Hell to pay: Revisiting the Martensville satanic sex scandal (2003) - The Fifth Estate

for about two years in the early 90s it was transformed from a family friendly town just outside Saskatoon into Canada's most notorious address Martinsville it seemed had become infested with devil worshipers child sex abusers maybe even satanic killers all too weird to believe well no not at first and not for a long time for months and months there was held to pay as lives were turned upside down with arrests sensational charges trials tonight for the first time the Fifth Estate will show you what went wrong we'll hear from those at the heart of the case and show you videotape that's never before been broadcast [Music] it's dead of 9 April 24th 1992 a local cop and his partner are on high alert they've been warned terrible things could happen that night possibly even human sacrifice a gang with ties to the occult is supposed to be heading for Martinsville constable Mike Swan is packing every gun he can find on orders from the chief and he authorized us to go ahead and bring in our own guns and just be as heavily armed as possible and at the time I've got admit that I had never been more scared in my life the chief tells his men he got a tip there's a hit list and a martinsville family is on it as the night wears on Swann worries about what will happen if he doesn't make it home that night I told a friend of mine if something did happen to me that he would make sure that barb the kids we looked after in the end no one dies The Satanic gang never shows up and in the light of day the whole threat would seem bizarre but by this time martinsville was already six months into a nightmare where nothing is too strange it all began with a mother's grave suspicion she was a nurse at a Saskatoon Hospital one day in the fall of 1991 she finished her shift and drove the 15 minutes home to Martinsville a place with small-town values and her lots of families had young kids when she worked in the city she sent her three to the babysitters just a few streets away the house was full of kids from infants to grade schoolers the babysitter's husband worked at a provincial jail his friends were cops it seemed perfect but at bath time that night the mother noticed something peculiar her two-year-old had had diarrhea so she expected a diaper rash but the redness and chafing around her daughter's genitals looked like something more when she questioned her daughter the little girl said a stranger poked at my bum with a pink rope and that was the last ordinary day in Martinsville for some time town police took the mother's complaint and immediately assigned their newest constable Claudia Bryden barely out of police college she wondered if one child may have been abused what about the others so she tracked down more parents whose kids went to the same babysitter's this mother sent her five-year-old there she wants her identity hidden to protect him back then when police first called she couldn't believe the babysitter might be involved so she phoned and asked and I can remember me on the phone and I'm just crying and I'm saying tell me that it's not true you know nothing happened with you know and of course you know all that they could say was no no nothing's going on they don't know what they're talking about nothing going on that's what the kids said too at first but when Bryden teamed up with a Saskatoon police officer rod Moore they extracted fry any details bit by bit the kids said they were fondled and forced into oral sex that a vibrator was pushed up their bottoms and that guns were used to threaten them and where did this happen at the babysitters if that wasn't enough one kid began to talk about another place a place the children were driven to place he called the devil church when that leaked out a local pilot flying over Martinsville said he'd found the place he would tell police it was a blue building six kilometers northwest of town I guess the worst part of it was when yelling was saying that how they would get the building in that building and they get put in the van and they'd have black sheets of paper you know to cover the windows and it was here that the story spun into madness inside the devil church one kid said he was stripped naked hoisted in a cage and poked at still others said an ax handle was shoved up their bottoms several kids said they were stuffed in a freezer and one said he was abused on a waterbed and they were threatened never to tell their parents they were totally helpless and like with the threats that they got you know they were gonna kill their mom and cut their moms legs off as terrible as that was the investigators heard more as the months wore on the children said they remembered uniforms and police cars they said it wasn't just the babysitter's who abused them it was the very people sworn to protect them from photos the kids picked out police officers from three different forces and the case suddenly turned inward watch how a police camera captured the very moment a Saskatoon officer was told he too was a suspect well then you know you know ten minutes later he's angrier hey you know what I feel like doing right now man [ __ ] you one okay soon it's pleading not there and then he breaks you cool so I just care Terry I'm scared by spring 1992 Martinsville was reeling sex-abuse first at the neighbors then the devil Church add cops as conspirators and then throw in Satan rumors of a satanic cult in town the Brotherhood of the RAM and among its members police officers that got the attention of the Chief of Police he would report that one source told him to local children have been selected on a hit list as possible human sacrifices and Mike Johnston would write in his notes it would appear that there is a very strong satanic group in the area in town whispers were now in the open rumors accepted as fact nothing was more heinous than hurting kids and now Satan and the police were wrapped up in it too it was an explosive story and of course it lured the press at the