ChatGPT is driving a rise in reports of organised ritual abuse, UK experts have said, as survivors of “satanic” sexual violence use the AI tool for therapy.

Police say organised ritual abuse and “witchcraft, spirit possession and spiritual abuse” (WSPRA) against children is under-reported in the UK. There is no modern-day charge that covers it specifically, but such offending is typified by sexual abuse, violence and neglect involving ritualistic elements – sometimes inspired by satanism, fascism or esoteric religious beliefs – to control victims.

Perpetrators include abusive families and networks, human traffickers, online gangs and paedophile rings.

There have been 14 UK criminal cases since 1982 in which ritualistic practices in sexual abuse were acknowledged. However, 2025 research by clinical psychologist Dr Elly Hanson found convictions reflected the “tip of the iceberg”.

Experts are now rolling out training for police forces, in a drive spearheaded by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), which has set up a specialist working group.

Gabrielle Shaw, the CEO of National Association of People Abused in Childhood (Napac), said there had been a “sustained rise” in reports to them of ritual abuse over the last 18 months, with an increasing number of people saying they had been led to report it by AI.

Shaw said: “Over the last six months to a year, we’re getting people contacting the Napac support line saying: ‘I was referred to you by ChatGPT’. People are using AI, ChatGPT as a form of therapy and exploration. There are mixed feelings about that, but if it’s a route into support, that has to be a good thing.

“We would normally see spikes in calls around days that have significant supernatural or religious overtones – but this is not a spike – it’s a sustained rise. There’s increasing knowledge of the crime and of where you can get support … satanism does come up a fair bit.”

NPCC, Napac and the Hydrant policing programme, which supports forces nationwide with child protection, commissioned a review from Hanson last year and launched a WSPRA briefing for professionals this month.

Last year members of a paedophile ring in Scotland – who posed as witches and wizards – were jailed for sexual offences.

Shaw said of 36,700 calls over nine years to NAPAC, 1,310 mentioned organised ritual abuse. She said offending could be “intergenerational in nature” and while perpetrators were predominantly male, survivors named “grandmothers and aunts” as perpetrators.

Richard Fewkes, Hydrant Programme’s director, said the fact ritual elements sounded “fantastical” had contributed to the justice gap.

He added: “We need to improve right the way across the system in dealing with it – it’s out there, it does exist and it’s not actually being reported (to police) … we’ve known about this for many, many years.”

Hanson said victims were growing up in “regimes of cruelty”, but truth was “getting lost between” a “discourse of disbelief” on one hand, and “conspiracy fictions” on the other.

She added: “We’re not seeing this abuse happening in particular cultures rather than others. This is something we’re seeing happening within white British, often privileged families. It’s not conforming to any stereotypes about where it might be.”