ectoplasm' simply dematerialised.

The files reveal how the police tried to collate further evidence of Helen's trickery. They were able to discover she had been previously convicted of fraudulent mediumship by police in Edinburgh in 1933. But there is a surprising lack of any other evidence in the files.

There is a rather vague letter from a woman in Liverpool who had seen Helen at a seance in 1943 and believed she might be able to hide cloth in the "layers or folds of superfluous flesh". Helen was a rather robust lady! But otherwise the police had to rely solely on the evidence from the seance they raided at Copnor Road.

One intriguing name that crops up in the files is Harry Price. Price was a journalist and self-proclaimed ghost hunter who has himself been exposed as a fraud by modern researchers. He was not normally shy of publicity but on this occasion there is a note in the files that says Mr Price "does not desire to be a witness" but was happy to provide information that he claimed proved Helen was fraudulent.

The files do indicate that the police came across evidence in support of Helen but it was decided that any other "genuine" cases were not relevant to what had happened at Portsmouth on that night in January.

Today, there are at least two groups fighting for Helen's name to be cleared. It is unlikely they will find anything to help them in the CPS files but their campaigns have prompted the release of the documents.

In the end it may be Helen who has the final say. She has returned from beyond the grave through more than one medium.

On one occasion she was asked about the campaigns to clear her name. She replied: "It seems to matter a great deal more down there than it does up here."

Personal Trial that Eventually Led to Medium's Own Death

In some thatched hut on the edge of a desolate moor in Northern England?

Surprisingly, it was somewhere closer to home. And not that long ago either.

Helen Duncan was arrested in January 1944 in a former chemist's shop in Copnor Road, Portsmouth. Number 301 Copnor Road, Portsmouth, is currently up for sale but has previously been used to sell spare motor parts. It sits in a parade of other shops and most people would walk past without giving it much thought. Yet it was in the flat, above what was then a chemist's shop, that the last witch in England was caught.

As a medium, Helen Duncan was originally arrested for the catch-all charge of vagrancy but as she came up for trial at the Old Bailey, the police suddenly added the charge of witchcraft.

Not surprisingly it caused a storm of controversy. Even with a war on, reporters on national papers couldn't believe the sensational story that was about to unfold: a woman to be tried for witchcraft.

Winston Churchill turned his attention away from the war effort and wanted to know what on earth was going on. Why was a woman in England in 1944 being tried for witchcraft?

Helen Duncan, a medium not always at ease with the Spiritualist movement, suddenly found herself as a cause celebre. Her trial heard from many witnesses, including famous journalist Hannen Swaffer.

Witnesses told how they had met 'dead' relatives at Helen's seances. They described how the deceased materialised in the room and spoke to them. But it wasn't enough to convince the jury. The judge said he interpreted the jury's findings as meaning that Helen was simply dishonest.

She had charged 12/6d (62.1/2p) for people to attend her seances and if police had shown it was fraudulent then she had obtained the money by dishonest means. She was convicted and sent to Holloway Prison for several months. But her remarkable story did not end there.

The police raided another of her seances in Nottingham in 1956. They found nothing but Helen died five weeks after the seance. Spiritualists claim it was because light suddenly shone on a medium in trance can be harmful. Officially Helen died from natural causes.

Special thanks to About.com & Hampshire Chronicle Archives