Police investigate religious links after witchcraft abuse of child, 8

Police and child protection experts are to investigate the extent of child abuse linked to religious practices after three adults who branded an eight-year-old child a witch and tortured her for months were yesterday convicted of child cruelty offences.

The girl, known only as child B, was an orphan from war-ravaged Angola and brought to Britain by her aunt who falsely claimed to be her mother.

She was cut with a knife on her chest, had chilli peppers rubbed in her eyes, was starved and repeatedly slapped, kicked and beaten. Yesterday an Old Bailey jury convicted her aunt, who cannot be named for legal reasons, Sita Kisanga, 35, and her brother Sebastian Pinto, 33, of child cruelty charges.

In one incident child B was bundled into a laundry bag and made to believe she would be thrown in a river by Kisanga and her aunt, who believed the girl was possessed by evil spirits. Police and child protection experts are to investigate the extent of abuse linked to religious practices and admit they know little about the problem. Child welfare groups warn there may be dozens of such cases.

The Guardian has learned of four other cases where parents have abused children in their care in similar circumstances. Three are in north London and one in the west country. All the children, aged nine to 14, have been taken into care.

Police say child B was discovered by a street warden near Kisanga's east London flat on November 24, 2003. She had cuts and bruises and was shivering.

Over a series of videoed police interviews, played to the jury in court, she detailed a horrifying catalogue of abuse, saying Kisanga had laughed while beating her, threatened to kill her, and cut her with a knife: "She pulled a little knife and she did little marks. I was bleeding."

Once all three adults surrounded the girl: "One kicked me, one slapped me and one pushed me. I asked myself, 'What have I done?' "

Detective superintendent Chris Bourlet, Scotland Yard's deputy head of child protection, said police would examine the scale of abuse in communities linked to witchcraft or spirit possession: "The fact is anecdotally mentioned so often it is of concern. We have to establish what is the true picture. We are examining if churches are playing a role in the abuse."

Police say Kisanga attended an African protestant church whose roots are in the Congo, and community leaders told the Guardian the aunt also went there.

In court the jury saw evidence that a Bible recovered from Kisanga's home bore the inscription of the church's name.

Police also found an entry in a notebook, dated November 16, 2003, which talks of the child being branded a witch at a church event.

It read: "On retreat there was indeed a prophecy that [Child B] was ndoki," a term for witch in Lingala, an Angolan lingua franca.

Police say an official of the church denied involvement in or any activity leading to child abuse.

The adults were remanded in custody until July 8 for sentencing. Judge Christopher Moss said they should expect to go to jail.