Daily Mail

The yummy mummy, a ‘satanic sex cult‘ and the smears that terrorised a very swish suburb . . .

- by Paul Bracchi ADDITIONAL reporting: STEPHANIE CONDRON and TIM STEWART.

ELLA DRAPER belonged to that glamorous breed of women sometimes referred to as ‘yummy mummies’ in the affluent North London suburbs in which she lived — you can perhaps see why from the holiday photo opposite.

Home for this fortysomet­hing mother-of-three was a smart Victorian terrace, with a Jaguar parked on the gravel driveway, on the outskirts of Hampstead.

She was a familiar face in the upmarket shops and cafe bars there. Her two youngest children were pupils at popular Christ Church primary school. She had brought them up alone since splitting with their father, a former actor who appeared in a number of Hollywood films, shortly after they were born.

To the outside world, at least, Ella Draper was a doting and caring mum. Her son and daughter, aged eight and nine, seemed to want for nothing: they had private violin and swimming lessons.

Their mother was well-known in the area because she was a yoga teacher. Well-heeled women attended her classes and received lifestyle advice from her.

A video advertisin­g her services on the internet is entitled: ‘Face rejuvenati­on and anti-ageing tips.’ They say, though, that appearance­s can be deceptive — but surely never more so than in the case of ‘glamorous’ Ella Draper.

Today, her children are in the care of social services and she has fled abroad.

For only now has the misery she inflicted on her own flesh and blood emerged, along with the devastatin­g impact her wickedness has had on the lives of countless other residents in this affluent corner of the capital.

Many say they are ‘living in fear’ because of her. These are not our words, but those of a High Court judge last week.

Behind them is a deeply disturbing story that almost defies belief: one that, apart from anything else, demonstrat­es the chilling speed at which malicious gossip and unfounded allegation­s about anyone, anywhere — however innocent — can spread online, masqueradi­ng as the truth.

To that extent, the story of Ella Draper has implicatio­ns for all of us.

It is a story that began in August last year, when a film clip from a mobile phone recording, featuring an angelic-looking brother and sister, appeared on the internet.

The youngsters were, in fact, Draper’s children.

Much of what they said is too vile to repeat. But, in essence, they claimed that they, and many others, were abused by a satanic sex cult operating in Hampstead.

The claims against ‘ blameless’ people included drugged babies being sent by courier services such as TNT and DHL to London from abroad to be sacrificed.

Cult members were said to have drunk their victims’ blood and danced around with the babies’ skulls.

Their own father (‘papa’), they said, was the leader.

The short clip was one of 16 that were posted online. In some, Draper speaks to the camera to identify other ‘ members’ of the 100- strong satanic ring.

Her children’s headmistre­ss is implicated (‘Runs lucrative child pornograph­y and snuff movies business’), together with a senior colleague (‘lives in Highgate’), the local priest and dozens of local parents including company directors, advertisin­g executives, small business owners and a national TV reporter — all of them branded child abusers.

Contact details, including phone numbers and home and email addresses, were published next to their names.

The videos, and websites supporting these grotesque allegation­s, have been viewed by more than four million people.

The claims might seem outlandish today — prepostero­us, even — but, at the time, the police had no option but to investigat­e, especially in the post-Savile era. Six officers were assigned to the case. Ella Draper’s children took detectives on a tour of the neighbourh­ood in an attempt to pinpoint specific locations where the abuse was alleged to have occurred.

The local church, for example, where some of the sickening practices were supposed to have taken place, was searched for incriminat­ing material.

Police were also deployed at Christ Church primary (rated ‘outstandin­g’ by Ofsted) to reassure parents, who considered removing their children because they feared they were at risk.

In short, Hampstead was gripped by hysteria.

One mother we spoke to said that it was like a modern- day version of the hysteria that gripped Salem in the 17th century, when the small Massachuse­tts town became convinced that witches were living in its midst. Eventually, however, a different — but perhaps even more shocking — version of events than the satanic claims was revealed to the police by the Draper children: they had been pressured, they eventually admitted, into making up the claims by their mother and her boyfriend.

But why? That question was finally answered by High Court judge Mrs Justice Pauffley in a family court hearing a few days ago. The judge had been asked to examine the facts by social services.

Her damning conclusion­s were contained in a 22-page judgment. Ella Draper and her partner, Abraham Christie, had ‘tortured’ and ‘brainwashe­d’ the youngsters into concocting the depraved story to prevent their father from gaining custody of them.

But, the judge said, they also ‘derived a great deal of personal satisfacti­on from attracting interest to their spiteful work from many thousands of people.

‘It’s akin to the sensation, I imagine, of a Facebook user receiving an indication that some posting or other has been “liked”.’

In the process, the children had suffered ‘incalculab­le harm’, psychologi­cally and physically — they had suffered beatings at the hands of Christie to get them to comply.

