2 part series.

In the wealthy London suburb of Hampstead, residents are scammed out a million pounds by a prolific fraudster who masquerades as a shaman.  

In 2008, veteran Sunday Times journalist Tim Rayment received a tip about an incredibly bizarre crime. The tale: an elite London community ensnared in a dark web of spiritual manipulation, South American shamanism, and millions of pounds in “sacrificial offerings.” At the centre of it all: a charming healer, a secretive woman, and an invisible man named Papa Freddie. 

The deeper Tim dug, the stranger it got. And it all began with a man named Keith Bender. 

Keith was a well-known Hampstead osteopath, trusted by celebrities, artists, and the quietly wealthy. But when Tim met him, Keith was a broken man. In a voice thick with shame and disbelief, he confessed: for more than a decade, he had unknowingly helped orchestrate one of the most bizarre faith frauds in British history. He hadn’t just witnessed it. He had lived it.  

It began in the mid-1990s. Keith’s life was crumbling – his marriage unravelling, his finances in ruins. Then into his clinic walked Marianne Nicholls. She was everything he needed at the time: warm, generous, intelligent, and above all—a listener. Over time, she became his confidante, his anchor and eventually, his guide into another world. 

One day, she shared her secret: she was a shaman, with connections to other powerful shamans in Suriname. Marianne invited Keith on an all expenses paid trip to the Surinamese rainforest where he met the enigmatic Papa Freddie. Keith witnessed shamanic healing and rituals and returned to London a firm believer. 

Then came the prophecy: Papa Freddie had seen the future – Keith was destined to develop cancer. But there was hope. The spirits would intervene… for a price. 

Terrified, Keith scraped together £25,000 – money he borrowed from one of his elderly patients, Sylvia Eaves and under Marianne’s guidance sent it to Suriname. 

The cash was allegedly placed on a sacred tree and Keith’s spiritual healing began. When the cancer never came, Keith believed the spirits had delivered him. He became a disciple. 

Grateful and convinced, Keith began evangelizing Marianne’s powers. He referred her to patients, friends, even celebrities. Hampstead’s most vulnerable began lining up, desperate for healing, for hope, for miracles. They handed over tens, even hundreds of thousands of pounds. One woman gave a quarter of a million to save her dying sister. 

Behind it all, Marianne moved like a phantom. No offices. No receipts. Just whispers, rituals, and reassurances. And Keith? He gave up everything for her. His career. His reputation, even his family. 

But in 2008 a series of bizarre coincidences led Keith to a horrifying truth: Marianne was not a shaman. She wasn’t even Marianne. Her real name was Juliette D’Souza – a seasoned con artist with many aliases and a long history of deception. 

The money was gone. The healing was fake.  

Worse still, Juliette had vanished. No one had seen her in two years. 

Keith and the other victims, reeling from betrayal, rallied for justice. But who would believe their story of shamans, spirits, and cancer prophecies? And somewhere out there, the woman who had orchestrated it all had slipped into the shadows once again. 

Where was Juliette D’Souza? 

And how many more lives had she touched?