UK experts have said reports of organized religious abuse due to ChatGPIT are on the rise, as survivors of “satanic” sexual violence use AI tools for treatment.
Police say organized ritual abuse and “witchcraft, spirit possession and spiritual abuse” (WSPRA) against children are under-reported in the UK. There is no modern charge that specifically covers it, but this type of crime is characterized by sexual abuse, violence and neglect, with ritualistic elements added to control the victims – sometimes motivated by Satanism, fascism or esoteric religious beliefs.
Perpetrators include abusive families and networks, human traffickers, online gangs and pedophile gangs.
There have been 14 criminal cases in Britain since 1982 in which ritualistic practices in sexual abuse were acknowledged. However, 2025 Research Clinical psychologist Dr. Ellie Hanson found that convictions represent “the tip of the iceberg.”
Experts are now starting to train police forces as part of a campaign led by the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), which has set up an expert working group.
Gabrielle Shaw, CEO of the National Association of People Abused in Childhood (NPAC), said there has been a “steady increase” in reports of ritual abuse over the past 18 months, with increasing numbers of people saying they were prompted by AI to report it.
Shaw said: “Over the last six months to a year, we have been contacting people Napak Support Line Saying: ‘I was referred to you by ChatGPT.’ People are using AI, ChatGPT as therapy and exploration. There are mixed feelings about it, but if it’s an avenue of support, that would be a good thing.
“We generally see an increase in calls on days that have significant supernatural or religious influences – but it’s not a spike – it’s a sustained increase. Knowledge is increasing about the crime and where you can get support … Satanism comes up quite a bit.”
The NPCC, the Napac and Hydrant policing programme, which supports forces across the country with child protection, launched a review from Hanson last year and launched WSPRA briefings for professionals this month.
Last year members of a pedophile gang in Scotland – who posed as witches and wizards – were jailed for sex crimes.
Shaw said that out of 36,700 calls to NAPAC over nine years, 1,310 mentioned organized ritual abuse. He said that offending could be “intergenerational in nature” and that while perpetrators were predominantly male, survivors described “grandmothers and aunts” as perpetrators.
Richard Fewkes, director of the Hydrant program, said the fact that the ritual elements seemed “spectacular” may have contributed to the justice gap.
He added: “We need to reform the whole system to deal with this – it’s there, it exists and it’s not actually being reported (to the police)… We’ve known about it for many years.”
Hanson said that victims were growing up in a “regime of brutality”, but the truth was being lost between a “discourse of disbelief” on the one hand, and “conspiracy stories” on the other.
He said: “We’re not seeing this abuse happening in particular cultures rather than other cultures. It’s something we’re seeing happening within white British, often privileged families. It doesn’t conform to any stereotypes about where it might happen.”
