Mervyn Johnson Sentenced to Prison For Rape & Molesting Children

[Freija]

Some days ago yet another "healer" here in Sweden was sentenced to prison. He had claimed Cherokee descent and convinced his victims that they had all been Indians in their past life . During the healing procedures he had raped and molested them. The youngest one was 11 years old! This healer had world wide recognition and was defended by many spiritual organisations.

The worst bit of it all is that many of the young women and children had complained to their parents and/or other adults in the organisations for years, but had been told not to question a spiritual person like Mr. XXX. The children and youngsters had been told that "when he does his healing it can sometimes feel like his hand are in "certain places" but it is just an imagination due to his strong power!"   :o

Anyway - another one locked up for many years! Since the first "plastic shaman" was sentenced little over a year ago, more and more fakes are being questioned  ;D

[PLH]

Jail is not harsh enough, his victimization of women and children will end, while what he has done will last. Boy does that stir up some anger...

[Barnaby_McEwan]

Do we know this person's name, Annika?

PLH, I guess Sweden's prisons are less brutal places than those in the US, but this sicko is still going to be stuck for years in a large building with a lot of angry guys who view the likes of him as lower than the wife-beaters, bent cops and informers he'll likely be sharing a cell block with. Anything could happen in that time.

[Freija]

Do we know this person's name, Annika?

We sure do! Check out his website...this guy has been around! God knows how many people he have raped/assaulted/molested during his world wide tours!! I shudder just to think about it!
www.cheroki.com

I agree with you, PLH, it is difficult to even find words to describe how apalling this is!! But Barnaby is right, he will not have a cosy, lazy time in the prison - I am sure he will encounter some....cough cough....problems....

This is the second "false prophet" who has been convicted in Sweden with loads of media coverage - we´re a fairly small country so people are bound to read about it. And hopefully this will make people more cautious and also give the victims strength and courage to come forward.

[educatedindian]

Mervyn Johnson:
"My clairvoyant sight first opened when I was around eight years old and I thought it was quite normal to see spirit people. I joined my first spiritual church, in England at the age of twelve.
It was confirmed to me by several mediums that I had a natural gift of healing and spiritual communication.
My training first began when I was a teenager with meditation and circle-work with the well-known English medium Ena Twigg. Over the years I have spent much of my training at the Arthur Findley spiritual college in Stansted, England."

Have you heard of this college, Barnaby, or Ena Twigg?

While I was in Sweden, they took me on a tour of the last prison where they used to have prisoners waiting to be executed. It's been shut down for many years as inhumane. And the cells still had at least twice the space a prisoner in a county jail in the US would have. I don't take that as a sign Swedish prisoner have it too easy. I take it as a sign of just how messed up our own prisons are. The main thing is if he will lose years out of his life for the harm he did, and that seems to be yes.

[Barnaby_McEwan]

Have you heard of this college, Barnaby, or Ena Twigg?

No, but I doubt whether anyone not involved in spiritualism would recognise these names. Here's a thread on the James Randi skeptic forum with some translations from the Swedish papers and a few other links: apparently he only got five years.

It's very disturbing. I'm wondering whether there are British victims.

[Freija]

Thanks for that link, Barnaby! I haven´t followed all the articles since I´ve been away for Christmas.
Yeah - five years...that is Sweden for you!! We can put away people for murder for more than 30 years, but when it comes to victimizing women and children....they get close to nothing!! >:(   What worries me, when he gets out, he will still have devoted followers around him!!

So he is still a British citizen...and he is getting divorced? The normal procedure would be to send him back once he has served his sentence. Sorry Barnaby....

This guy has been kept anonymous all along, which is the law in Sweden, until one newspaper published the photo on his website with his face blurred. It didn´t take many seconds for people to find out who he was.

Barnaby, maybe we should move this to the FRAUD section with his name in the subject title? I didn´t realize I knew who he was until you asked me....

