Atlas›Domain XVI · Historical, discredited & harmful›Guide 108
Guide XVI-108

Abusive exorcism

A 27 · L 63 · M 1019 interventions in the Trinity explorer
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[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: abusive exorcism as documented in the UK Department for Education's National Action Plan to tackle child abuse linked to faith or belief (14 August 2012) and the local safeguarding-partnership procedures built on it, the DfE-funded rapid literature review (Simon et al., 2012), and abusive exorcism cases in the UK, Europe and the US as courts and major news report them. This guide covers abuse carried out in the name of driving out spirits, demons, jinn or witchcraft, in any tradition. It does not describe any rite. The Catholic rite and its own harm account are in Domain XIII 211; Ghanaian prayer camps in Domain XI 069; Sri Lankan tovil in Domain XI 016; the history of exorcism in Domain XVI 012. Cross-refer to those guides rather than repeat them.

What it is. "Abusive exorcism" names a pattern rather than a therapy: a child or adult is labelled possessed, a witch or under a spirit's influence, and relatives, a self-styled healer or a religious leader then harm the person in an attempt to "deliver" or cleanse them. Safeguarding guidance describes abuse that "often occurs when carers try to exorcise or 'deliver' the child", and notes that the beliefs may be sincerely held and are not confined to any one country, culture, religion or migrant community [source: West Midlands child protection procedures; North East Lincolnshire guidance]. UK government framing is that "It is not our job to challenge people's beliefs but it is our job to protect children" (Children's Minister, 2012) [source: DfE press release 2012].

Core idea of how change happens (for the psychotherapist). The practice itself changes nothing clinically: the people labelled are often children or adults who are ill, disabled, distressed, newly arrived in a household or scapegoated for family misfortune [source: Simon et al. 2012; DfE press release 2012]. The psychotherapist's work changes outcomes by recognising the pattern early, separating faith from abuse, getting the person physically safe through statutory routes, opening a proper medical and psychiatric assessment of what was read as possession, and then helping survivors and families with trauma, guilt and their relationship to their faith [synthesis].

2. Framework

This is the psychotherapist's own work, in phases. Session number, length and format follow the client's needs and the setting; timings depend on risk and on statutory processes [synthesis].

Phase A. Recognition. Goal: notice indicators (in a child, in an adult client, in a family's account, in a colleague's or community's practice) and name the concern to yourself as possible abuse, not culture [source: NSPCC chief executive in DfE press release 2012: "this is about child cruelty, not culture"]. Move on when a concern exists: you do not need certainty to act.

Phase B. Safety and safeguarding. Goal: immediate safety; referral to children's social care (UK) or child protective services and law enforcement elsewhere; adult safeguarding or police where an adult is at risk or a crime has occurred. In England, local authorities can investigate under section 47 of the Children Act 1989; the Act does not name witchcraft or possession, but its definition of abuse covers such harm [source: West Midlands procedures; North East Lincolnshire guidance]. Move on only when statutory agencies hold the protective role and the person is not in ongoing danger.

Phase C. Assessment of what was read as possession. Goal: faith-sensitive cultural assessment plus medical and psychiatric differential (epilepsy, autism, psychosis, mood disorder, dissociation, intoxication, physical illness). Research found carers read bedwetting, bad dreams, challenging behaviour, epilepsy, autism and a stammer as signs of possession [source: Simon et al. 2012]. In a German case relatives interpreted a woman's talking to herself and lashing out as possession before she was killed [source: The Local 2017]. Move on when there is a working formulation and appropriate medical care is in place.

Phase D. Processing and repair. Goal: trauma-focused work, grief, guilt (including for siblings or relatives forced to take part), family work where safe, and the person's chosen relationship to faith. Move on when symptoms and safety allow.

Phase E. Advocacy and follow-up. Goal: support through criminal-justice and family-court processes, community and faith-leader engagement, and prevention. The National Action Plan's four strands (engaging communities; empowering practitioners; supporting victims and witnesses; communicating key messages) give the frame [source: DfE press release 2012; Law & Religion UK summary].

