Locals discover gruesome pig heart ritual near village ‘targeted by Satanists’
The suspected pig hearts were surrounded by more than 20 candles
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Police are hunting for alleged Satanists after five pig hearts were left on a Bronze Age mound.
Locals were left confused and fearful after the display of hearts surrounded by more than 20 candles was noticed by residents prompting a subsequent police probe.
An unidentified local removed the organs and reported the incident to the police.
It follows a pattern of similar incidents in the area, centred around the village of Bramshaw two miles from the park, which before Christmas was targeted by suspected Satanists.
The eerie discovery at Stagbury Hill in the Hampshire national park, on the morning of 13 January, has prompted Hampshire Constabulary to step up patrols in the area.
Stagbury Hill has protected status because of its complex of ancient Bronze Age burial mounds dating back to around 1500BC, mixed with ancient trackways, medieval rabbit warrens and the site of a barrow cemetery spread around the hill.
At the 12th century St Peter’s Church, congregation members found a cat hanging from a flagpole in December, just weeks after a dead fox was found near its doorstep.
A spokesman for Hampshire Constabulary said: “We received a report of meat and candles being placed in a circle on the top of Stagbury Hill. This was spotted by members of the public at around 7.45am on 13 January.
“The items were disposed of before the report was made. We have conducted enquiries – which remain ongoing - and local officers are continuing to patrol the area. No arrests have been made at this time.”
In 2019, suspected Satanists terrorised Bramshaw after two dead sheep were found with pentagrams spray-painted on their bodies, a cow was stabbed in the neck and the number 666 was daubed on the doors of the church.
It comes as the 2021 census revealed that the number of people in England and Wales identifying as Satanists rose by 167 per cent between 2011 and 2021, from 1,893 to 5,054.
Danyal Hussein, 19, stabbed two sisters to death in June 2020 after signing a blood pact with a “demon” to win a £321 million lottery jackpot. Hussein targeted Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, at random as he roamed through a park in Wembley, northwest London.
He had pledged to carry out a “campaign of vengeance” by killing six women every six months in a handwritten agreement with the mythical “King Lucifuge Rofocale”.
His killing spree was only stopped because cut himself during the frenzied attack on the sisters, enabling police to track him through DNA.