Wrongly jailed 'satanic' day care couple gets $3.4m

CHICAGO - A US couple wrongly jailed for 21 years on charges of sexually assaulting children as part of a satanic cult, received $3.4 million on Wednesday from the state of Texas, months after prosecutors acknowledged their innocence.

Operators of a day care facility, Dan and Fran Keller were at the center of a sensational case in 1991, accused by children of abuse and rituals that included dismembering babies and torturing pets.

Authorities later acknowledged that the children were improperly interviewed, triggering false memories, amid a climate of fear fueled by a belief around the nation that satanists were preying on children.