Historical outline of the practice in the UK safeguarding record (no rites). A DfE-commissioned study (2006) reviewed 38 well-documented cases involving 47 children (2000 to 2005) from African, South Asian and European backgrounds [source: Law & Religion UK; DfE press release 2012]. A 2011 ministerial roundtable led to the 2012 Action Plan; the plan followed the 2010 killing of a 15-year-old boy in east London [source: DfE press release 2012]. The Metropolitan Police's Project Violet team handles cases where a child is accused of witchcraft or spirit possession; police recorded at least 27 such cases in 2014 and described this as the surface of the problem [source: NBC News c. 2015; date uncertain: not verified].

3. Guiding principles

  • Child abuse is child abuse. The belief context never lowers the threshold for action. Practical meaning: apply the same referral thresholds as for any physical abuse or neglect [source: Metropolitan Police quoted in NBC News].
  • Respect belief, act on harm. Practical meaning: do not argue theology; act on what is being done to the person [source: DfE press release 2012].
  • Not "religion-blind". Practical meaning: ask about religion and belief in routine assessment, without assumptions about any community [source: Simon et al. 2012].
  • Fear of being called racist is not a reason to wait. Practical meaning: raise concerns promptly and through proper channels; police said professionals should not "hide behind" such fears [source: NBC News].
  • Most believers reject these acts. Practical meaning: avoid stigmatising a faith or a community; families and faith leaders are often allies [source: DfE press release 2012; family statement in the Belgian case, Morocco World News 2012].
  • Possession labels often sit on top of illness, disability or scapegoating. Practical meaning: always arrange medical and psychiatric assessment of the behaviour that triggered the label [source: Simon et al. 2012].
  • Look beyond the identified child. Practical meaning: siblings and other children may have witnessed, been forced to join in, or been accused next [source: West Midlands procedures; Channel 4 News 2012].
  • Take threats of removal abroad seriously. Practical meaning: seek urgent legal advice through social care [source: West Midlands procedures; North East Lincolnshire guidance].
  • Repentance is not proof of safety. Practical meaning: a family's or leader's apology does not end the risk assessment [source: West Midlands procedures].
  • The psychotherapist never refers to, supervises or co-delivers an exorcism or deliverance. Practical meaning: you may coordinate with responsible faith leaders on safety and support, never on a rite [synthesis].
  • Your role is therapeutic and protective, not investigative. Practical meaning: listen, record and refer; social care and police investigate [synthesis].
  • Consent and assent. Practical meaning: explain limits of confidentiality at the start; with children, seek assent in age-appropriate language alongside parental consent, but safeguarding duties override both [synthesis].
  • Cultural humility. Practical meaning: let the client explain their framework; use the Cultural Formulation Interview and its spirituality module [uncertain: not verified]; where religious or spiritual distress is a focus, Z65.8 "Religious or Spiritual Problem" may be recorded [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8 (Unbound Medicine)].
  • No touch, no restraint. Practical meaning: never hold or restrain a client; any touch is consent-based, stoppable and never sexual [synthesis].

4. Intervention inventory

The interventions below are the psychotherapist's own work; steps not drawn from a cited source are marked [synthesis].

4.1 Historical and conceptual literacy

  • Purpose / when: Before any case; to tell lawful religious practice (prayer, blessing, pastoral care) apart from abuse carried out in its name.
  • Steps: (1) Learn the terms families may use (possession, witchcraft, kindoki, ndoki, djinn, evil eye, obeah, black magic) as safeguarding guidance lists them [source: West Midlands procedures]. (2) Know that the same pattern appears in Christian, Muslim, traditional and other settings and among UK-born as well as newly arrived families; about half the children in UK cases were born in the UK [source: Simon et al. 2012]. (3) Read the cross-referred guides (XIII 211, XI 069, XI 016, XVI 012) for tradition-specific history [synthesis]. (4) Hold the line: the abuse lies in the beating, starving, confining or deprivation, not in the belief [source: DfE press release 2012].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Many families pray for a child who is struggling. What worries me is anything that hurts, frightens, starves or shuts a child away."
  • Watch for: your own stereotyping of a community; equally, dismissing indicators as "cultural". Working when you can describe the concern in behavioural terms.

