Bewitching time for pagans

Members of the pagan community are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the repeal of a law against practising witchcraft.

The end of the Witchcraft Act of 1736 officially allowed people to practise pagan beliefs openly.

Celebrations, which have taken place around the UK, will continue until the summer solstice on Thursday 21 June.

However there are still concerns from parts of the pagan community about public perception of the movement.

Andy Norfolk, from the Pagan Federation, organised a celebration in Cornwall but found some people did not want to take part in a public celebration.

The summer solstice is on Thursday

"Some didn't want anyone to know they were pagans.

"It's good that we've reached this 50th anniversary but there are still concerns about how the public views the pagan community."

Helen Duncan, the last person to be convicted of witchcraft, was jailed for nine months in 1944.

The Old Bailey was told she claimed to have conjured up a dead sailor from a navy ship.

At the time the information that the Germans had sunk HMS Barham was still a military secret.

Pardon campaign

There is now a campaign to award Mrs Duncan, who died in 1956, a posthumous pardon.

It is estimated that between about 1450 and 1750 there were 100,000 witchcraft trials in Europe resulting in the execution of up to 50,000 people.

They tended to be people who were different in some way and who did not fit into their communities.

Descendants of five women hanged for witchcraft during the notorious Salem witch trials in the 17th century are still fighting to clear their ancestors' names.

Twenty men and women were hanged or crushed to death during the witch fever in Massachusetts, fuelled by a deep belief in the supernatural, and political feuds.