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The Thurston County ritual abuse case was a case in which Paul Ingram, county Republican Party Chairman of Thurston County, Washington and the Chief Civil Deputy of the Sheriff's department, was accused by his daughters of sexual abuse, by at least one daughter of satanic ritual abuse and later accused by his son in 1996 of abusing him from the ages of 4 to 12. Ingram's confession grew increasingly elaborate and detailed, and Ingram's young daughters and their friends subsequently accused a sizable number of Ingram's fellow Sheriff's department employees of abuse. He originally pled guilty but has since maintained his innocence and alleges his confession was coerced. After pleading guilty, he attempted to withdraw his plea and requested a trial or clemency but his requests were refused. According to the appeals court, the original trial had conducted "an extensive evidentiary hearing on the coercion issue" and found that Ingram was unable to prove his claims of coercion, a situation his appeals did not change.〔Burgess, Justice F. D. (1994). Order granting summary judgment in Paul R. Ingram v. Chase Riverland et al., No. C93-5399FDB, U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington at Tacoma, May 5, 1994〕 Ingram was released in 2003 after serving his sentence. The case is often cited by proponents of the idea that satanic ritual abuse actually exists as proof because Ingram was found guilty; in reality, Ingram was never charged with "satanic ritual abuse" but with six counts of rape in the third degree, and received an unusually long sentence – rather than a maximum of three and a half years, he was sentenced to twenty years.〔Wright, 1994, p. 188.〕 The "satanic" aspects of the case were dropped by the prosecution although the appearance of Satan was integral to Ingram's confessions. The case has also been compared to the Salem witch trials. ==Background== The accusations appeared at a time when there were tremendous questions being raised about the accuracy of memories of childhood abuse and incest. Books such as the self-help tome ''The Courage to Heal'', the discredited satanic ritual abuse autobiography ''Michelle Remembers'', and work by memory researchers such as Elizabeth Loftus all worked to support, contradict and challenge conventional beliefs about how memory and repression worked, or if the latter even existed. Ingram's daughters had both been in therapy, one before the initial outcry, the other while the trial was ongoing.〔Wright, 1994, p. 147-175.〕 The Ingrams were also members of a local Pentecostal church that promoted the idea that Satan could control the minds of Christians, cause them to commit crimes, then remove the memories after the fact, and that God would not allow harmful false memories. While at a church retreat, Ingram's daughter was told she possessed prophetic powers and had been sexually abused by her father. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thurston County ritual abuse case」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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