4.2 Recognising indicators in a child

  • Purpose / when: Any contact with a child or a parent who describes a child as possessed, cursed, a witch or "different".
  • Steps: Note, without examining the child yourself, the indicators listed in local procedures: the child treated as different or scapegoated (for disobedience, bedwetting, illness, disability, or suspected adultery by the mother); weak attachment to the carer or a carer who is not the birth parent; complex household; distress or withdrawal; neglect compared with other children in the home; minimal clothing; scars, often on the torso or back; restraint marks on the neck, wrists or ankles; numbing creams; unchecked drinks that may contain harmful substances; absence from school [source: North East Lincolnshire guidance; West Midlands procedures; Simon et al. 2012]. Children affected have typically been aged 2 to 14, and concerns usually surface through schools or NGOs after escalation [source: North East Lincolnshire guidance].
  • Example language (illustrative): "You said your aunt thinks something bad is inside you. What happens at home when she thinks that?"
  • Watch for: fear of speaking because the child believes they are evil; a child who repeats a confession put to them. Do not lead; record the child's own words [synthesis].

4.3 Recognising risk to adults

  • Purpose / when: An adult client describes "deliverance", ruqyah-style treatment by an unregulated healer, or relatives who believe they are possessed.
  • Steps: (1) Ask what is done, by whom, where and whether they can leave or refuse [synthesis]. (2) Treat food or water deprivation, beatings, confinement, being held down, being made to drink liquids, or being kept from medical care as safety concerns [source: case reports in Harm account]. (3) Consider adult safeguarding duties where the person has care and support needs, and police where a crime is disclosed [synthesis]. (4) Note that a recognised prayer such as ruqyah is not itself abusive; local guidance lists reference to it only as a context indicator [source: North East Lincolnshire guidance].
  • Example language (illustrative): "When the healer comes, are you free to say no and to stop it?"
  • Watch for: an adult whose new symptoms (talking to themselves, agitation) are being read as possession by relatives; this preceded a death in Germany [source: The Local 2017].

4.4 Faith-sensitive cultural assessment

  • Purpose / when: Early in assessment of any client or family where spirits, curses or witchcraft explain distress.
  • Steps: (1) Ask about religion and belief routinely, not only when concerned [source: Simon et al. 2012]. (2) Use the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview and its supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions [uncertain: not verified]. (3) Map the faith community: leader, place of worship, links to wider organisations in the UK or abroad, as local procedures direct [source: West Midlands procedures]. (4) Where spiritual distress is itself a focus, record Z65.8 "Religious or Spiritual Problem" [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8 (Unbound Medicine)].
  • Example language (illustrative): "In your family, how do people explain what has been happening? Who in your community do you go to for help?"
  • Watch for: an assessment that stays curious about belief but forgets to ask what is being done to the person.

4.5 Medical and psychiatric differential

  • Purpose / when: Whenever behaviour has been read as possession.
  • Steps: (1) List the behaviours that led to the label. (2) Refer for medical review (GP or paediatrics), with attention to epilepsy, developmental conditions, sleep problems, psychosis, mood disorder, dissociation, substance effects and physical illness [synthesis; behaviours read as possession per Simon et al. 2012]. (3) For a child, local procedures call for a full health assessment [source: West Midlands procedures]. (4) Do not advise on starting, stopping or changing any medicine; route medication questions to the prescriber [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Seizures, sleep problems and some illnesses can make a child behave in ways that frighten families. I would like a doctor to check this properly."
  • Watch for: families who stop prescribed treatment in favour of a rite; record and include in the referral [source: West Midlands procedures on belief-based refusal of medical care].

4.6 Immediate safety and risk assessment

  • Purpose / when: On any disclosure of current harm or a planned "deliverance".
  • Steps: (1) Establish whether harm is ongoing or planned, and whether others (siblings) are at risk [source: West Midlands procedures]. (2) If life is in danger, call emergency services. (3) Plan where the person will be safe tonight [synthesis]. (4) Assess suicide risk directly (see 4.16) [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Is anything planned for this weekend that you are scared of?"
  • Watch for: a planned trip abroad; local procedures say to take this seriously and seek legal advice [source: North East Lincolnshire guidance].

4.7 Child safeguarding referral

  • Purpose / when: Any concern that a child is at risk of significant harm.
  • Steps: (1) In England, refer to children's social care under local referral procedures; this also applies where health treatment is refused on belief grounds [source: West Midlands procedures; North East Lincolnshire guidance]. (2) Elsewhere, report to child protective services or police under your jurisdiction's mandatory-reporting law [synthesis]. (3) Give facts: what was said or seen, by whom, when, the belief context, the faith leader or premises if known, siblings in the household [source: West Midlands procedures]. (4) Do not confront the family first if that could raise risk to the child [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative, to the child): "What you told me is important. My job is to keep children safe, so I need to tell people whose job is also to keep you safe."
  • Watch for: delay while you seek certainty; police warned against waiting "for another homicide" [source: NBC News].

