Experts and support groups say survivors of sexual abuse involving witchcraft, spirit possession and other ritual practices are increasingly turning to AI tools like ChatGPT for guidance and therapy, prompting more victims to contact helplines and report crimes long believed to be hidden and under-reported
AI chatbot ChatGPT is driving a rise in reports of organised and ritual abuse in the United Kingdom, experts have warned, as survivors of so-called “satanic” sexual violence use the artificial intelligence tool for therapy.
Police say organised and ritual abuse, including “witchcraft, spirit possession and spiritual abuse” (WSPRA) against children, is under-reported in the UK. There is no modern-day criminal charge that covers it specifically, but such offending typically involves sexual abuse, violence and neglect with ritualistic elements. Some of these acts are inspired by satanism, fascism or esoteric religious beliefs and are used to control victims.
Perpetrators include abusive families and networks, human traffickers, online gangs and paedophile rings.
Since 1982, there have been 14 UK criminal cases in which ritualistic practices in sexual abuse were acknowledged. However, research by clinical psychologist Dr Elly Hanson in 2025 found that convictions represented only the tip of the iceberg.
Experts are now rolling out training for police forces through a programme led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), which has established a specialist working group.
Gabrielle Shaw, chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac), said there had been a sustained rise in reports of ritual abuse over the past 18 months, with more people saying they had been prompted to report it by AI.
She said: “Over the last six months to a year, we’re getting people contacting the Napac support line saying: ‘I was referred to you by ChatGPT’. People are using AI, ChatGPT as a form of therapy and exploration. There are mixed feelings about that, but if it’s a route into support, that has to be a good thing.
“We would normally see spikes in calls around days that have significant supernatural or religious overtones but this is not a spike. It’s a sustained rise. There’s increasing knowledge of the crime and of where you can get support. Satanism does come up a fair bit.”
The NPCC, Napac and the Hydrant policing programme, which supports forces nationwide with child protection, commissioned a review from Hanson last year and launched a WSPRA briefing for professionals this month.
Last year, members of a paedophile ring in Scotland who posed as witches and wizards were jailed for sexual offences.
Shaw said that out of 36,700 calls to Napac over nine years, 1,310 mentioned organised ritual abuse. She added that offending could be intergenerational and, while perpetrators were mostly male, survivors had also named grandmothers and aunts.
Richard Fewkes, director of the Hydrant Programme, said that the fantastical elements of ritual abuse had contributed to a justice gap.
He said: “We need to improve right the way across the system in dealing with it. It’s out there, it does exist and it’s not actually being reported to police. We’ve known about this for many, many years.”
Hanson said victims were growing up in “regimes of cruelty,” but the truth was “getting lost between” a “discourse of disbelief” on one hand and “conspiracy fictions” on the other.
She added: “We’re not seeing this abuse happening in particular cultures rather than others. This is something we’re seeing happening within white British, often privileged families. It’s not conforming to any stereotypes about where it might be.”
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