Teachers Get Advice On How To Spot Signs Of Ritual Abuse

Teachers and people working with children are being given guidance on how to identify signs of ritual abuse inflicted in the belief that a child is possessed by evil spirits. 

Drawing on research showing 38 known cases of child abuse linked to alleged spirit possession in England since January 2000, the government guidance aims to raise awareness of the practice and help those coming into contact with youngsters to recognise indicators of abuse.

The signs they are told to look out for, listed in draft advice published today, include marks such as bruises or burns on a child’s body, a child becoming “noticeably confused, withdrawn, disorientated or isolated”, and “deterioration in personal care” including weight loss, unkempt or dirty clothes, or even faeces smeared on the body.

Children may also report directly that they have been accused of being evil, or that they are having the “devil beaten out of them”, according to the advice, which says teachers and others should follow child protection guidelines and pass their concerns to social services or the police.

The most common forms of abuse youngsters may suffer include physical assaults such as beating, burning, cutting, stabbing, semi-strangulation and having chilli peppers rubbed on to their eyes or genitals. Emotional forms of abuse, says the guidance, range from isolation from other family members to threats to abandon the child, who may also be subjected to sexual abuse and neglect extending to denial of food and warmth.

The 38 documented cases involved 47 abused children.

The vast majority of known instances of ritual abuse concerned first or second generation migrants from African countries including Congo, Nigeria, Angola and Ghana as well as south Asia and the Caribbean, but also white English families, according to the document.

The move to widen understanding of ritual abuse comes in the wake of a number of high-profile cases involving abuse or neglect linked to a belief in spirit possession, notably the murder of eight-year-old Victoria Climbié seven years ago this month. In summer 2005 three adults were jailed for their involvement in the ritual abuse of another eight-year-old girl, brought to Britain from Angola and accused of being a witch. Meanwhile, police are still investigating the case of “Adam”, a young boy whose torso was dragged from the river Thames in London in September 2001 after what detectives are convinced was a ritual killing.

The guidance, put out to consultation today by the Department for Education and Skills, says the number of identified cases linked to spirit possession is small, especially when compared with the total number of children known to be abused. There were 25,900 youngsters on child protection registers in England in March 2005. However, it adds that where ritual abuse does occur, “the impact on the child is very substantial, distressing and the child is at risk of significant harm. It is also possible that a significantly larger number of cases remain undetected.”

The guidance defines a belief in spirit possession as “the belief that an evil force has entered a child and is controlling him or her”, and notes that it can be known by other terms such as kindoki or ndoki.

The children’s minister, Beverley Hughes, said: “While a very small proportion of all abuse cases are linked to spirit possession the impact on the children can be substantial and serious. Faith-based abuse can be hard for professionals to recognise and deal with and we want them to have all the guidance they need to help them tackle this.”

David Pearson, director of the Churches’ Child Protection Advisory Service, warned that agencies including social services and police needed to work more closely together and with faith groups to ensure communities whose practices were at risk of harming children were not driven further underground.