How It All Began

Our story begins on 31/04/09 with an interesting forum post on www.ukskeptics.org.uk, which later grew into a lengthy thread:

http://www.ukskeptics.com/showthread.php/3755-Adrian-Pengelly-Astonishing-claims

Despite a long-standing interest in the paranormal and related subjects I had never heard of "energy healer" Adrian Pengelly, and neither had anyone else on the forum.  When I visited his website I was absolutely staggered by what I found.  How on earth had Mr Pengelly's illegal offers to treat cancer not come to the attention of his local Trading Standards office?  The simple answer to this, and one of the reasons why people like Mr Pengelly are laughing all the way to the bank, is that all Trading Standards offices are overworked and understaffed.  They simply cannot employ people to trawl through dodgy websites in search of potentially actionable material. 

What about the media?  Surely there must be plenty of journalists on the lookout for stories like this?  Alas, no.  The New Age/Alternative medicine industry is VERY big business.  Look at the ads section of almost any newspaper or magazine and ask yourself how much money the publication makes by promoting irrational and potentially dangerous claptrap.  Editors know that millions of people buy into this feelgood fantasy world and and are therefore unwilling to challenge their readers' delicate belief systems.

I resolved to bring the bizarre content of Mr Pengelly's website before a wider audience in three ways: by reporting him to Hereford Trading Standards, suggesting that BBC's "Watchdog" do a feature on him, and by writing a series of online articles.

And thereby hangs a tale...