A British witch doctor who conned her 'patients' out of £1million to become one of the most prolific conwomen in history has been jailed for 10 years.
Juliette D'Souza, 59, persuaded 11 clients to hand over their life savings - which she insisted would be hung from a magic tree in the Amazon as a sacrifice.
Instead she spent the cash on first class flights, antique furniture and a £3,000 Hermes handbag.
'Pure evil': Juliette D'Souza told one client that a relative would die if she did not continue giving her money
Jailed: Juliette D'Souza has been described as one of Britain's most prolific conwomen in history
Bizarrely, she would buy designer goods she never used and rent luxury homes which she never visited.
Today D'Souza was jailed for 10 years at Blackfriars Crown Court, where police claimed she was every bit as dangerous as a violent criminal.
RELATED ARTICLES
Guilty: The witch doctor of Hampstead who took £1m from... 
'Witch doctor' who duped clients out of £1million telling...- Witch doctor 'told woman to have abortion after claiming...
Share this article
ShareJudge Ian Karsten QC said she had cast a 'spell' over her victims - who had cancer, disabilities, sick relatives, job worries and fertility problems - persuading them to hand over the money or face 'terrifying' consequences including the death of their loved ones.
A jury took just an hour to convict her of 23 counts of fraud and obtaining property by deception, spanning 12 years from 1998 to 2010.
The self-proclaimed healer said she had helped cure John Cleese’s daughter of cancer, boasted of knowing Princess Diana and claimed she could introduce a young singer to Simon Cowell.
Advertising her services in Tatler magazine, she charged just £35 for a consultation but then demanded huge sums to be used as the 'sacrifices' in Suriname, South America.
There she claimed two other shamans would perform rituals around the money before it was sent back with all the victims' problems resolved - but the money was never returned.
In one especially horrifying case, a client handed over £176,000 in a desperate bid to fall pregnant.
The witch doctor of Hampstead: The 59-year-old spent the money on luxury goods she never used
When she finally conceived, D'Souza told her to have an abortion because her foetus would be grossly deformed and ‘evil’.
Her lies were finally uncovered, along with ‘voodoo black magic’ which included freezers stuffed with rotting meat and an abandoned capuchin monkey which was later adopted by Stephen Fry.
Judge Karsten told her today: 'It is the worst case of confidence fraud I have ever had to deal with or indeed that I have ever heard of.
'The most serious aspect of this case is that you wrecked the lives of a number of your victims and you have done it out of pure greed.
'You told a number of victims the money would be returned. The reality, as it has emerged, is that you didn’t send any of this money to South America. You used the cash for your own purposes.
'You cheated each and every one of these victims. You were able to exercise a considerable influence and indeed a spell over these victims.'
A number of victims were 'subjugated' to her will so that they 'lost all of their autonomy' and became 'entirely dependent' on her, he said.
'To reinforce their dependence on you, you initially saw to it that they were cut off from their friends and family,' he added.
'You warned them about the "evil temperament" of the people to whom they were close.'
Many victims were left in financial ruin, with one man 'as poor as a church mouse', while the conwoman 'remorselessly extracted' more than £200,000 from an elderly woman over several years.
The official amount she defrauded was £908,400, but on the evidence given by victims the final sum was closer to £1million.
Police believe the total taken by D'Souza - who had similar previous convictions - could be higher still.
D’Souza’s web was finally untangled in 2007 as she made a series of mistakes which aroused her victims’ suspicions. She claimed to have attended St Hilliard’s College, Oxford, which does not exist and got the name of Princess Diana’s sister wrong.
The woman who had an abortion realised she had been scammed and went to Hampstead police station in north London, but said officers ‘laughed in my face’.
Victims: Hampstead osteopath Keith Bender, left, referred clients to D'Souza in the belief she could help. Opera singer Silvia Eaves handed over £256,000 for help with stomach problems and to invest in a clinic in Peru
This left her so angry she forced her way into D’Souza’s home with the help of Mr Bender, who was paying the rent on that property, and three others. Inside they found the voodoo treasure trove – which also included drawings of an ‘evil eye’, burned photos and a brand new barrister’s wig.
D’Souza would give her 'customers' detailed instructions about how the money was to be paid - always in cash and in a brown envelope. Part of her system was to demand a full-length photograph from each victim.
One victim - who was told to pay £18,000 or her partner would die - said: 'I was absolutely terrified. I was living in fear and doing what I was told.'
Another was 82-year-old former opera singer Sylvia Eaves, who was duped out of more than £350,000 by D’Souza between 1998 and 2010.
Another still was the mother of a ten-year-old boy with Down’s Syndrome who was conned out of £42,000 when D’Souza claimed she could cure his behavioural problems.
The widow, whom the judge described as a 'delightful lady', handed over the money for various reasons including help with a stomach problem and to 'save' her ill sister.
Voodoo dolls: D'Souza's con was exposed when Mr Bender and property manager Keith Mcmahon grew suspicious and broke into her four flats at Willoughby Road in Hampstead, north London
Pet: Mr Bender had been visiting one room to feed D'Souza's pet monkey, Joey, but did not dare enter the rest of her property for fear it was cursed. She had told him evil spirits would break his neck if he did
'I’m relieved that she won’t be doing it to anybody else,' Mrs Eaves said today. 'I feel terribly sad that somebody who is so clever would resort to that, especially as she was a friend of mine. I feel terribly let down that she could behave like that.
'She relieved me of a lot of money but I’m still here. I was gullible, I suppose, but my sister was very ill at the time.'
Other victims included retired solicitor Richard Collier-Wright, who paid £7,000 to cure his terminal leukaemia, and former photographer Jocelyn Bain-Hogg, who handed D’Souza thousands to improve the health of his mother who was having heart surgery.
A couple, who cannot be named, gave tens of thousands to the fraudster after she claimed she could help with their child’s disability and behavioural problems.
Another victim, Geoffrey Wheeler, handed over around £160,000 to 'protect' him from being made redundant but was left in financial ruin.
Gear: Piles of rubbish filled the flats and stacks of carrier bags from designer stores littered the rooms
Her barrister, Stephen Fidler, told the court D’Souza’s elderly mother had been unwell for a considerable time and she visits her every day.
But the judge told her: 'I find no mitigating factors in your case at all.'
Detective Constables Linda Kernot and Fiona Graham said: 'We are very pleased with the sentence. It reflects the serious nature of her actions and the fact that she has shown no remorse.
'We are relieved that her evil schemes have been stopped as we consider Juliette D’Souza as dangerous as a violent offender.
'She is a nasty, cruel person who targeted vulnerable people, preying on them when they were desperate for support and guidance. In the end, her greed and arrogance was her downfall.
'We want to thank the victims for showing great courage in standing up to her and giving their evidence.'
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCmmZmhe6S7ja6iaKaVrMBwrdGtoJyklWJ%2Fd4CTaW5yZ4eewaS0jJ2mnKyfp3q1u86kZGqlXaWutbXEp6usZaSaua21zaBkrKCVmXq0tMCmmKdlcaKuu7vNZqqpnZ6perW%2BwK%2BcpWWYlrulrsCgqmaikZ65prCMamdmsZWWv7R6x62kpQ%3D%3D