Here's a reasonably good account of the origins of the Satanic Panic in the UK from the Independent (can't find it on the Indy site)
One Rochdale policeman involved in the case has a theory: "What I think is happening is there are some cranks among social workers. They are getting wind of these documents and they are trying to tie it up with routine abuse cases. If social workers came to us with allegations of this nature we have to investigate. I don't see how it can be stopped from happening again."
http://www.skepticfiles.org/rumor/is160990.htm
So I'm just wondering. Suppose it's 1988 and you're a Chief Constable someplace where (hypothetically of course), say five or ten years or so ago, you or your predecessor covered up a bunch of awful stuff about Jimmy, Cyril and their privileged pals raping little kids from the local childrens' homes and you're a bit worried that the (hypothetical) D-Notices aren't going to be enough to keep it quiet.
Then one of your detectives comes to you and says:
"Boss, we've got some fundie social workers who've been on courses run by some self-appointed 'ritual abuse experts' from the US alleging all kinds of totally implausible shit about massive satanic child molester mind-control / 'bloodlines' conspiracies sacrificing hundreds of babies.It all seems to be based on fairy stories that they've gotten off these 'ritual abuse experts' and then coached kids who've been taken into care amid traumatic scenes and who are probably feeling really vulnerable, into playing back, but all we have any actual evidence for is maybe a regular, sordid, stupid, non-conspiratorial, non-Satanic, incest/abuse case or two. "
The accused are all ordinary, mostly working class people. They're not celebrity friends of Mrs Thatcher or Prince Charles, nor senior civil servants, lawyers or politicians or anyone else that Special Branch, MI5, or anyone like that might care about.
None of this stuff leads back to the actual child abuse by Cyril, Jimmy and other well-connected types, that you or your predecessor has (hypothetically) covered up.
Do you tell your cops to scupper all investigation into this obvious fundie horseshit for lack of evidence?
Or do you see an opportunity?