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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Lucy Mangan

Accused: The Hampstead Paedophile Hoax review – absolutely chilling

Sarah Barlondo as ‘Sarah’ looks surreptiously out of a window in a darkened room in Accused: The Hampstead Paedophile Hoax
Don’t look now … Sarah Barlondo as ‘Sarah’ in Accused: The Hampstead Paedophile Hoax. Photograph: Channel 4

Accused: The Hampstead Paedophile Hoax reminds you that the internet is the greatest unregulated experiment ever conducted on humanity, and leads you inexorably to the conclusion that it might be time to call a halt to it. If animals were the subjects, we’d have done it long ago on ethical grounds.

The basic story is an ancient one: Accused is a documentary about a witch-hunt, but one enabled in terrifying ways by online connectivity. It begins in 2015, when a video is posted on social media of a nine-year-old girl, “Abigail”, and her eight-year-old brother “Joseph” claiming that a group of parents at their school were making them and their classmates “do sex” and adding details that are absolutely chilling to hear come out of children’s mouths. They say that this takes place in a big church nearby and – though they don’t use the term – what we would understand to be satanic rituals are involved.

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