The Press
November 18, 1994

I've been abused - now for my empowerment
by A. K. Grant

The thing that annoys me is that they were so high-handed about it. No "Thank you for your application", no "if you were to reapply in six months' time" - oh, hang about, I haven't told you what's getting at me. The Lottery Grants Board, that's what. I read in this very paper that just the other day they gave the lady who founded the End Ritual Abuse society $1300 so she could put out a newsletter.

Now when I read that I began to retrieve memories that I had long buried. Because I was ritually abused as a child. I was small and cowardly, and if there is one thing that a playground bully likes more than a large cowardly victim it is a small cowardly victim. So I was regularly and ritually chased around the playground, as fast as my little legs would carry me, and when they caught me, the rest of the ritual consisted of someone sitting on my head and calling me "Grunty" until I burst into tears or the bell rang for the end of playtime.

As for the satanic aspect of this ritual, let me tell you that having your head regularly sat on is a devilish experience To be sure, there were no sacrifices of babies or animals, and nothing was eaten apart from my own pride. But it was abuse all right, and as I began to retrieve memories of it, I came to see how it was responsible for everything that has gone wrong in my life: continually changing careers, managing my money badly, losing cases, having television series cancelled, missing aeroplanes and putting on weight All this could be traced back to the ritual abuse I had suffered.

So I decided to empower myself, by founding the Compensate A. K. Grant for Ritual Abuse Now! Society. But despite the society's title I wasn't just thinking of myself. I had no doubt that there were others whose lives had been affected as mine had been. How to network with them and draw ourselves to the attention of an indifferent society?

Having had a fair bit to do with magazines over the years I decided that a large, high-profile, glossy magazine was the way to go. And because this was such a good idea I decided I would call my magazine "Good Idea". So armed with my good idea, and some costings which suggested that we could get the thing off the ground for about $150,000, which would be more than recovered when the first issue of 25,000 copies sold out at $10 a copy, I wrote off to the Lottery Grants Board.

And heard not a squeak from them. Not a dicky bird. Eventually I rang up to find out what had happened to my letter, and some woman with a voice that could freeze brake fluid told me that it was not the board's policy to reply to hoax letters

Hoax letters! I and thousands like me spend our whole lives in misery because of ritual abuse, and when we utter a cry for help we are treated as hoaxers! Well, that's the last time I buy a Lotto ticket. I’ve been loyal to them since they started and have never won a cent. From now on my weekly $5 Lucky Dip money will be spent at the Casino. I wonder whether they would be interested in bankrolling my magazine? It would certainly be good for their image