Cornish Witches, Abuse & Murder
Murder Victim, Peter Solheim was a child rapist
This pagan paedophile was found dead in the sea, his partner was convicted of planning his murder, but no one has been convicted of the actual murder
In June 2004 A former councillor from Cornwall, England was found dead at sea after his dinghy was found adrift off Falmouth harbour. He was initially thought to have drowned, but a post-mortem examination revealed he had in fact been tortured and murdered.
Peter Solheim was not just a "nice old chap" who was murdered without reason, far from it and although his partner of nine years, Margaret James is serving a 20-year prison sentence for plotting the murder, no one has ever been convicted of actually killing him.
The former councillor was found dead at sea several miles off the Lizard Peninsula by fishermen, he had been drugged, his body mutilated and then still barely alive cast adrift to drown. Reports from the police say that they believed that the injuries to Solheim's joints and bones were caused by an axe or large knife.
Interestingly the area of land closest to where Peter Solheim's lifeless body was found is called 'The Lizard" and is a corruption of the old Cornish word "Lys Ardh" which means "High Court", you'll see the relevance later in the story.
There were a significant number of possible suspects in the murder enquiry but eventually, Margaret James was convicted of conspiracy to murder, but not of the actual killing. She continues to protest her innocence to this day. Lawyers for Margaret have tried to take her case to The Court of Appeal, but that attempt to overturn her conviction failed and clear her name failed.
The Crown Prosecutors alleged various motives that would have lead Margaret James to murder her partner, including struggling with various aspects of his behaviour, money and an unsubstantiated belief that Peter Solheim was about to leave her for another woman.
Margaret James vehemently denies the allegations and continues to claim that the last time she saw her partner, he was waiting to set off on a fishing trip with his friend 'Charlie'. The problem is that this 'friend' has never been found and never come forward to speak to the police, so the prosecutors believe that Margaret James 'made him up' as part of her story to explain Solheim's disappearance and create herself an alibi.
In contrast to that allegation, a witness for the prosecution said at Margaret's trial that Peter had mentioned 'Charlie' during a conversation about purchasing illegal machine guns, so was 'Charlie' a real person and just not come forward or was he too maybe murdered but his body never recovered? To date, the question of Charlie's existence remains unsettled. So if by chance you are 'Charlie' and your ere the friend waiting by a harbour in Cornwall to go fishing with Peter Solheim, then do contact the police as soon as possible. I say this very much 'tongue-in-cheek' as I don't think that is likely to happen.
In the days immediately following the disappearance of Solheim, both Margaret James and Peter's mistress Jean Knowles received text messages from his mobile telephone which certainly appeared to be sent by him, but the prosecution at Margaret James trial claimed that Solheim's phone was close to hers and indicated that it was strongly believed she had in fact been the one sending the texts in order to make it appear that Solheim was still alive. One particular message was claimed to have been sent after the body was found saying that "the boat was suffering engine trouble".
Specialist witnesses for the defence presented evidence to indicate that due to the 'rough terrain' of the area there are a very limited number of mobile telephone masts which could make Peter Solheim's phone signal seem much closer to Margaret James phone even though the phone would actually have been with him at sea. The evidence indicated that the messages could actually have been sent by Solheim from a boat offshore, but it was dismissed by the prosecution.
The murder attracted a great deal of media attention due to its somewhat unusual characteristics including that Peter Solheim was a former councillor, a pagan witch and an occult priest. He held what was described by expert witnesses as a very impressive collection of books, potions and poisons. I will come back to the relevance of that a little bit further on.
It seems that the reason for the police's attention on Margaret James originally came from her daughter's boyfriend, he was accused in court of being some kind of drug dealer that had turned police informant. He told police that Margaret had approached him several months prior to the murder and asked him if he could find someone to kill Peter. This 'evidence' for what it is worth could not be corroborated and even the trial judge warned the jury not to allow it to hold much weight on their deliberations, particularly bearing in mind its origin. In my understanding, I would have said that it may have been better for all parties if that particular item of evidence had not been admitted in the first place.
Peter Solheim's mistress Jean Knowles claimed she was "warned off" by Margaret James
One of the first witnesses to give evidence for the prosecution was Peter Solheim's long term 'mistress', Jean Knowles. She told the court that she been warned off by Margaret James.
Three times divorced disabled mother of three Jean Knowles said that she had known the victim since December 1984 and that they had been great friends as well as lovers over the years. She told the jury that when she first met Solheim he had been living with his estranged wife, also called Jean. She said "I knew of Margaret and knew that Peter possibly had other women because we both did what we wanted as individuals. I recall on one occasion Margaret telephoned me and warned me off Peter, but nothing would spoil our friendship".
