The SearchVoat Forum

During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s local leaders (Bishops) in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had members in large enough numbers report they were victims of Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA). As a result, the little known “Strengthening the Members Committee” assigned Bishop Glenn L. Pace of the presiding Bishopric to investigate. Bishop Pace submitted his report to the committee in July of 1990 and about a year later the report was leaked to local media.

In this report, Defending Utah discusses the report’s specifics and takes callers comments and questions. The full memo is included below.

Former therapist David Hamblin, 68, who was previously charged with 18 counts of sexual assault, was taken into custody Wednesday morning and booked on the following:

3 counts of sodomy on a child
Rape of a child
2 counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child
Lewdness involving a child

The sheriff's office announced an investigation into ritualistic sexual abuse on May 31, 2022. The investigation was opened the previous year after the department learned of multiple victims reporting similar incidents that took place in Utah County, Juab County, and Sanpete County between 1990-2010.

More than 130 potential victims came forward, with officials describing the majority of those tips as “credible.”

The following day, Utah County Attorney David Leavitt held a press conference, announcing himself as a subject of the investigation and describing his link to Hamblin.

"This therapist was my elder's quorum president in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was my neighbor. I had a family connection. When his wife learned of whatever he was doing, she divorced him, and I testified at that divorce hearing. I'm well aware of who the therapist is, and I'm well aware of many of the players here," Leavitt said. "I had a friendship with he and his wife to the extent that I went into court and testified on behalf of his wife to protect his children from him."

Leavitt said he felt the investigation was "politically motivated."

“There is no organized ring of abuse. It was debunked more than 10 years ago,” Leavitt said. “The allegations that are there are so outlandish and so crazy that – yeah, they’re just not true... That this all occurs less than one week before ballots drop in an election in which I am participating causes me tremendous concern.”

Hamblin was known for using hypnotism and peyote as part of his sessions.

In 2015, he and his "church" advocated on behalf of peyote use in sacrament (see below article).

Some victims say he used peyote as part of the abuse.

Satanic panic is making a comeback, fueled by QAnon believers and GOP influencers

Baseless accusations are branding people as satanist pedophiles at the speed of the internet — just ask a GOP prosecutor who recently lost re-election.

PROVO, Utah — On June 1, David Leavitt, the prosecuting attorney for Utah County, stood behind a lectern in his windowless Provo office before a gaggle of reporters. Wearing a gray suit and an exasperated look, he wanted to make something categorically clear: Neither he nor his wife were guilty of murdering or cannibalizing young children.

It was, by all accounts, a strange declaration from the progressive Republican prosecutor, a Mormon and younger brother of a former Utah governor, Mike Leavitt, who had earned a name for himself by prosecuting a well-known polygamist in 2001. But David Leavitt was up for re-election, Utah County voters would start casting ballots the next week, and the allegations, ridiculous as they may have sounded, had started to spread online and throughout the community.