 what is the world coming to
'Girl tortured over witchcraft claims'
6.35PM, Mon May 9 2005
An eight-year-old girl was tortured and about to be killed after being accused of witchcraft, the Old Bailey has heard.
The child had been placed in a laundry bag and was about to be thrown into a river to drown when one of her tormentors managed to stop the others, prosecutor Patricia May said.
Her months of ill-treatment had started when another child told his mother that the girl had been using witchcraft against the family.
Child cruelty charges against three women and a man allege that chilli peppers were rubbed into the girl's eyes, that she was beaten with a belt, slapped, cut with a knife and starved.
The girl's 39-year-old aunt from north London, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies conspiracy to murder and charges of child cruelty.
Sita Kisanga, 35, of Hackney, east London, denies conspiracy to murder and child cruelty charges.
Her brother, Sebastian Pinto, 33, and his girlfriend Kiwonde Kiese, 21, both of Stoke Newington, north London, deny aiding and abetting child cruelty between August 2002 and November 2003.
Miss May said the victim was brought to Britain from Angola in 2002 by the aunt, claiming her as her daughter. The girl's father had died in the fighting in the African country and her mother was feared dead.
She said the victim and her aunt went to live with Kisanga and her eight-year-old son sometime at the beginning of 2003, when her ill-treatment started.
Miss May added: "That ill-treatment led to conduct which would, if it had not been stopped, led to fatal consequences. This ill-treatment started when Miss Kisanga's son one day accused the girl of 'witchcraft'.  |