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Victoria Helen McCrae Duncan (née MacFarlane, 25 November 1897 – 6 December 1956) was a Scottish medium best known as the last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act 1735 (9 Geo. 2. c. 5) for fraudulent claims. She was famous for producing ectoplasm which was proved to be made from cheesecloth. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Helen Duncan: The last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act 1735, in April 1944. Her conviction led to the repeal of the Act and the introduction of the Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951 . Jane Rebecca Yorke , the last person convicted under the Witchcraft Act 1735, in September 1944.
Yorke's case demonstrated that, following the earlier trial of Helen Duncan, the Director of Public Prosecutions had decided that the Witchcraft Act 1735 was still useful in dealing with cases involving mediums. Although the Act was used as a threat in several subsequent cases, the last in 1950, this was the last in which someone was actually ...
any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design and illustration by Louis Mackay / www.louismackaydesign.co.uk
Long title: An Act to repeal the statute made in the first year of the reign of King James the First, intitutled, An Act against conjuration, witchcraft, and dealing with evil and wicked spirits, except so much thereof as repeals an Act of the fifth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Against conjurations, inchantments and witchcrafts, and to repeal, an Act passed in the parliament of ...
During his service in military intelligence, Firebrace was involved (in 1944) in the affair surrounding the arrest and prosecution of Helen Duncan, a famous British spiritualist medium, under the Witchcraft Act 1735 (9 Geo. 2. c. 5) (repealed by a private member's bill in 1951). [11] [12]
In 1944 she was charged with claiming to be able to conjure the spirits of dead people, found guilty and sentenced to nine months in prison. [3] In 1951, the Witchcraft Act 1735 was replaced with the Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951 (14 & 15 Geo. 6. c. 33), a law "persecuting deliberately fraudulent mediums" but not sincere believers.
Brooks' friend Walter Monslow won a spot in the annual ballot for bills, and Brooks persuaded him to introduce a bill to repeal the Witchcraft Act 1735 (9 Geo. 2 c. 5) and replace it with an act criminalising deliberate deception. With Brooks' guidance, the Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951 (14 & 15 Geo. 6. c. 33) was passed unanimously.