FRONT PAGE 'Satanic' training claim There is devil work at Ayr's Digital, it was claimed this week. A computer expert protested against an alleged "Satanic" training programme … and was later sacked. Report: Page 11

Page 11 'DEVIL'S WORK' AT DIGITAL Sacked computer man's shock claim Story by Nan Spowart AN Ayr Christian claims Satanic forces are behind a new training programme run by electronic giants Digital. Computer expert Paul Mansbacher was SACKED after refusing to take part in a company project. Now the former systems manager has launched a protest against the US-owned firm. Said Mr Mansbacher: "I am not getting all emotional about this but I do believe the source of the training programme is from a being called Satan." The 42-year-old Baptist, of Gordon Terrace - who now has a temporary job with Scottish Homes in Edinburgh - claims employees at the Ayr plant are being "moulded" into followers of a Devil-inspired philosophy. He says he was psychologically disturbed after taking part in one of the training programmes. Along with around 30 Digital employees - about a dozen of them from Ayr - he travelled to France in February for a week of so-called "New-Age" thinking. Called Improving Organisation Effectiveness, Mr Mansbacher said it tried to "unfreeze" people's personalities and re-form them in a way which would make them work better. The group were told that the belief in a creator God was history. That idea belonged to the "machine-age" and should be replaced by a belief in "God-as-a-system". Mr Mansbacher said this idea conflicted with his religious beliefs. The religious element has since been taken out by the company but Mr Mansbacher claims this makes little difference as the training programme is still based on the new thinking. He was sacked in May after he refused to take part in a New-Age project, he claims. The case cannot be heard by an industrial tribunal because Mr Mansbacher had been a full employee for 23, not the statutory 24, months. A Digital spokesman said Mr Mansbacher's dismissal was performance related. He said, "This is not a motivational course and there is no goal of 'unfreezing' people's personalities." He said in "approximately 40 hours" of the course there was only one 15 minute reference to religion. "No-one is pressurised to attend the course and no-one has ever walked off it, including Mr Mansbacher," the spokesman said.