Justice for Scotland's 'witches'

Pressure group Witches of Scotland has mounted a campaign seeking official pardons for 2,500 victims of 16th and 17th century witch hunts. Fear of 'the dark arts' led to Scotland's 1563 Witchcraft Act, which condemned to death anyone deemed a witch - the vast majority of these were women.

Tortured with sleep deprivation, their bodies were scoured for 'witches' marks' then "punctured" with fake pins, proving they didn't bleed. The resulting sentence of strangulation followed by incineration foiled witches' supposed talent for returning from the dead.

Claire Mitchell QC leads Witches of Scotland.

Claire Mitchell: The way that women were killed as witches was by strangulation and then by burning. So, the mosaic denotes the fact that she was burnt as a witch to get rid of her ashes. There was a belief that if you didn't get rid of every part of a witch, that they might 'revenant', rev, coming from the French 'revenir', to return."

Those accused and condemned typically had limited means and lacked a fair defence. This was especially true of women, regarded as easy vessels for the devil to manifest through due to their fragile nature, explains Witches of Scotland's podcast host, Zoe Venditozzi.

Zoe Venditozzi: "They really felt they were operating in a world in which the devil was out to get them. And that women were weak vessels basically, who the devil could act through. So that's why women tended to get accused, because women were seen as being somebody that the devil could manipulate easily. Whereas men could withstand, you know, the devil's advances."

Beyond their demand that those with witchcraft convictions be pardoned, Witches of Scotland is calling for a formal apology and a national monument to acknowledge the victims' suffering and the state's culpability.

However, while women's persecution as witches may seem a thing of bygone times, Venditozzi's concerned it remains a live, global issue.

Zoe Venditozzi: "We feel that it was an absolutely terrible thing that happened in Scotland's history. It was a miscarriage of justice and unfortunately it's not a finished with issue. There are still people across the world, generally vulnerable, often women or old people, that are being accused of witchcraft and in some cases being killed by mob justice. And in fact there are some countries that are trying to put it into their legal system where people can still be accused of witchcraft. So we don't think that it's an issue that's past. It's still sadly very, very relevant."

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