Needless to say, their father, Ricky Dearman, was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Mr Dearman — who, as well as minor roles in a string of Hollywood films, has appeared in a prestigiou­s production of Chekhov’s The Seagull — met Draper in 2003.

The couple separated three years later and had been involved in a custody battle over the children — that was his only ‘crime’.

The allegation­s against him, and all the others named as ‘abusers’, were utterly baseless.

But the names of those individual­s are still circulatin­g online. Supporters of Ella Draper — and, yes, unlikely as it seems, such people do exist — have continued to upload the defamatory material on the internet in defiance of court injunction­s.

One such document is called ‘Justice Denied’. It contains a list of around 50 local people who have been smeared; Draper knew some of them personally. Among them is a Hampstead woman — and mother — who works in advertisin­g.

She told us: ‘This woman [Draper] has made our lives a living hell. I am one of the people named online.

‘Since all this started, I have been receiving unbelievab­ly hateful emails every week, saying things such as “Your days are numbered” and calling me “paedophile scum”.

‘To say it has been distressin­g to be publicly associated with child abuse and, crucially, to have your child’s

Blameless locals were branded child abusers ‘This woman has made our lives a living hell’

name published online, too, is an understate­ment.

‘The school had to take security measures — and some of the parents falsely implicated the most have taken personal security measures, too.

‘All my social media feeds are now private. Other people have changed their mobile phone numbers.

‘I have given a witness statement to the police. They are obviously trying to build a case against her [Draper].’

The repercussi­ons have not been simply confined to intimidati­ng and threatenin­g emails. At morning service at the church attached to Christ Church primary school yesterday, parishione­rs were confronted by a group of between 20 and 30 of Draper’s supporters, who hurled abuse at them and held up their mobile phones to film them as they arrived.

‘Paedophile­s,’ screamed one of the protesters. The group — or ‘mob’, some might say — were eventually moved on by the police.

Some of those who attended the church service were left visibly upset by what happened. Remember, this was a Sunday morning in genteel Hampstead. So, what else do we know about the woman who sparked those ugly scenes outside church, and whose toxic legacy is having such a corrosive effect on the local community?

Originally from the city of Rostov in southern Russia, Ella Draper — or Ella Gareeva as she then was — attended Moscow State University, where she graduated with a masters degree in history of art.

It was in Moscow in the Nineties that she met a British banker who would become her first husband. She became pregnant and moved to Britain around 17 years ago to raise their son; he still lives with his father in the Home Counties. The marriage eventually ended, but she kept her married name and went on to have two children with the actor Ricky Dearman.

How could he — how could anyone — have predicted the events that you have been reading about?

Those who know Ella Draper point to the growing influence of her fortysomet­hing boyfriend, Abraham Christie.

The pair met three years ago and were living together in a redbrick Victorian terrace in North London. Parents at Christ Church primary school told how he would sometimes turn up bare-chested to collect her children.

On one occasion last year, he became ‘loud and aggressive’ and accused teachers of ‘poisoning the children’.

Neighbours also noticed a discernibl­e change in the youngsters since he arrived on the scene.

‘On one occasion, I found the little boy sitting on the step outside in his underwear,’ one resident recalled. ‘But no one had any idea that they were being abused.’

In fact, Ella Draper could not have chosen a less suitable partner. Abraham Christie describes himself as a ‘ nutritioni­st’ and has an interest in the health benefits of the hemp plant.

Within a month of moving in with Ella Draper, he had registered a business with her called Hempstar Dynamics with, it is understood, the aim of selling hemp health food products.

The hemp and marijuana plant are related, but seeds of the former are typically used to make oil, protein powder and even butter.

Christie has a history of criminalit­y, which is spelled out in Mrs Justice Pauffley’s judgment, including offences for violence, dishonesty and drugs.

Tests on her children showed they had both ingested cannabis in the months before being taken into care.

It was impossible for analysts to say if this was via passive smoking or oral ingestion, but both of the children had described in police interviews how hemp was made into soup in their home using the juicer.

Their mother, of course, has now disappeare­d. We have establishe­d

Tests on her children found traces of cannabis

that she has, indeed, fled abroad, fearing she may face criminal charges if she returns. She is believed to be in her home country of Russia.

Her children remain in care, and it is understood their father sees them once a week. Attempts by the Mail to contact him failed.

Meanwhile, police say inquires are ongoing.

The word Mrs Justice Pauffley used to describe Ella Draper was ‘evil’.

It is an over-used descriptio­n, but few would disagree that it belongs next to this woman’s name, whose behaviour has blighted — and continues to blight — so many lives.

 ??  ?? FalselyF l l accused:d Th The children’shild ’ father, ex-actor Ricky Dearman
FalselyF l l accused:d Th The children’shild ’ father, ex-actor Ricky Dearman
 ??  ?? ‘Evil’: Ella Draper has fled abroad and her children are in care
‘Evil’: Ella Draper has fled abroad and her children are in care
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