Mrs Knowles was cross-examined at some length during the trial both by Miss Munro for the prosecution and Paul Dunkels QC for the defence. During the questioning particular reference was made to the way in which Solheim and Jean Knowles communicated. She told the court that she spoke regularly to Peter by telephone and via text messages and in all texts he referred to Margaret as 'M' or 'it' and never as Margaret but, in texts that she received after 17th June the messages all referred to Mrs James as 'Margaret', she thought it was a little unusual but dismissed it until on 18th she saw a report on the news of a body found at sea and immediately thought of Peter Solheim.
Jean Knowles telephoned the police on June 18th to tell them that she thought from the description on the news that the person found could well be Peter Solheim, but then she received a text from him so she called the police back to tell them. She sent a message back to Peter telling him "Police are looking for you, take care of you for me", of course, she received no reply.
So here are some questions based on an article from a publication called Inside Time:
- Who else, if anyone has been questioned by the police about this case?
- Are any of those arrests relevant to the safety of Margaret James conviction for incitement to commit murder/planning murder
- Was peter Solheim truly planning to imminently leave Margaret James? If so how did she know?
- Did Solheim ever actually board his boat?
- If Solheim did board his boat then was the elusive 'Charlie' with him? If so where is he now?
- Does the mobile telephone evidence really provide evidence that can absolutely show that the text messages after Solheim's death came from Margaret James home or is there a possibility they came from his killers at sea or even on the cliffs of the Peninsula?
- Is it possible that Peter Solheim's injuries could have been caused by a boat propeller and not a weapon?
I have a feeling that the murder was connected to someone who was aware of Peter Solheim's grizzly life that few knew about at the time of his murder. A few years after the murder it came to light that there was a very dark side to Solheim and some of his Pagan/witchcraft friends.
Peter Solheim was part of a child abuse gang that used Satanic weaponry such as daggers and gowns to intimidate children. The sick gang also plied alcohol and other treats in order to get them to undress in front of robed men. The victims were then further silenced by the "Pagan" predators with gifts of sweets and money.
The evidence came to light during a trial of two men involved in historic sexual abuse dating right back to the 1970s onwards. The two paedophiles, Peter Petrauske and Jack kemp were accused of being part of the witchcraft gang
Peter Petrauske was said to be the 'High priest' of a secret witch's coven that met at an undisclosed location in St Ives and ordered girls as young as 3 to carry out sick fantasies for the men. Kemp and Peter Solheim took part in the ritualistic abuse.
The trial judge (Judge Cottell) told the Petrauske and Kemp "You are two of the surviving members of a paedophile ring, together with others whose names have been repeated throughout this trial (Peter Solheim and Stan Pine) who were members of a ring that operated in Falmouth in the Seventies and Eighties, I am satisfied that you have all had a lifelong sexual interest in young female children".
He went on to address them harshly saying; "The trial has featured ritualistic, sickening abuse of young, young children. The scars left on two of the victims (who cannot be named for legal reasons) are so obvious that it would seem extremely unlikely that either of them has any realistic chance of recovery, Finally, the truth about the lies of the four of you and your undoubted propensities have caught up with you".
The Cornish paedophile ring that ritualistically sexually abused very young girls echoed the murder of Peter Solheim, the witch who had been removed from several pagan groups for his outlandish and sadistic views.
It really does make me wonder if Margaret James was in any way responsible for her partner's murder after all many people had been victims of his vile paedophilia ways and had suffered dreadful abuse. He had during his life he had been openly accused of being a paedophile in public, he had received hate mail, threatening him, telling him to leave the area and more.
Witnesses brought at the trial were granted permission by Judge Cottle to speak about the dead man and his sordid existence, including exposing his dealing in illegal antique firearms as well as copying and selling hardcore pornography.
The attic of his house aptly named "Valhalla" was described by the prosecution as an "occult library" and contained recipes for special potions made with the absolute intention of seducing females, and literally dozens if books on all aspects of the darker side of witchcraft.
So there it is, Margaret James has continued to insist that she played no part in Solheim's murder, no one else has ever been convicted of actually physically carrying out the killings but, so many people wanted this occult sadist dead that it could be one of many, many people that ended up with Peter Solheim's blood on their hands. Whichever way it seems he was quite lucky to be alive as long as he was and he certainly earned the harsh end to his life.
I told you earlier that I would explain why the old Cornish word for "High Court" was so apt for this case. Evil paedophile and criminal met his grizzly end in the dark waters off The Lizard "Lys Arhd", his vile friends stood in the High Court in Truro before Judge Cottle to be handed their punishment, so they all got what they deserved in the "High Court" in the end.
That's it for this time, I will see you all again very soon with a new #Cult crime blog.
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