4.8 Listening to the child without investigating

  • Purpose / when: When a child discloses to you.
  • Steps: (1) Listen, use open prompts, do not ask leading questions or examine injuries. (2) Record verbatim, dated. (3) Explain next steps in age-appropriate terms and seek assent, while being honest that safeguarding duties do not depend on it. (4) Leave seeing the child alone, inspecting sleeping arrangements and interviewing to social care and police, as procedures assign [source for the agency tasks: West Midlands procedures; therapist steps: synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "You are not in trouble. It is never a child's fault when grown-ups hurt them."
  • Watch for: the child's belief that they are evil or caused family misfortune; gently counter it without arguing theology [synthesis].

4.9 Adult safeguarding and reporting crime

  • Purpose / when: An adult is being harmed, or a past assault is disclosed.
  • Steps: (1) Discuss reporting options with the client, including police. (2) Where the adult has care and support needs or lacks capacity, follow adult-safeguarding procedures [synthesis]. (3) Support the client through the criminal process if they choose it; UK courts have convicted parents and practitioners of child cruelty and assault in such cases [source: Yorkshire Post 2017].
  • Example language (illustrative): "What was done to you can be a crime, whatever the reason given for it. Would you like to talk about the options?"
  • Watch for: pressure from family or community not to report.

4.10 Documentation and multi-agency work

  • Purpose / when: Throughout.
  • Steps: (1) Record the belief context and the type of abuse explicitly; research found such cases are often not recorded systematically [source: Simon et al. 2012]. (2) Attend strategy meetings or case conferences when invited. (3) Share information lawfully and proportionately [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative, to a colleague): "The family believe the child is possessed; my concern is the food restriction and the marks the school reported."
  • Watch for: notes that describe belief vaguely and harm not at all.

4.11 Collaboration with responsible faith leaders

  • Purpose / when: Where the family trusts a faith leader, or where a congregation needs safeguarding support.
  • Steps: (1) With consent and after safeguarding steps, identify leaders who support child protection; the Action Plan promotes faith and community "champion" networks and safeguarding training [source: DfE press release 2012]. (2) Agree that the leader supports medical care, school attendance and statutory involvement. (3) Never coordinate on a rite, and never refer a client to an exorcist or deliverance minister [synthesis]. (4) Note warning signs in a congregation: low priority for child protection, reluctance to adopt safeguarding policies, mistrust of statutory agencies, demonising individuals [source: West Midlands procedures].
  • Example language (illustrative): "We both want this child well. Can we agree that the doctor's plan and school come first, and that nothing is done that frightens or hurts her?"
  • Watch for: a leader who confirmed or made the accusation; research found leaders sometimes did [source: Simon et al. 2012].

4.12 Psychoeducation with families

  • Purpose / when: After safety is secured, with carers who believe a child or relative is possessed.
  • Steps: (1) Start from the family's distress and its stresses (housing, immigration, illness, bereavement), which research links to scapegoating [source: Simon et al. 2012]. (2) Offer the medical explanation as an addition, not a refutation, of their faith [synthesis]. (3) State clearly what may not happen to the child, whatever the belief [source: DfE press release 2012]. (4) Link the family to practical support [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "You can keep praying for him. What cannot happen is anything that hurts him, keeps food from him or keeps him from school or the doctor."
  • Watch for: apparent agreement that masks continuing belief and risk; repentance is not proof of safety [source: West Midlands procedures].

4.13 Working with a client drawn to seeking an exorcism

  • Purpose / when: A client asks whether they or a relative should have one, or plans to.
  • Steps: (1) Explore the meaning and what they hope it will change. (2) Ask what is involved, who leads it, and whether they can stop it at any point. (3) Give clear information on risks documented in court cases (injury, death), and on medical assessment of the symptoms [source: Harm account cases]. (4) If a child or another at-risk person would be the subject, follow 4.7 [synthesis]. (5) Do not endorse, refer to or plan the rite [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "I won't tell you what to believe. I will tell you that people have been badly hurt when 'deliverance' involved force, food being withheld or being held down."
  • Watch for: symptoms of a treatable illness being left unassessed.

