Latest news with #blackmagic
News.com.au
20-05-2025
- News.com.au
‘He was my saviour': Astrologer confronted over $67k claim
A man claiming to be 'Brisbane's best astrologer' has been confronted on national television after a family claimed to have paid him $67,000 for his services. Govindu Shastri, who claims to perform cosmic miracles for those struggling with everything from business, court and sexual problems to voodoo and black magic, told a Queensland father his services were the only thing that could save his children, to the tune of $67,000. 'He closed his eyes basically and then he said that 'I can see your aura right now and it's been covered by dark forces and there's an indication of black magic being performed on your family',' the man told A Current Affair on Monday night. 'I tried to save my family. I was so convinced there was no way out.' Before meeting Govindu, the man and his wife had sought help from a psychologist and psychiatrist to help one of their children, who was struggling with poor mental health. 'Nothing was working, and then I thought, try (an) alternative cure,' the man said. He booked an appointment with Govindu, who told him during their first meeting that a 'black magic' was growing among his family and had 'real potential to disrupt and destroy' them. The first ritual Govindu performed involved him saying 'nine days of special prayers', for which he charged the man $2000. 'And he said that you have to pay another $14,000 because (the black magic) has moved onto your child now and that's more serious,' the man, who has not told his family about the money he has lost, claimed. Govindu then said he needed to perform a third ritual – this one even more bizarre. 'He asked me to bring a jar and he asked me to breathe into the jar, basically, and he started chanting things, and the ball of flame just evolved from there, from the jar, big thick ball of flame,' the man recalled. 'And he (Govindu) said, 'I got it, I got it!'. He held the thing. Then he said that, 'This is alive now and if this one escapes, that's going to go after your child'.' The man claimed Govindu told him he 'needed a dead person's body (of) similar size to (his) child to perform the next ritual', which would cost $50,000. 'So he told you he needed a dead person's body similar size to your child to perform the next ritual?' A Current Affair asked. 'Yes,' the man confirmed. After he gave Govindu the money, however, he said he was ghosted by him and the ritual was never performed. Asked why he didn't notice any 'red flags' in Govindu's behaviour, the man said it was because he 'was so convincing'. 'My personal condition was so overrun with my family situation,' he added. 'He was just my saviour.' When confronted by A Current Affair at a Brisbane petrol station, Govindu denied knowing what an astrologist was – or that he was one at all. 'I'm not an astrologist, sorry for that. I don't know who that is,' he said. Presented with advertisements from his Facebook page, Govindu said: 'I think you are coming for the wrong person.' In a statement to he said: 'I have not done any scam, not even $1 scam. I feel to leave my life, and end my life here (in Australia). I am getting calls from my back home county. I have 2 kids and my wife here. 'We had a good positive life from the day. But now it has destroyed (my) entire life.' An Office of Fair Trading spokesperson said that it does not regulate spiritual or astrological services specifically, but urged consumers to 'exercise caution when engaging with individuals or businesses offering services that involve unverifiable claims or require large financial commitments'.
The Sun
19-05-2025
- The Sun
Bodysnatcher who dressed mummified remains of 29 girls as dolls to stay locked up after plea from psychiatric doc
A SICK bodysnatcher who dressed up mummified remains of 29 girls as dolls will remain locked up in a psychiatric hospital, a Russian court has ruled. Anatoly Moskvin, 55, turned the dead children into 'dolls', dressing them in stockings, clothes and knee-length boots. 7 7 He was first arrested in 2011 when a series of desecrated graves of girls aged three to 11 led to a months-long manhunt across Novgorod, Russia. When cops searched the flat Moskvin shared with his parents, they discovered the bodies of 29 girls. Each had been mummified, dressed in children's clothes, and arranged like dolls in his home. The former academic claimed that he practised black magic and believed he could one day revive the children using science. Moskvin, now 58, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was ruled unfit to stand trial in 2012. He has been held in a secure Russian psychiatric unit ever since. Despite several pleas made by Moskvin's lawyers, a Russian court has now confirmed that the sick man would remain under forced detention. His term was extended after the chief physician of the psychiatric hospital filed a petition against his release - possibly due to his behaviour. Moskvin confessed to 44 counts of abusing the graves of girls aged three to 12. In Soviet times, he worked as a translator for military intelligence in the Red Army, and later wrote several history books. Horror moment sisters are found chained to their beds where 'Brazil's Fritzl' dad 'drugged & raped them for a year' The historian, described in court as a genius and the author of scientific papers, gave various explanations for his deeply disturbing behaviour. Moskvin told his interrogators he was waiting for science to find ways for these girls to live again, as well as wanting to be an expert in making mummies. He chillingly said to the family members of the dead children: "You abandoned your girls in the cold, and I brought them home and warmed them up." Moskvin added that he had needed biological material for cloning and insisted his actions were not for any sexual motive. He told investigators: "I felt sorry for the dead children, who could still live on. "So I kept them until the time when science would have advanced, and revived them." 7 7 7 His mother Elvira told the court: "We saw these dolls, but we did not suspect there were dead bodies inside. We thought it was his hobby to make such big dolls and did not see anything wrong with it.' Parents of the dead children have pleaded he remain locked up for life, fearing he'll return to his sinister old habit, which saw him living with some children's remains for up to ten years. In the early years after his arrest, he frequently gave interviews and made bizarre confessions, including that he had slept in Muslim graveyards and visited more than 750 cemeteries. He claimed: "I lay down in one coffin, and slid another one on top. And I got a good night's sleep. And no one noticed." In 2021, his lawyers tried to argue that he should be transferred to outpatient care and had plans to write a book and work as a language teacher in Moscow. But the court rejected the plea, as it did again last week. The court sided with the hospital that he remain under psychiatric supervision in detention until November.
