The rise of child 'witchcraft' cases in the UK

Eight-year-old Victoria Climbié died in February 2000, after months of being starved, beaten, burnt and tied up by her great-aunt and guardian, who thought the little girl was possessed by evil spirits.

It was, said doctors at the time, the most horrific case of child abuse they had seen. And it included an exorcism, after her "evil guardian" convinced a preacher the girl's injuries meant she was "possessed by demons," said The Mirror.

Twenty-five years on, new figures reveal that the accusations that triggered Climbié's murder were no one-off: over the past decade, 14,000 social work assessments in England have been "linked to witchcraft accusations," said The Guardian. And a new film, "Kindoki Witch Boy", now seeks to expose the chilling abuse behind such cases, through the experience of one survivor.

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'Scapegoated' children

Climbié's murder catapulted faith-based abuse into the national spotlight, and led to a radical overhaul of child-protection laws. But it remains a "dark reality" across the UK, said Premier Christian News.

In the past year alone, witchcraft, also known as "juju" or "djin" or "jin", has been linked to 2,180 social-services cases.

Many accused children are "scapegoated for causing health and financial misfortunes" to those around them, said The Guardian. And exorcism, to cast out the "evil spirits" within them, is often seen as the solution.

'Flying around at night'

The "Kindoki" of the film's title is a word used to describe witchcraft that is linked to "acts of child abandonment and ritual abuse" in both the UK and overseas, said The Mirror. The film tells the story of Mardoche Yembi, now 33, who was accused of witchcraft as a boy.

Sent to the UK from the Democratic Republic of Congo after his mother died, Yembi was living with relatives in London, when, at the age of 11, he was accused by them of "killing his mother, flying around at night, damaging people," said the paper. Told he was possessed with a "demon spirit," he endured "two years of exorcisms".

The alarm was eventually sounded, "his case marked as abuse", and Yembi "found relief" after being placed with a foster mother, said Premier Christian News. Now working in the care system, he raises awareness of this "hidden" abuse.

Social services "sometimes misinterpret the warning signs" of this kind of child abuse, the film's director, Penny Woolcock, told The Mirror. She hopes the film will "encourage discussion" around witchcraft accusations, and prevent "other children from suffering".