4.14 Trauma-focused work with survivors

  • Purpose / when: Survivors (often now adults) of childhood or adult abusive exorcism.
  • Steps: (1) Stabilise and build safety. (2) Offer evidence-based trauma-focused therapy for PTSD where indicated, following the relevant NICE or WHO guidance [uncertain: not verified]. (3) Address the specific injury of having been told one was evil or a witch; research reports more depression, anxiety and hostility in survivors of religion-related abuse than other abuse in one US study [source: Simon et al. 2012]. (4) Pace disclosure; survivors may fear spiritual retribution for speaking [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "You were told something was wrong with you. What was actually wrong was what was done to you."
  • Watch for: self-blame, shame, dissociation, and fear of the place of worship; improvement shows as reduced self-blame and safer relationships.

4.15 Religious or spiritual trauma and meaning-making

  • Purpose / when: Survivors who want to keep, change or leave their faith.
  • Steps: (1) Follow the client's lead on faith; neither restore nor dismantle it. (2) Help separate the faith from the people who harmed them. (3) If the client wants it, involve a safe chaplain or faith adviser they choose. (4) Record Z65.8 where spiritual distress is a focus [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8 (Unbound Medicine); remaining steps synthesis]. (5) Draw on spiritual and religious competencies (Vieten et al. 2013) [uncertain: not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some people find their faith again in a different place; some don't. Either is yours to decide."
  • Watch for: the therapist's own beliefs steering the outcome.

4.16 Suicide-risk assessment

  • Purpose / when: All survivors and at-risk clients; in the London case the boy said he wanted to die before he died [source: Channel 4 News 2012].
  • Steps: (1) Ask directly about suicidal thoughts and plans. (2) Use standard risk assessment and safety planning; limit means-related discussion to safe storage and removal. (3) Give crisis resources: 988 (US); Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland) [synthesis; safe-messaging practice].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Sometimes people who have been through this feel they would rather not be alive. Has that happened for you?"
  • Watch for: hopelessness tied to the belief that one is evil or cursed.

4.17 Siblings and relatives who witnessed or were forced to take part

  • Purpose / when: Siblings and other children in the household; adults who took part under pressure.
  • Steps: (1) Ensure siblings are included in safeguarding assessment [source: West Midlands procedures]. (2) In therapy, address terror, guilt and confessions extracted under threat; in the London case siblings were beaten, forced to join the assaults, and attacked until they "confessed" [source: Channel 4 News 2012; RTÉ 2012]. (3) Distinguish coerced participation from responsibility [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "You were a child and you were forced. The adults were responsible."
  • Watch for: survivor guilt; a sibling now labelled next.

4.18 When a colleague, institution or faith organisation uses abusive practices

  • Purpose / when: A fellow professional, chaplaincy, school, residential setting or organisation endorses or delivers deliverance involving harm.
  • Steps: (1) Make a safeguarding referral where anyone is at risk. (2) Raise the matter with your organisation's safeguarding lead and, for a registered professional, their regulator or professional body, as those bodies publish their routes [synthesis]. (3) If you share a congregation with a client or the practitioner, consider the multiple-relationship issues under APA Ethics Code Standard 3.05 [source: APA Ethics Code]. (4) Never supervise, co-deliver or refer to the practice [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm not able to be part of this, and I have to report the concern about the child's safety."
  • Watch for: institutional pressure to treat it as an internal or religious matter.

4.19 Advocacy and prevention

  • Purpose / when: Phase E.
  • Steps: (1) Support community training and the Action Plan's strands (engaging communities, empowering practitioners, supporting victims and witnesses, key messages) [source: DfE press release 2012]. (2) Support survivors through court as witnesses, in liaison with witness services [synthesis]. (3) Point to organisations that the 2012 plan names as partners, as they describe themselves (for example AFRUCA, CCPAS, NSPCC) [source: DfE press release 2012].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would it help to speak with an organisation that works with families from your community on this?"
  • Watch for: advocacy that stigmatises a whole community.

