DEEP in the South American jungle, a shaman in ceremonial robes whispered incantations, a bundle of smoking herbs in one hand and a wad of cash in the other.
The money had been sent from the UK by a psychic and healer called Juliette D’Souza, with instructions to pin it to a sacred tree as an offering to the forest spirits.
“Take this sacrifice,”;; he chanted. “And protect those who offer it.”;;
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in London’s leafy suburb of Hampstead, elderly widow Sylvia Eaves waited anxiously for news that the £226,000 she’d given D’Souza in order to save the life of her younger sister – who was seriously ill with Crohn’s disease – had worked its magic in the spirit realm.
‘Take this sacrifice’
The truth is, this mystical “ceremony”;; never happened.
There was no sacred tree or forest spirits, and the shaman was an invention by con artist D’Souza, who used the money she extorted from vulnerable people to pay for designer handbags, and luxury apartments.
Believed to be the most successful female fraudster in British legal history, D’Souza, now 70 – who was born in Guyana and purported to have the ability to summon cures for cancer, endow couples with and guard against injury and death – was jailed for 10 years in 2014.
Her spree – which left a trail of financial and emotional destruction spanning at least 16 years – is chronicled in the podcast Filthy Ritual, hosted by Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala.
‘Cure cancer and beat death’
“You think that only a specific type of person can be vulnerable or victimised, but this story showed that’s wrong,”;; Suruthi tells Fabulous.
“Juliette D’Souza played a long game. She built a wall of deception and coercion brick by brick.
“It was a fascinating human story of people who were in such a desperate position, terrified for their lives or of losing a loved one.
“It showed how people are willing to suspend belief in the hope that somebody can make that pain go away.”;;
The roll call of devastation D’Souza wreaked is breathtaking.
Hannah explains: “Along with Sylvia, her other victims included a solicitor who had terminal . He spent £7,000 on the false promise of a cure.
“A couple who had a son with Down’s syndrome gave £42,000 after D’Souza promised she could help with his behavioural problems, and a photographer was scammed out of £45,000 trying to save the life of his sick mother, before declaring .
“Another couple handed over £359,000 – with the wife paying to keep herself from going blind, while the husband had been convinced by D’Souza that his wife was going to kill him and he needed ‘protection’.
“An actress was diagnosed by D’Souza with a cycle of illnesses, including pancreatic cancer, a brain tumour and . She lost her home and £730,000.”;;
D’Souza told a pregnant client her baby was going to have deformities and that she should abort it
The podcast traces D’Souza’s scamming spree back to 1993, when she first met father-of-two and osteopath Keith Bender, who lived in Hampstead with his actress wife Kate.
D’Souza became Keith’s client while mired in financial and marital problems, and she’d eventually infiltrate his life completely.
When Keith was diagnosed with , he confided in D’Souza, and when the bank threatened to repossess his house, she claimed she was a lawyer – it’s unknown if that was true or not – and helped him with the paperwork.
She even loaned him money to stop the repossession.
Keith later recalled: “I had terrible problems in my personal life. I was very depressed.
“Juliette stepped in to save me. She even represented me in my proceedings, which I was hugely grateful for.
“I had no reason to doubt her or not to introduce her to friends. She was completely plausible – very charming, spirited and well-turned-out.”;;
After three years of “friendship”;;, she revealed she was a healer, a shaman and a psychic.
Keith, who had an interest in alternative therapies, believed her and even accompanied her on a trip to Suriname – a tiny country that borders Guyana – in 1996, where he underwent a healing ceremony in a “magic”;; pond.
Back in London, D’Souza told him her “psychic antennae”;; saw that Keith was going to develop cancer in his lower abdomen – but she could stop it if he followed her exact instructions and made cash “sacrifices”;;.
I had no reason to doubt her... she was completely plausible – very charming, spirited and well-turned-out
Keith BenderVictim
These would be flown to a shaman in Suriname, who would then hang them on a sacred tree.
The money would show the forest spirits that Keith was serious about making a pact for their help, and once the problem had been dealt with, the money would be returned to him.
“When you are already down because you’ve lost everything you have worked for, you can’t even think straight,”;; he explained.
With Keith well and truly wrapped around D’Souza’s finger, she then persuaded him to start recommending her mystic services to some of his own clients.
One of these clients was Sylvia, who then started paying “sacrifices”;; to help her unwell sister, with the amounts escalating as time went on.
“D’Souza told her ‘clients’ she had treated , , the Duke of York and Robert Redford, and that she had saved John Cleese’s daughter from cancer.
“She used the money to rent four flats in a renovated house, where she lived in just one, and filled others with hoarded luxury goods and a pet monkey named Joey,”;; says Hannah.
‘Manipulating people’
She appeared to enjoy manipulating people.
Hannah adds: “There was one young woman, a lawyer who worked in the City, who’d been trying for years to get pregnant.
