400 'seers' drive grieving father into depression

Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 6:30 am

(by way of background, this article comes from the Western Australian newspaper "The West Australian" published in the city of Perth, Australia. Claremont is a popular night life area where a decade several women were seized and murdered.

I can add to this that over the last decade — I live in Perth — I recall claims by clairvoyants that they have aided this man in coming to 'peace' with the loss of his daughter.)

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=95012

400 fake seers drove Sarah’s dad into depression

Saturday, 30 August 2008

The father of Claremont serial killer victim Sarah Spiers has described how he fell into chronic depression because of harassment by clairvoyants who demanded money to help find his daughter.

Don Spiers detailed his harrowing experience yesterday as police continued to field phone calls from the public after the release on Thursday of security footage of another victim, Jane Rimmer, speaking to an unidentified man moments before she disappeared.

Mr Spiers, who has long been reluctant to speak to the media, was candid yesterday about his emotional and mental trauma.

He said up to 400 psychics and clairvoyants from across the world had
contacted him since Sarah disappeared on January 27, 1996.

He said they were offering false information and “looking to make a name for themselves or get money”.

He had been so desperate to find his daughter in the first six months after she disappeared that he had listened to the “shysters” and often followed their instructions.

“They hounded me to death,” Mr Spiers said.

“I’d be getting it every day. It was just an onslaught.

“They were sending me to certain locations, just running me around. They were telling me all sorts of things. They’d give me cryptic clues.

“They had my emotions on a rollercoaster. You’d be full of hope and you’d be out (searching) and there’d be nothing and then you’d go down (in emotion) again.

“I can’t understand why anyone would do this to someone in my situation. Why would they want to make it worse for me?

“They probably all wanted to be recognised as being high-profile clairvoyants. They are shysters, there’s no question about it.”

He said the relentless approaches from clairvoyants and the false hope they created had led him to have a breakdown late in 1996, when he found himself sitting in an armchair at his home ripping chunks of hair from his scalp.

“I would sit in the lounge chair waiting for Sarah to come home and it would be as if someone put a band around my head above my ears and was just tightening it,” Mr Spiers said.“There was just immense pressure in a circle around my head. I was actually sitting there pulling my hair out.”

Soon after, he was diagnosed with chronic depression, a condition he battled for about 18 months.

He said the situation was made worse in 1997 when he was bashed. His jaw was broken and several teeth shattered at a pub during a family holiday in Exmouth.

As he struggled with depression, he continued to fend off clairvoyants and psychics and was even abused over the phone by members of the public.

“We had phone calls from people saying we are the perpetrators or saying that we deserve it,” he said.

“I’m still vulnerable. I have my down moments but I don’t go back to the depths of before.”

Ms Spiers is the only one of three women linked to the serial killer whose body has not been found.

Ms Rimmer and Ciara Glennon were abducted on June 9, 1996, and March 14, 1997, respectively.

Ms Spiers was with friends at Cottesloe’s Ocean Beach Hotel on January 27, 1996, before her sister dropped them at Club Bay View about 12.15am.

About two hours later, Ms Spiers told friends she was going home. She ordered a taxi at 2.06am from a phone booth in Stirling Road, about 300m from the club.

When the taxi arrived, she could not be found.

Mr Spiers was reluctant to comment on the police handling of the Rimmer footage, which police held for 12 years before releasing it on Thursday morning.

He said he did not have any problems with the police investigation into the murders.

Despite keeping the footage from the public for so long, police admit they considered it important enough to show to more than 700 people to try to identify the man it shows with Ms Rimmer.

News of the Rimmer footage emerged two weeks ago when police revealed that they planned to release it on the same day it was due to be featured in a pay- television documentary, which aired on Thursday night.

The footage shows Ms Rimmer standing outside the Continental Hotel in Claremont soon after midnight on the night she was abducted.

A man is seen from behind as he enters the bottom of the frame and appears to interact briefly with Ms Rimmer, who turns towards him and smiles.

Det-Supt Jeff Byleveld, of the major crime division, said it was not clear
whether she knew the man, who was the only person in the video not to be identified by police.

Police said yesterday they had up to 100 phone calls from the public since the footage was released.

It is understood most of the calls related to the mystery man and his possible identity.

RONAN O’CONNELL

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 2:07 pm

These "clairvoyants" are no better than the TV preachers who con gullible people out of their money, often playing on their fears and doubts to make them donate more. They're all a bunch of despicable phonies.

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 10:17 pm

I think the TV stations that air them ought to share in the blame. Their waver of "the following is a paid advertisement and does not reflect the views of this station or it's staff" isn't enough. When a KNOWN scammer is on their station scamming people, the station should be held responsible.


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