Cloned Tot Cult are Con Artists Exclusive: Distraught couple paid £300,000 for second 'son'

Sunday Mail/December 29, 2002
By Lorna Hughes

A couple who gave £300,000 to the cult at the centre of the cloned baby scandal have branded them fraudsters.

Mark and Tracey Hunt donated the cash to set up a secret laboratory to clone their baby son, who died after a heart operation.

But they stopped the experiment by controversial company Cloneaid after warnings from the US government.

At first lawyer Mark, 42, believed scientist Brigitte Boisselier's claims that her company could make a replica of his 10-month- old son Andrew from frozen cells taken from him before he died.

French-born Boisselier, who lives in Las Vegas, provoked an outcry last week when she claimed Cloneaid had produced the world's first cloned baby.

She revealed the Hunt project to the American media, but last night the couple claimed Cloneaid had only got as far as examining their dead son's DNA.

The West Virginia lawman and Democrat politician branded Boisselier a "press hog" and claimed he's lost faith in her.

A friend of the couple said: "They were conned by this woman when they were at their lowest ebb. Despite her claims, they achieved next to nothing at the laboratory.

"They now believe her claims are nothing more than a slick con devised to focus attention on the Raelian cult."

Cloneaid is linked to the cult, who believe cloning is the route to mankind's salvation. Boisselier is a Raelian `bishop'.

It was also revealed last night the Raelian cult want to clone Adolf Hitler - and put his double on trial for war crimes.

Scientists for the sect, which believes all life is derived from aliens from space, approached a Moscow archive which holds the only remains of the Nazi dictator to obtain samples.

But many of the world's more orthodox scientists are highly sceptical of Cloneaid's claims.

A federal investigation last year into Boisselier's boasts of cloning the Hunts' baby son was dismissed. Justice department officials who inspected her secret laboratory - housed in a former high school in West Virginia - said Cloneaid scientists were "many years" away from cloning a human.

The Hunts have another child but still haven't given up on their bizarre dream of cloning Andrew.

Mark said: "I hoped and prayed that my son would be the first. I will never give up on my child. I will never stop until I could give his DNA - his genetic make-up - a chance.

"I know that we have only one chance - human cloning."

The case prompted the US Senate to outlaw human cloning in America.

Meanwhile, the Raelian cult claim they have other labs around the world. Members say space aliens called Elohim created all life on Earth.

The sect was founded by French racing driver and journalist Claude Vorihon, who changed his name to Rael after being approached by a 4ft tall alien while hiking.

He claims 50,000 followers in 85 countries and has opened a UFO theme park in Canada.