Saskatoon star Phoenix bill Peterson was publisher and it just sort of grew and grew and grew to a point where there was a level of panic or hysteria right throughout the community no question the media shared in that panic I think there was a degree of panic to my eye at least in the police and and in the Justice Department pent up panic and then it burst under tremendous pressure to do something martinsville police pounced on a morning in June 1992 they rounded up the babysitter Linda sterling and her husband Ron you want to get out of my yard right now they're 23 year old son Travis sterling and a young offender were picked up that same day next the cops one of their own martinsville Jim Elstad led the parade five would eventually be taken in one of them John Popovich who'd gone in one hour from police officer to pedophile in all nine people were accused of the most horrible acts against children it was a triumph for Martinsville Police Chief we're talking sexual assault sexual interference unlawful confinements point firearms assaults aggravated assaults how did this compare with any anything else you've ever been involved with the investigation was it doesn't I've been a police officer for 25 years and this this is probably the culmination of all investigations back then Saskatchewan justice minister was Bob Mitchell he clearly remembers the day his deputy and a senior justice official came rushing into his office when they chartered a plane there's all kinds of ways to go from Regina to Saskatoon without chartering a plane and they were in a big hurry they were on their way to the airport because a large number of charges had been presented to the prosecutors in Saskatoon - in what later became the Martinsville Martinsville case even the premier Roy Romanow headed for Martinsville meantime the accused were banished barred from even visiting the town by order of the court and the Martinsville case began to wind its way to trial the first of those trials started in March 1993 in Saskatoon in the absence of other evidence the kids testimony would be crucial to ensure the children weren't intimidated a judge ordered a screen to hide them from the accused first to be tried was the young offender whom we still can't name the town got the verdict it expected guilty on seven counts next up was the Saskatoon cop you saw being interrogated John Popovich armed with similar evidence the prosecutors may have anticipated the same verdict but on day eight of that trial a major turning point the boys who said Popovich abused them couldn't pick him out in court the judge called it mistaken identity and Popovich was freed that set the stage for the babysitter and her family and that trial dragged on for five months in the end the jury decided travis stirling the son was guilty but his parents Ron and Linda Stirling we're not we told people that are the beginning of the hearing that we were not guilty of any charges and neither is our son we believe that and we're gonna fight this right to the bitter end it was not going well for Saskatoon prosecutors Bruce Bauer and Leslie Sullivan especially with four more cases to come pointed in his charge to the jury that in many cases the work there wasn't very much evidence connecting these people to certain incidents in certain places how does that make your cases feel in terms of going forward with it we're not we're not going to discuss four other cases I'm sorry you prosecuting the next case [Music] but their boss overruled that there wouldn't be a next case Saskatchewan justice has announced that a stay of proceedings has been filed with respect to the meaning remaining for adult adults charged in the Martinsville case the martinsville case was in tatters when we come back hell to pay by February 1994 in had dawned on Martinsville that it's nightmarish bubble had burst the courts had ruled there was no devil Church no Satan no conspiracy of pedophiles remember nine people were charged and in the end eight were freed after appeals only Travis sterling the babysitter's son would go to jail and that was for fondling and touching two kids serious nothing like the legend of ritual abuse no one was happy but Saskatchewan justice minister wanted it buried no circumstances considering all of the circumstances I don't think a public inquiry is appropriate but as it turns out the Saskatchewan government couldn't shake the Martinsville saga so easily one cop sued for malicious prosecution and bit by bit we learned more about what went on behind the hysteria in Martinsville new information reveals there were serious missteps in both the investigation on the prosecution of this case it could have and should have been stopped or at least contained long before it came here to court things went wrong right from the start remember the stakeout dead of night Martinsville police armed and ready the chief had bought in to a rumor that a gang of Satanists were coming by busload Nolan to kill and he said that he had my information obtained from a woman in Saskatoon that placed two busloads of having the armed Satanists coming up from the Estevan Moosejaw areas but as dawn approached and of course no sign of the Devils boss constable Mike Swann and his partner began to feel silly it just became more and more ludicrous and if Mike Johnson had actually believed this then he was setting us up to go down and go down really hard we just couldn't even conceive what kind of game he was playing by then Martinsville Mayor Rob freezin was wandering to getting to doubt the man he sat next to his chief it seemed to me that the longer went the more flags if you want to call them that went up that say hey this is something funny here there's there's maybe not as much to this as as we're led to believe Mike was very insistent that there was something going on there was some satanic stuff happening and there seemed to be no stopping the chief remember the big roundup it was on Johnston's orders that nine people were picked up and charged constable Mike Swan arrested