5. Handling problems

  • The family insists the child is possessed and refuses medical review. Belief-based refusal of treatment is itself a referral ground in local procedures; refer to children's social care and say so plainly to the family [source: West Midlands procedures]. Keep the door open: "I respect your faith; I can't agree to her not seeing a doctor." (illustrative) [synthesis].
  • You fear being seen as prejudiced. Police guidance is not to "hide behind" this fear; act on behaviour, record it neutrally, and consult your safeguarding lead [source: NBC News; synthesis].
  • The child retracts or repeats the family's account that they are a witch. Children may have been pressed to confess; in the London case siblings were attacked until they "confessed" [source: RTÉ 2012]. Do not test the belief; keep the referral and record the retraction [synthesis].
  • An adult client wants the rite and is angry at your concern. Respect autonomy for a capacitous adult while giving clear risk information, checking they can stop it, and keeping medical care in place; act on safeguarding if others are at risk or the adult lacks capacity [synthesis].
  • Overwhelm or dissociation when recounting. Slow down, ground in the present, pause disclosure; the narrative can wait, safety cannot [synthesis].
  • Rupture after a safeguarding referral. Name it, explain your duty again, and acknowledge the family's fear of agencies; some faith settings promote mistrust of statutory agencies [source: West Midlands procedures; response synthesis].
  • The faith leader is part of the problem. Do not rely on that leader for safety; inform social care of the leader and premises, as procedures ask [source: West Midlands procedures].
  • Threat of sending the child abroad. Treat as urgent; social care seeks legal advice [source: North East Lincolnshire guidance].
  • "They have apologised, so it's over." Repentance is not proof of no ongoing risk [source: West Midlands procedures].
  • Your own beliefs (religious or secular) intrude. Use supervision; consider Standard 3.05 where you share a community with the client [source: APA Ethics Code; synthesis].
  • Suicidal thoughts in a survivor. Assess and safety-plan; 988 (US), Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland) [synthesis].
  • Symptoms persist after the label is removed. Return to the differential (4.5): untreated epilepsy, psychosis or developmental needs may have been the trigger [synthesis].

Harm account

What was actually done

The following is drawn from UK safeguarding guidance and research, and from cases as courts and major news reported them. Victims are not named.

  • Forms of harm in UK cases. Guidance lists beating, burning, starvation, cutting or stabbing, and isolation, usually in the home where the child lives; children also being fasted, poorly clothed or washed and left to fend for themselves; marks of being tied up on the neck, wrists or ankles; scars on the torso or back; and children made to take drinks that may contain harmful substances [source: North East Lincolnshire guidance; West Midlands procedures]. In the 38 UK cases reviewed (2000 to 2006), neglect and beating were most common; burning, cutting, semi-strangulation, being tied up, being kept off school and threats of abandonment were also reported [source: Simon et al. 2012, reviewing Stobart].
  • Who was targeted. Children seen as different (challenging behaviour, bedwetting, bad dreams, epilepsy, autism, a stammer, disability or illness, or exceptional ability), children newly sent to live with relatives, and children scapegoated for family misfortune, often by a carer who is not the birth parent; religious leaders sometimes confirmed or made the accusation [source: Simon et al. 2012; DfE press release 2012; North East Lincolnshire guidance]. Belief in witchcraft has also been used to control children trafficked for domestic servitude or sexual exploitation [source: DfE press release 2012].
  • East London, 2010. A 15-year-old boy visiting relatives for Christmas was accused by his adult sister and her partner of casting spells on a younger child. Over several days he was beaten with sticks, metal bars and other objects, denied food and water, and pressed to confess to sorcery; he died in a bath. His siblings were beaten and made to join in the assaults. The Old Bailey convicted both adults of murder in 2012 and imposed life sentences; the judge called it "prolonged torture" and said belief in witchcraft "cannot excuse an assault" [source: Channel 4 News 2012; RTÉ 2012].
  • Other London reports. News reports describe children starved, beaten, made to swallow harmful liquids and trodden on during "deliverance" [source: NBC News].
  • Leeds, 2017. A father who believed his 13-year-old son was under a spirit's influence took him to a practitioner in Blackburn, where the boy was physically harmed; the court also heard of beatings and forced stress positions at home over a long period. The father was convicted of child cruelty and the practitioner of assault; both received suspended prison sentences. The judge said children told by parents that they are possessed are "vulnerable" [source: Yorkshire Post 2017].
  • Milwaukee, 2003. An 8-year-old autistic boy died during a service at a storefront church after the self-described minister physically held him down to release "demons"; the medical examiner ruled suffocation. In 2004 a jury convicted the minister of felony physical abuse of a child [source: Fox News / Associated Press 2004].
  • Brussels, 2004 death; trial 2012. A 23-year-old woman, told that spirits prevented her from becoming pregnant, was allegedly subjected over several weeks to forced drinking of large amounts of water, restricted food, forced vomiting, scalding bathwater and beatings with a stick; her body was found bruised with water in her lungs. Six people stood trial at the Brussels Court of Assizes for torture leading to death; her family said the practice has no basis in Islam [source: Morocco World News 2012; verdict uncertain].
  • Frankfurt, 2015 death; verdict 2017. Relatives staying at a hotel decided a 41-year-old woman who had begun talking to herself and lashing out was possessed; she was beaten on the chest and abdomen, gagged, and died of asphyxiation. A second woman was later found injured, cold and dehydrated in a garage. A Frankfurt court convicted the main perpetrator of bodily harm causing death (six years); four relatives, including two teenagers, received suspended sentences [source: The Local 2017].
  • How it was justified. In each case the harm was framed as removing a spirit, demon, jinn or witchcraft from the person, often with the stated aim of helping them [source: cases above].

