"Branded a witch, a 10-year-old girl was tortured by her evangelical father"

In December, a man in the UK was convicted of torturing his 10 year old daughter because he believed she was a witch capable of putting people to sleep. Here is a link to the article on dailymail.co.uk.

I'll paraphrase and quote a little from the article: a 39 year old evangelical church leader from the Congo admitted guilt to child cruelty charges after keeping his daughter locked up without sufficient food or even a bed to sleep on, beating her, and dripping melted plastic onto her:

"Sally Hancox, prosecuting, told the court the girl was subjected to daily beatings which included being hit with a piece of wood and whipped with computer cables.

She said: 'The girl was singled out by her father. On one occasion he knelt down in front of her so he could trap her foot before putting a plastic bag in a candle and dripping the hot plastic onto her feet.'

The court heard the girl's hands were so badly burned after being held over a candle the blisters protruded two inches out from her palms.

On another occasion the man cut his daughter's shoulder with a knife and smashed her head against a wall before standing on her face.

The court heard the girl was kept prisoner in her home on May 21 last year when she got into a fight at school with another pupil.

Her father locked her in her bedroom and forced her to drink olive oil and milk. She was not given food for four days and only allowed to go to the toilet twice.

Miss Hancox said: 'When the officer examined her room he found clothes and school bags sodden with urine. Obviously she had needed to relieve herself in her room but attempted to hide it.'"

The judge's statement to the defendant perfectly encapsulates my own attitude toward this insanity:

"'Your daughter, in the last three to four weeks that she lived with you was subjected to the most horrific torture.

'She did not even have a bed to sleep on. You bound her, you gagged her, you beat her, you whipped her and then kept her prisoner with no food.

'It is hard to imagine any man, let alone a father quite deliberately inflicting such calculated cruelty on a child.

'It is your beliefs which led you to believe she was possessed by evil spirits. These beliefs are frankly something an intelligent man would know were nonsense.'"