his colleague Jim Elstad and then took the paperwork to the prosecutor they said who's this for and I said Jim Elstad and he says what the [ __ ] is he doing now referring to Johnson and then he just sort of clammed up and he went in his office turned out the chief jumped the gun the prosecutors had told him not to arrest anyone until all the evidence was in they later complained about it in a letter to their boss without any authorization by the crown chief Johnston prematurely late charges and arranged for the arrest of all the accused today Mike Johnston is not a police chief anywhere his force was disbanded after the Martinsville case collapsed he lives in another town now and he won't talk about the past Martinsville investigation we're wondering when you made the arrest of June why you made those arrests and what you think about it now ten years later sir you got anything to say about the investigation in the end he had to turn over the investigation anyway it was too big Saskatchewan justice had called in a special task force operation for a at an airport office senior RCMP in Saskatoon City police sifted through the evidence they were trying to shore up nearly a hundred and eighty charges and from the start they had doubts former RCMP Staff Sergeant Rick Pearson was the lead investigator we come along as a task force and we're going to organize the material and we're going to move the investigation forward but at the end of the day we start to see flaws of what doesn't seem to hold any water and we start to question it and analyze it and start to investigate backwards and that's trying to twist and turn what we are looking at to say well what do we really have here what they had were three pillars of evidence on which most of the case was built they had that mysterious place in the country they had nine suspects and they had the children's evidence of horrific crimes but what we now know is those pillars had weak foundations and under scrutiny they would tumble one by one remember the blue building where the kids said they were forced into sex on a waterbed where they were abused with an axe handle put in a freezer and caged a house of horrors if it were true but when it was searched there wasn't a trace of blood or hair or semen anywhere even a special luma light as it's called couldn't find anything the place was clean when we looked at all the information we had we started to have our doubts about whether or not children actually had been taken to this location some things did not seem right indeed they weren't on a second look there was no water bed the freezer was used for storing meat the axe for cutting wood and the cage to house newly hatched chicks in fact none of the kids had ever been there so how did they come up with their stories turns out early in the investigation they were shown pictures of the blue building and the things inside and over the months the kids began generating stories about them the same thing happened with some of the suspects one child said he remembered a cop driving him to a place in the country and then from police photos other children began to point out other officers and the list of police suspects kept growing we had some names given to us as potential suspects that hadn't yet been pursued in this investigation and this was some of the new work that we are going to pursue when we talk to these people we realize that that something's not right the some of the identification 'he's just were wrong like Saskatoon police constable Murry Grizz merr he was named as a suspect early on he was suspended from his job and lived in limbo fearing he too might be charged you became reclusive in so much as we didn't leave our home and anytime somebody would drive on our property the dog would bark and you'd want you'd think is is this is this the time is this is this the moment when the insanity goes beyond where it has already been but by then the tide had begun to turn Grizz Mer had been off work for 111 days by the time the task force finally cleared him and I actually think that had the task force not got involved in this and had those people not had the strength of their convictions to do the right things for the right reasons we could have seen people go to jail that had no business being there and that's a you know that's a sad comment on our justice system the head of the task force Rick Pearson says that third pillar the children's interviews was problematic from day one and remember this was the only evidence the prosecution had the case would be decided on the children's testimony the person that was driving what you think I agree and did you know that a policeman that has been accused of touching kids Oh in Martinsville experts who reviewed these tapes even the prosecution's own expert said the questions were leading when the kids gave the right answers they were rewarded with praise the tapes poor quality here but listen closely as a set these interviews of these children failed to present information that would provide a basis for any reliable conclusion that any abuse had occurred to any of these children dr. David Raskin testified for the babysitter Linda sterling at her trial he's an American psychologist with decades of experience evaluating children's statements he said one of the kids interviews in particular set the tone the initial interview was continual denials even though there was repeated pressure and suggestion and questioning over and over and over again this child denied and denied and denied four days later the same child was reinterviews in a very very suggestive and pressured interview and began to save things but those ideas had been planted for days previously when the child denied everything it was the rookie cop Claudia Bryden who interviewed many of these kids over and over later much of the blame for the runaway investigation was heaped on her today she's still a police officer not in Martinsville and she wasn't anxious to talk to the Fifth Estate but she did agree to answer one question Claudia