An American blogger, who harassed the Hampstead parents of children involved in discredited satanic paedophile ring allegations, has been jailed for nine months.
Rupert Wilson Quaintance, 38, a self-styled political activist and investigative journalist, took a selfie outside their children’s primary school and suggested he was armed with a knife.
He also posted a youtube clip in which he warned he would: “Kick down doors to take blood.”
Supporters financed the trip after also hearing him on the web’s ‘American Freedom Radio’ announcing: “I don’t want to kill them, just beat them up pretty good.”
He pleaded not guilty to putting four mothers and a father of pupils of Christ Church Primary School in fear of violence between February 1 and September 30, last year.
The Southwark Crown Court jury convicted him of harassing the father and one of the mothers and acquitted him of harassing the other three mums.
He will now also be subject to a five-year Criminal Behaviour Order, aimed at ending his anti-social online abuse.
Quoting Quaintance’s compatriot, former US President Harry S Truman, Judge Martin Griffith told him: “If you can’t stand the heat stay out of the kitchen.”
The judge was referring to the defendant’s own complaint he was the victim of internet trolling and had suffered online harassment.
Organisational Management graduate Quaintance, travelled from his home in Charlottesville, Virginia and was staying at an address in Mill Road, Erith, where he was arrested on September 13, last year.
The one mum he was convicted of harassing told the court: “Things were put next to my daughter’s name that were horrifying, her photo was all over the internet.
“I was petrified. This man’s coming across quite violently, everything that comes out of his mouth is a violent attack.
“I have CCTV outside my house because my daughter has been identified. What do I do if I am seen outside with her? How do I keep her safe if he approaches me or comes to my house?
“My name was on the internet on a list of twenty parents and our addresses and he was coming to kick out doors down.”
The school pic was posted by Quaintance on his facebook page on the first day of term. “I was putting everything in place to protect my child and he was just feet from the entrance to the school and said he had a knife on him.”
Prosecutor Mr. Martyn Bowyer told the jury the father targeted by Quaintance was the parent of a girl, aged nine, and a boy, aged eight, known as ‘P’ and ‘Q’ who were at the centre of the allegations.
“The allegation was they were part of a large group of children in Hampstead, who had been sexually abused as part of a satanic cult in which there were human sacrifices and paedophile behaviour.”
“At the centre of the allegation was Christ Church and the father of P and Q was said to be the head of this satanic cult.”
The children were taken into temporary care, but all the allegations were dismissed by a High Court judge in March, 2015, who heard evidence from police, doctors and social workers.
Quaintance has blogged and broadcasted extensively on the case and under his Christ Church selfie pic, posted: “This is what my defiant face looks like.”
Mr. Bowyer added: “He gave the distinct impression he had in his possession a knife outside that school, but says it has all been a dreadful misunderstanding.
“He says it was an ‘in joke’ with a facebook friend in the U.S. and blamed differences in the cultures between the UK and USA.”
Police found Quaintance’s Excel spreadsheet titled: ‘Cult Details’ which had mostly blank columns headed with names, addresses, emails and phone numbers of parents, teachers and children.