How it caused harm

  • Death by injury, drowning, suffocation or asphyxia in the cases above [source: cases above].
  • Physical injury, malnutrition, dehydration and hypothermia; untreated illness when medical care was refused or stopped [source: The Local 2017; West Midlands procedures].
  • Psychological harm: the child's or adult's identity as evil or a witch; terror; coerced confessions; school exclusion; isolation; threats of abandonment [source: Simon et al. 2012; RTÉ 2012].
  • Long-term: one US study found survivors of religion-related abuse reported more depression, anxiety and hostility than survivors of other abuse, partly explained by severity [source: Simon et al. 2012].
  • Harm to siblings forced to watch or take part [source: Channel 4 News 2012].
  • The actual condition (epilepsy, autism, psychosis, distress) went unrecognised and untreated [source: Simon et al. 2012; The Local 2017].

Recognising it today

  • A carer, relative or leader says a child or adult is possessed, cursed, a witch or under a spirit's influence, and the person is getting thinner, injured, withdrawn, kept home or kept from a doctor [source: North East Lincolnshire guidance; West Midlands procedures].
  • One child treated worse than others in the household; a carer who is not the birth parent; a complex or crowded household; recent arrival [source: Simon et al. 2012; North East Lincolnshire guidance].
  • Scars on the torso or back, marks on wrists, ankles or neck, minimal clothing, numbing creams, unexplained drinks [source: North East Lincolnshire guidance; West Midlands procedures].
  • A new psychiatric or neurological symptom in an adult that relatives explain as possession [source: The Local 2017].
  • Talk of a planned "deliverance", a healer's visit, or a trip abroad [source: West Midlands procedures].
  • A faith setting that resists safeguarding policy or discourages contact with agencies [source: West Midlands procedures].

What to do instead and how to help those harmed

  • Instead: medical and psychiatric assessment of the behaviour that prompted the label, with treatment as clinicians advise; pastoral care that involves no force, deprivation or confinement and that supports medical care [source: West Midlands procedures on health assessment; remainder synthesis].
  • Reporting and legal routes: in England, referral to children's social care (section 47 investigations) and police, including the Metropolitan Police's Project Violet team in London; elsewhere, child protective services and police under mandatory-reporting laws [source: West Midlands procedures; NBC News; synthesis for other jurisdictions]. Courts have convicted carers and practitioners of murder, child cruelty, child abuse and assault [source: cases above].
  • Survivors: trauma-focused therapy, help with self-blame and identity, the client's chosen relationship to faith, suicide-risk assessment with 988 (US) or Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland) [synthesis].
  • Families and communities: psychoeducation, practical support, safeguarding training for faith leaders; the 2012 Action Plan's partners include AFRUCA, CCPAS and the NSPCC, who describe their own services [source: DfE press release 2012; Simon et al. 2012].
  • Siblings: included in safeguarding and offered their own support [source: West Midlands procedures].

Sources

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