you were a relatively new police officer when you took on this major file wouldn't it have made sense to ask for some help look the fact that I saw it my supervisors assistance and advice throughout the investigation has been a part of the public record now for a very long time it's very clear that that I did ask for help the fact the fact is I'm just not I'm just not prepared to have to talk in detail about about what went on but that didn't help the prosecutors back in 1992 they knew the interviews might not hold up their only option do a new set with the same kids and see what happened in notes they wrestled with do we patch our case or do we avoid looking like we had a shaky case to begin with and trying to fix it at that time in our opinion we were into somewhat of damage control in that the original evidence was now being reworked with new interviews just one month before the first trial sergeant Rick Pearson laid it out he told the prosecutors in the opinion of the task force their evidence had holes in three key areas he put it in writing opening a rift seems like you weren't on the same team that there were two divergent paths here that's true there was criticism I believe of the task force in that it didn't go over the direction that they wanted it to go there was a divergence particularly I suppose between myself and the prosecutors I was a lead investigator and I was not going to have my investigators going into areas I thought were impossible to to get anything out of you or the task force never stood up and said stop this investigation are you comfortable with that maybe in hindsight I could have stood up and said stop the train because it's on the wrong track here but it was too late there was too much momentum the martinsville case would hurtle along until it became not a great moment in Saskatchewan justice history but a political embarrassment won the Justice Minister didn't want to examine the conduct of the prosecution I think is is not being questioned by anyone so I'm not sure what it is that we would inquire into today Bob Mitchell is retired from politics he admits Martinsville was the worst episode in his long career but he says as a minister he had to stay at arm's length from the prosecution and claims he didn't know the case was unraveling I'm hearing this for the first time as you speak to me right now do you understand what I mean what I mean I mean I'm hearing this for the first time that there is this that there is this that there was these doubts or these concerns one might ask why set up a task force of investigating senior officers if their advice to prosecution is ignored yeah that's a good question I don't have an answer for it can you understand I'm surprised that that advice was ignored it's kind of unusual and distressing I would think for many people that the Minister of Justice has to learn this ten years later don't there you have it yeah you you've raised some questions that I think impact upon the prosecutorial process that's serious stuff if I had known about those things at the time I certainly wouldn't have said that in the legislature Bruce Bauer is still a crown prosecutor in Saskatoon and Martinsville still dogs him some of the wrongly accused are suing the province and him yeah it's just because of those civil suits his lawyer advised him not to talk to the Fifth Estate but we wanted to approach him directly cases so you can't really talk about any of the cases because they're all interconnected do you think it was a poor prosecution well as I said I can't really when we come back 10 years later the Martinsville case won't go away for anyone wonder the wondered well people were being accused of something they'd never done Terry there's nothing here we've never I've never done anything like that ten years ago in Martinsville Saskatchewan they were the domed I've never been there pedophiles or so the town thought and no punishment could be too severe Ron Stirling was a pariah head of a family that preyed on kids and this walk would be played over and over on television you want to get out of my yard right now Ron Stirling was not guilty but he paid a high price any way that they could believe that they could we could do anything that got to their children hurts beyond belief he and his wife Linda lost their home in Martinsville they started over in Prince Albert once he was deputy head of a Correctional Center know he drives a cab [Music] good morning ready fires in the car this is one of the most terrible charges you can face as far as I'm concerned it's even worse than murder murder there's some excuse for that people seem to accept this there is no excuse for how do you get over something like this our lives are gone our reputation is gone my job is gone have you ever thought of moving out of Saskatchewan no why where am I gonna go what am I gonna do why would I want to go someplace else somewhere where you're more anonymous you're not anonymous anywhere we're still recognizable I mean it doesn't matter where we go there's always somebody who will stop and stare point a finger his son Travis now 33 years old was found guilty on two charges Travis did not want to be interviewed his dad still defends him Ron did you ever ask your son if anything happened no I didn't have to I knew he didn't do anything and I know my family did nothing wrong how do I prove it I can't you're just gonna have to believe me John Popovich can never escape the memories of Martinsville he was the Saskatoon police officer who ten years ago was named as a child abuser what's your finger for as a sexual pervert or thought if they're of any kind anything to do with kids and sexual assaults if you're dust it doesn't matter what happens soon she got that label your dust you'll never forget the day he was on duty at the police station and was suddenly called upstairs it was the worst day of his life look at this interrogation again what you're watching is an innocent man caught in a trap first he denies then the futility sinks and it's not