By Stewart Tendler and Nicola Woolcock
DOZENS of children are being abused by religious groups who believe they are possessed, The Times has learnt.
Nineteen children have been rescued by police and social workers from beatings and mental abuse by church members, and senior officers fear many cases are still going unreported. The children’s plight was uncovered in a drive against “faith-based ritual abuse”. A report by Scotland Yard’s child abuse specialists shows that 12 cases involving 19 children were recorded by police in London between May and October.
Although police say most of the cases involve minor injuries, they include beatings, actual bodily harm and neglect involving starving children, abandoning or ignoring them. Many revolve around practices in black African churches.
The cases were uncovered after Scotland Yard, social services agencies and government departments began a campaign to halt the “deliverance rituals” and beliefs within some churches aimed at exorcising children denounced as witches. These rituals are not only condoned but encouraged by many churches, whose pastors are often the ones to denounce young worshippers as witches. The unshakable belief in ndoki (witchcraft) has become a tenet of certain evangelical churches.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,170-1921773,00.html