Alarm at rise in witchcraft abuse cases

THOUSANDS of child social services referrals were linked to witchcraft in the last year.

- BY SASKIA ROWLANDS

Local authorities recorded 2,180 cases of the vile abuse, which often includes exorcisms.

The data, collected by the National FGM Centre, comes weeks after the 25th anniversary of the murder of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie.

She was starved, beaten, burned, scalded and tied up for months after a preacher told her guardians she was possessed by demons in Haringey, North London.

Marie-Therese Kouao and Carl Manning were jailed for life in 2003 - sparking a massive overhaul of child protection laws.

But since 2014 local authorities have logged 14,000 cases of abuse linked to witchcraft.