there I've often wondered well people were being accused of something they'd never done dairy there's nothing there never and the full horror hits him sorry guys the images are too painful even today I try to explain to Terry that as one policeman to another I wasn't there didn't do anything and then when you feel the the gates of Hell closing in around with you you can you explain what you can how you can and if you get emotional which I obviously did you're fighting for your life John Papa which is closer than ever to his two grown-up daughters ten years ago they were just kids and he was afraid to even hold them you'd sit there and watch TV and then afternoon or at night and you turned the venetians right down so nobody could see and I was so scared of people watching or listening that the girls weren't even allowed to sit on my knee to watch TV like we normally did your own daughters now there wasn't allowed they weren't even there like I wouldn't even allow him to sit in the same coaches me I'm scared his family stuck by him as he went to court and the case against him dissolved but he ended up in hospital with a breakdown I'm going to be on medication for the rest of my life I will never be able to lead a normal life like you can or anybody else come and go as they please I still got to watch where I go I still got to watch what I do and there's still a lot of people out there who point fingers and say I'm guilty just as raw are the feelings of the martinsville families whose children were dragged first through the investigation and then through the courts even though the justice system has determined most of the abuse never happened they still believe it did is it possible that the case didn't hold up that the people charged in fact were not guilty no that's not even a possibility has that ever crossed your mind even in the ten years since Martinsville no no what about in your son's mind as he as he changed his thinking in any way about what happened not at all he is still just as angry and upset to this day this wasn't just a one-day thing or a one-month thing I mean we suffered for many years over this and has it gone away today No and no matter how hard you try to block it out and forget about it it never goes away in a way perhaps the kids became victims of the investigation itself according to one expert repeated interviews designed to get at the truth may have in fact altered the truth at least in the children's minds dr. David Raskin when someone has no memory of an event because it didn't occur then it is much easier to suggest to them that something happened even if it didn't and for them to accept that suggestion and the weaker the memory and the longer the passage of the time the more easily one can accept as fact something that may never have happened and that is what very likely happened in this case this is a situation that requires healing and damn it all if that requires an apology then somebody should apologize it sounds to me like a pretty good idea if I were there I'd I'd want to do that would you apologize if I were there I know you have an opportunity oh yeah I apologize sure I mean I just feel sorry for everybody and if I could contribute to that healing by saying I really am sorry and I want to do that do you accept the responsibility for thee I was the minister I have to accept the responsibility for the whole damn thing even though I as I have tried to explain to you you know these are not loops in which the minister can ever be found to be operating and yet the system requires that I bear responsibility for it so I do and that's that the Saskatchewan government is now being held to account for the mistakes of Martinsville it's being sued for malicious prosecution which until recently it stubbornly fought on all fronts last summer the province finally settled with John Popovich for 1.3 million dollars the man who gave him the check was former justice minister Chris Axworthy we apologize to mr. Pavich for the for the effect that this has had on his on his his life and we did that because we we knew it was the right thing to do and are there others who deserve the same apology the same well we'll wait and see what the settlement arrangements if indeed settlements are arranged with with other do you expect they will be well I'm not privy to the details of the discussions between lawyers on behalf of the province and lawyers on behalf of the the complainants but we'll have to wait and see how that ends up John Popovich would like to forget most of what happened in Martinsville but he keeps one momento proudly displayed it's a framed copy of what justice Ted noble said to him when his trial abruptly collapsed one part is you have sir unfortunately been mistakenly identified the fact that you were mistakenly identified as one of the accused in such a high-profile case as this should be a grim reminder to all members of society that it can happen to anyone good luck [Music] [Music]

Channel: The Fifth Estate

Views: 1,163,338

Rating: 4.6619186 out of 5

Keywords: Martensville, Saskatchewan, Satanic Panic, Satanic ritual abuse, ritual abuse, Satanism, satanic sex scandal, Martensville scandal, satanic panic, satanic, Satanic sex abuse, CBC News, The Fifth Estate

Id: -0DJsvtTCx4

Length: 40min 17sec (2417 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 13 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/MaxHeadB00m]

They're also doing a podcast about it right now. "Uncovered: Satanic Panic". Very interesting.

[u/mark0fo]

The Crown and police people who messed this up and dragged one of the accused through the mud for years, ruining his life until he passed of cancer, never faced any meaningful consequences of their obvious misconduct.

[u/saucerwizard]

I ran into people who still believed this when I was in high school.

[u/datredditaccountdoe]

I have never heard of this. Man that was a ride. Thank you for sharing.

[u/PreEntertain]

I feel like there was probably a lot more to all of this, had it not been handled so poorly