Ledrede demanded that secular powers concede to church wishes, and this point of law became a thorny issue throughout the trial. Kyteler was related to the Chancellor (he was probably her first husband's brother) and he asked the bishop to drop the case. The chancellor demanded that Kyteler be excommunicated for at least 40 days before the trial, which caused a delay in the proceedings. This allowed Kyteler to flee to Roger Utlagh. Ledrede accused Utlagh of harbouring heretics, but a commission cleared him of any wrongdoing. The bishop then charged Kyteler and her son, William Outlaw, with the crime of heresy. William was a powerful man and was related to many in the ruling classes. He called upon his friend, Sir Arnold le Poeur, a Senior Official in Dublin, who had de Ledrede thrown in prison in Kilkenny Castle. Ledrede, despite his limited political connections compared to his captors, was released from prison after he ordered the diocese be placed on an interdict. He would not allow any religious ceremonies to occur until he was released. On Ledrede's release, he renewed his efforts to have Kyteler imprisoned. Kyteler and her accomplices were accused of and investigated on the seven accounts. After some months of stalemate, one of Kyteler's servants, Petronilla de Meath, was tortured and confessed to participating in witchcraft. Her confession detailed her involvement, along with Kyteler's, in six out of seven of the above-listed crimes. One example she gave was rubbing ointment on a stick to fly. It would seem, although her testimony was likely forced and unreliable, that the accusers gained most of their information from this confession. Although the testimony did implicate Kyteler in performing heresy, questions concerning Petronella's credibility came to light, especially when examining the contents of her confession. In Ledrede's retelling of Petronilla's confession, he writes: 'On one of these occasions, by the crossroads outside the city, she had made an offering of three cocks to a certain demon whom she called Robert, son of Art (Robertum filium Artis), from the depths of the underworld. She had poured out the cocks' blood, cut the animals into pieces and mixed the intestines with spiders and other black worms like scorpions, with a herb called milfoil as well as with other herbs and horrible worms. She had boiled this mixture in a pot with the brains and clothes of a boy who had died