ONE of the darkest episodes in Middleton's history was revisited in a major BBC documentary screened (Wednesday).

'When Satan Came To Town', revealed the horrors of the 20 children who were snatched from their homes on Langley and taken into care by Rochdale Council in 1990, following allegations of 'satanic abuse'.

In total the snatched children spent 34 years and four months in care and, for the first time last night, they had the chance to tell the story of how Rochdale council's biggest mistake ruined their lives.

One of the interviewees is Daniel, who was in care for 10 years after sparking off the scare.

When he was just six years old, he told his teachers strange stories about ghosts, children being kept in cages, sheep being slaughtered and babies being killed.

As a result social services staff and police officers raided the family home and, along with his sister Julie and two brothers, Daniel was taken into care.

Parents Andrew and Beverley, who couldn't understand why their children were being taken away, were stunned to be hit with horrendous accusations which included taking the children to graveyards and even sacrificing human foetuses.

Beverley said: "It frightened the life out of me."

Believing they had uncovered a ring of 'satanic abuse' on the estate, three months later Rochdale's social services department then raided a number of other homes and took yet more children, from five more families who knew Andrew and Beverley.

Many of these children, now mainly in their 20s, appear in the documentary in both recent interviews and also in footage from their time in care, when they were interviewed by social workers.

These interviews from 1990 make for horrendous viewing. The children's insistence that nothing happened to them is ignored and, in one case, six-year-old Caroline cries for 17 minutes non-stop while the social worker doesn't let up her barrage of questions.

The documentary also incudes reconstructions of events, including the 1991 High Court hearing, and interviews with a child psychologist and ex-Middleton councillor Tony Heaford.

Mr Heaford was so concerned that, along with ex-councillor Kevin Hunt, he called for a full-scale inquiry into the affair at the time and campaigned for the children to be able to contact their parents.

The documentary, months in the making and helped by the Middleton Guardian, is sure to rock the town as Middletonians hear the true horrors of what went on from the mouths of those involved.

Click here to see our special coverage of these terrible events ...