Canadian woman arrested and charged with witchcraft

A woman has been arrested and charged with extortion, fraud, and witchcraft in Canada.

Canada still has witchcraft laws and 32-year-old Dorie "Madeena" Stevenson of Milton was arrested on October 18 after a victim came forward to reveal that they had consulted with a psychic and had been defrauded of an amount totalling over $60,000.

According to Halton Regional Regional Police, a lengthy criminal investigation began in May of this year, following the report and police learned that the accused was operating an Ontario registered business known as, "Milton Psychic" located on Ontario Street South in the town of Milton.

She was arrested following which a search warrant was executed on the business and evidence was recovered. Detective Sergeant Dave Costantini HRPS 1 District Criminal Investigations Bureau (CIB) said:

What we typically see is a tendency for perpetrators to take advantage of persons when they are in their most vulnerable state.

Victims are manipulated into believing something bad will happen to them unless they remit cash. We even see incidents where victims are required to make purchases and remit these purchases in order to be cleansed. Purchased items include new cell phones, jewelry, appliances and gift cards. Purchases are made under the assumption these items will be returned, but they never are.

When victims cannot be squeezed any longer, the perpetrators rely on the victim’s embarrassment in not contacting police.

Police believe that there may be other victims that have yet to come forward, and are requesting that victims contact Detective Constable Sarah McCullagh.