“D’Souza persuaded her to offer sacrifices to the spirits – and the woman fell pregnant.
“D’Souza then told her the baby was going to have serious deformities and that she should abort the baby she’d tried so long to have. And she did.
“She was intelligent and educated and longed for this child. But on a word from Juliette D’Souza, she terminated the .
“That one really stood out to us, because that wasn’t for money. That was D’Souza enjoying the control and the power.”;;
In her lair, they discovered designer goods and voodoo dolls
Hannah Maguire
Meanwhile, Keith was fully under her spell and became her errand boy.
He collected “sacrifices”;; for her and she even persuaded him to put his name on the leases for her flats. He paid the £7,500-a-month rent with money she gave him.
But D’Souza’s web of lies began to unravel in 2007. She’d gone to Suriname at the end of the previous year, telling Keith she’d be back by the end of December and leaving him to feed her pet monkey.
“She stayed away for much longer than she’d told Keith she would, and when she failed to return he became concerned, particularly when the landlord of the flats started to chase him for the rent.
“Eventually, with £24,000 owing, Keith and the landlord ventured into D’Souza’s lair and discovered the designer goods, plus voodoo dolls and a freezer of rotten meat,”;; says Hannah.
Web of lies
“D’Souza told Keith he was forbidden from calling her home in Suriname, but eventually he felt he had to.
“When he called, she told him a sacrifice was due for collection and he should use that to pay the rent.
“For Keith – who believed wholeheartedly the money was sacred and was always sent to the magic tree – the penny finally dropped.”;;
It later transpired that during the time she’d dropped off the radar, D’Souza had been in pre-trial detention in Suriname for the extortion of a wealthy socialite.
She was convicted and sentenced to eight months in jail, but had already served most of the sentence on remand. By the time Keith called her, she had been released.
Keith told her other victims what he’d discovered and they went to the , who said there was nothing they could do, as they’d all willingly given the money.
In desperation, they went to the press, and after an , The Sunday Times published an expose in 2008, tracking D’Souza down in Suriname, where she was living with her partner, a high-ranking police officer. She gave no comment.
In 2009, D’Souza returned to Hampstead and reconnected with Sylvia, convincing her the newspaper story had been fake and she was a genuine shaman.
Sylvia’s close friend Maria – who is in her late 60s – told the podcast how she had watched her deteriorate physically and emotionally, but couldn’t quite put her finger on why.
“Things began to change in her life. There was no food in her fridge. She wasn’t buying clothes. Everything was going awry. It was getting worse and worse,”;; said Maria, a former nurse from north London.
Sylvia’s sister had died the previous year, leaving her an inheritance of several hundred thousand pounds.
Despite this, Maria suspected her friend’s problems were financial, because she had voiced concerns about paying for work on her flat.
“It almost ended our friendship,”;; said Maria. “I couldn’t reach her. I’d done everything for her and still she seemed angry with me.”;;
It was only when Sylvia confided in another friend that she’d, once again, been sending money to D’Souza that Maria realised what had been going on.
What began as a £3,000 payment in return for herbs to help cure a stomach ailment had escalated to a total of almost £250,000.
“One minute my heart was breaking for her, the next I was angry with her, thinking how can she be so stupid,”;; Maria said.
Sylvia had been duped into believing her money was being returned, but was held in customs and she would have to pay even more to have it released. D’Souza posed as a customs officer to convince the pensioner of this via a phone call.
A group of Sylvia’s friends went to the police once more, and when Maria explained D’Souza had been impersonating a customs officer, they agreed to investigate.
Maria recalls on the podcast how, after this, Sylvia finally accepted she’d been scammed.
“Her face went ashen, she was sitting on the sofa, motionless, like someone had sucked the blood from her. It was a horrible sight.”;;
She’s a predator, and who knows whether Hampstead was her first – or last – rodeo?
Suruthi Bala
The investigation into Juliette D’Souza continued for two years, and in 2012 she was arrested and charged with 20 counts of obtaining property by deception and three counts of fraud.
After a trial at Blackfriars Crown Court in May 2014, she was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to 10 years in . The judge said it was the worst case of fraud he’d seen.
“D’Souza knew there would be people in Hampstead who would believe what she was saying and would have the money.
“Equally, if you had a loved one who had six months to live and someone told you that they could save them, could you live with yourself if you didn’t try?”;; says Hannah.
D’Souza became eligible for parole in 2019, and has since been seen in Hampstead.
Meanwhile, Sylvia developed and when Maria visited, would often become terrified, thinking D’Souza was coming to take more money.
She died in 2021, penniless and a shell of her former self. Keith now lives in and remains interested in alternative therapies.
Little is known about D’Souza’s whereabouts, but the podcasters query whether a spell in jail will have changed her.
“She’s a predator,”;; says Suruthi.
“There are still questions as to whether the events in Hampstead were her first rodeo. And you have to ask whether they’ll be her last.”;;