[piya]

Barnaby,

You would think that if this guy is British, it would have been reported in the UK, especially if he is likely to be sent back after his sentance.

Have you heard anything in the news?

Piya

[Freija]

Piya/Barnaby - if there is nothing in the English press it is probably because according to Swedish law, the names of offenders are not made public. Not unless they kill a minister or something....

Perhaps someone could "happen" to inform a British newspaper...?  ;) ;)

[piya]

Freija,

I am on to it. Check your PM,s

[piya]

Also if anyone can provide any links to  media who have covered the court story, please let me know

[Freija]

There are lots of articles in Swedish newspapers - nothing in English apart from what was translated on the link that Barnaby provided. Here are some (this is the biggest evening paper)

http://expressen.se/index.jsp?a=745913    8th November
http://expressen.se/index.jsp?a=782111    8th November
http://expressen.se/index.jsp?a=746367    9th November
http://expressen.se/expressen/jsp/polopoly.jsp?a=746379   9th November
http://expressen.se/expressen/jsp/polopoly.jsp?a=747704 10th November
http://expressen.se/index.jsp?a=789541  12th November
http://expressen.se/index.jsp?a=745436  14th November   photo

Check the last link with the photo - then go to his website http://www.cheroki.com/eng/galleri.asp?kat=7
and scroll down. This is one example of that although the Press is keeping his name hidden, they continously publish photos from his website.

I think maybe the best thing would be to get in contact with the persons who have written the articles.
I only found one short article about the sentence, published 28th December:

http://www.gp.se/gp/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=119&a=316339

The more I´ve read, the more sickening it gets. He told the women - and the children - that they were selected out because of their "pure energies" and if they didn´t put up, the spirit world would punish them by giving them cancer. Most of them believed him....

Let me know if you need any more help, Piya!

[Ingeborg]

MJ is still mentioned with an entry as a healer in Swedish wikipedia:
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mervyn_Johnson


He also must have tried to make it to safer waters recently, as there was an ad from Switzerland:
http://epaper.baslerstab.chsicms/detail.php?id=23164&template=ep_html
The ad reads: "English trance healer Mervyn Johnson will work in the town of Muttenz from November 14-17. For appointments call 061/4620357"
This was supposed to happen in November 2006.


And then there was something really interesting, but the article can't be accessed any longer:
http://www.macroworld.net/m/m.w?lp=GetStory&id=227838871
The short paragraph showing up in a google search reads:
"Wright, originally from Essex, uses the stage name Mervyn Johnson as a spiritualist medium and claims to work through an ancient Chinese doctor. ..." Wright???

[educatedindian]

The topic was moved and renamed. Hopefully anyone doing a search for him online will know now know exactly what he's done.

The "college" he was trained at is not too impressive.

http://www.nucleus.com/~donnakiss/college1.htm
"THE ARTHUR FINDLEY COLLEGE:
Arthur Findley gave his home, Stansted Hall, to the Spiritualist movement for use as a college for the advancement of psychic science in 1964. Since that time thousands of students from around the world have taken advantage of this unique place of learning to advance their psychic and spiritual gifts.
The courses last between 3 and 5 days and are full board residental (live-in) for that time. I was lucky enough to have attended 2 courses; Trance and Physical Phenonena III, and New Dimensions Week (exploration of all stages of Mediumship). There are many courses to choose from, from Spiritual Retreats to Healing Courses and Teacher Training. There are also weeks set aside for non-English speaking contingents (German Week, Italian Week, etc.)
You can contact the College through the Spiritualist National Union's WebSite (see below), or contact them via telephone: 01279-813636; or write to; The Arthur Findley College, Stansted Hall, Stansted, Essex CM24 8UD."

Five whole days at somebody's house?

[piya]

Al,

Its not that small a house.

http://www.snu.org.uk/t_front.htm

I was near there the other day working at Stansted Airport, if I had known I would have called in and asked some questions about MJ. Maybe next time.