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South African Woman Arrested For Fraud In Satanic Child Exploitation Ring Hoax

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 22:21 PST, Apr 7, 2016

When Leone Steyn was just 17 years old, she created a fictional satanic child porn ring and went on to defraud churches and residents over a three-year period, allegedly to help the victims.

Reportedly Steyn contacted various churches, begging them for financial support for the non-existent children affected by the child porn ring, who had allegedly been saved and were living in a safe house.

Over a period of three years, Steyn defrauded several churches and residents of Roodepoort, the town where she lives, as well as an online psychological counseling service in an amount of over R500,000 ($33,000) in cash and goods.

After she was found out, Steyn, now 22, was arrested in January and appeared in the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday this week, where she was expected to enter a plea regarding the various fraud charges laid against her. However, the case was postponed after her defense attorney, Quentin van Huÿssteen, asked the court to allow his client to be sent for psychological evaluation.

According to Stephnie Crouse, director of the MOBIEG Counseling service, since Steyn’s bizarre fraud was committed and later found out, they are highly embarrassed at their gullibility and are also questioning the young woman’s sanity.

As reported by the Roodepoort Record, Crouse said that, from 2010, Steyn had created dozens of fictional characters in order to garner sympathy, particularly from churches. She alleged the children were being kept in an alleged safe house after they were rescued from Satan-worshipping child porn practitioners.

Reportedly Steyn logged on to the online MOBIEG counseling service using multiple fake names, claiming to be children now living in the safe house and seeking psychological guidance after their terrifying experience with the Satanic child porn ring.

In the long run, Steyn had allegedly created 55 profiles for the non-existent children, uploading images she had stolen from social media.

This reportedly went on for several years, with Steyn attempting to draw sympathy by telling sad tales – allegedly directly from the children in the safe house – to the counselors at MOBIEG, including stories of suicides, murders and kidnapping, with each “child” begging for help.

As reported by the Independent Online, in each case, the fake children warned counselors not to inform the police, saying the investigators had also been seduced by the satanic child porn cult.

Reportedly, the counseling service then reached out to the Quellerina Dutch Reform Church, asking for donations to help the children, which led to generous cash donations from churchgoers along with clothing and other items needed by the children, who were allegedly living in a safe house.

The church contacted other branches, who in turn provided donations for the children affected by the alleged satanic child porn ring. Crouse herself admitted to personally handing over large sums of money to Steyn, and in total over the three-year period, Steyn is believed to have received R592,000 ($39,000) in a mix of cash and goods, allegedly for the fake children.

Reportedly, the donations were delivered to Steyn’s home in Roodepoort, as she had cleverly inserted herself into the scheme as being one of few people who knew about the location of the alleged safe house.

“Every time she needed money, she would create a crisis in the safe house,” said Crouse.

In was only in 2014, when Crouse finally became suspicious and told the story to a former police colleague, that the scam was eventually revealed and an investigation into Steyn began.

Saying how shocked she was, Crouse said, “I was stunned. This was like terrorism against our community for more than two years.”

Crouse said her company’s reputation was damaged severely after she had to contact the churches from which she had solicited donations to tell them the story of the fraud. She did, however, acknowledge that her organization had been naïve in being taken in by Steyn’s fake stories, some of which were, on reflection, highly implausible. She added, however, that she had been blinded by her wish to save the troubled children, who were reportedly so badly affected by the Satanic child porn ring and the alleged safe house.

It took two years of investigation into the matter before Steyn was arrested in January this year, and after her recent court appearance she is out on bail until the case resumes on May 10.

When asked for comment, her defense attorney said the court proceedings were currently at a particularly sensitive stage and that he had recommended to Steyn to not speak to the media.

[Image via Chris Potter|Flickr|Cropped and resized|CC BY 2.0]

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