UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail
Ritual child abuse linked to witchcraft on the rise in the UK: Drownings and rape part of ‘hidden crimes to drive out the devil’
By HARRIET ARKELL FOR MAILONLINE
Detectives are reporting a massive rise in the number of reported child abuse linked to witchcraft, they said today.
Scotland Yard has received 27 allegations of ritual child abuse this year alone – a dramatic increase on a decade ago, when just two such cases were reported to police in the whole of 2004.
Examples of the faith-based abuse include a child being dunked in a bath to ‘wash away evil spirits’, children being raped, and a pastor swinging a child around banging its head to ‘drive out the devil’.
Now teachers, social workers and doctors are to be taught to spot the signs of the abuse in a drive to tackle the growing problem across Britain.
Last month police were called to a leisure centre in south London after residents reported a string of dawn ‘child exorcisms’ in which adults surrounded a toddler chanting ‘Get the demon out’.
A number of child killings have been linked to these beliefs, including the murder of Kristy Bamu, 15, who was tortured and drowned by his sister and her boyfriend in 2010; and the death of Victoria Climbie.
The number of cases of ritualistic or faith-based abuse of children reported to Scotland Yard has increased year-on-year over the past decade. But detectives believe the number of reports is just the tip of the iceberg, with many more such cases being kept secret among communities.
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