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 Angus Stickler
The BBC has tracked down a woman in the southern African country of Angola who says she is the mother of the girl in the so-called "witch trial". Last week two women and a man were jailed on charges of child cruelty.
They were arrested after an eight year old girl from Angola was found in a stairwell in Hackney. She had been tortured, beaten and cut - chilli pepper was rubbed in her eyes. She was stuffed into a laundry bag ready to be thrown in a river. The reason - the people she was living with, claim she was possessed - they believed she was a witch. The girl is currently in foster care here in the UK. The court was told she was an orphan. Angus Stickler went to Angola to try and contact the girl's family - and to try and gain some insight into these belief systems - now imported to the UK.
Sitting together on chairs in this dingy single storey concrete house two women are sobbing. They live together in one of the poorer townships of the Angolan capital Luanda.
One throws herself to the floor. The other younger woman sits quietly - a tear runs down her cheek. Both these women are grieving for their children.
The older woman is the mother of Sita Kisanga and Sebastian Pinto - they along with another woman are in jail having been found guilty on charges of child cruelty.
An eight year old girl was beaten and tortured after a pastor said she was possessed with evil spirits: Events that occurred not in Angola - but 4,000 miles away - on the streets of East London.
And for two years the girl in this case has been living in foster care. The court heard she was an orphan. But I was told that this is not the case.
I show these women photographs of the little girl taken in London. The younger woman points to her - she tells us 'this is my daughter - she left two years ago for a better life in England.' We were put in contact with this family - by engaging with the local community in London.
It seems implausible that the authorities - social services the police - were unable or unwilling to do this. In their defence - these are complex social structures which are difficult to penetrate and belief systems that for many are difficult to understand.
We asked of the family of the little girl if they knew what happened in London. They were told that the girl was beaten because it was thought that she was possessed by the evil spirit of Kindoki.
I asked the who was says she is the mother if she believed her daughter was possessed.
"No, she hasn't go it, I know my child does not have kindoki," she says.
It is ironic that these to women live together - one is the mother of the defendants - now in jail. The other the mother of the child abused. While the family here in Africa do not believe the girl was possessed - they do believe that it happens.
These are traditional African beliefs - Fetishism- Voodoo - the belief in ancestral spirits - forces of good and evil - beliefs that are an integral part of life across sub-Saharan Africa.
The most powerful priests we were told - gravitate towards the towns - the cities - to Luanda.
I visited the compound - come church - of Avo Kitoko - a prominent - Government registered traditional healer. He says he has the power to identify and deliver people from bad spirits.
"Well I can say that inside a patient we may find different types of sickness, some times they have bad dreams, sometimes the patient thinks a wizard is putting a curse on them, someone is wishing bad things on them," he says.
Stepping inside Avo Kitoko's "clinic" is like entering Bedlam. Many of the so-called patients are - chained to the walls and floor.
A boy of 15 has been shackled here since January. There are nursing mothers, women and children.
Many we are told have mental health problems - sickness - caused by evil spirits. We are given a tour - we enter a darkened room - there are six men shackled - chained to the walls and floor.
A fight breaks out over food - one man - tries to stab another with a shard of glass. I express my concern to Avo Kitoko and he is clearly offended.
"This isn't a prison! It's a hospital," he says indignantly.
What we see next is even more appalling.
Lying on the floor of the main hall - Avo Kitoko's throne room - is the limp - bloated body of an eight year old boy. Domingo Jose - is barely conscious - his face, belly, arms, legs - even his fingers gorged and inflamed - he is barely alive.
Avo Kitoko approaches. He takes a large swig from a glass bottle and spits water into Jose's face - the child winces - too weak to cry out. Mud is smeared on Jose's belly - the priest - grabs and twists at the child's groin.
It was clear that this desperately ill boy belonged in hospital. I challenged Avo Kitoko. But he insisted the boy would respond to his traditional medicine. He explained his methods which to me looked more like child abuse.
"First you start with holy water and mud. Two things that are well prepared. Because you know that our bodies are all made of earth - and when we die and rot - the bones remain and the hair remains - but every part of our bodies goes back to earth," he said.
There were 65 patients at this clinic this church. As we left Avo Kitoko earnestly asked if we might know anybody who would sponsor him to open a clinic in Britain
We contacted the authorities - desperately concerned about the welfare of the eight-year-old boy in particular. Dr Manuela Coelho of the National Institute of Children - the Angolan Government's child protection department assured us they would act.
"Unfortunately we don't know about that child that you saw. What we know is that sometimes families think that the best way to treat some types of sickness is to go to traditional healers," she said.
She took our information and promised swift action.
"If we realize that a child is in a bad way we try to help them and we do it immediately," she said.
The boy is now dead. Despite repeated phone calls to Angolan Government officials and the best efforts of UNICEF - it took at least four days for anyone to visit him. We are told the Authorities have launched an investigation into his death.
Even in more mainstream churches the belief in child possession was evident to see.
At the Kimbanguista church - women wearing green dresses with white lace collars rehearsed for the Sunday service. This is one of the larger churches in Angola - the acceptable face of the Christianity. But even here they believe in the power of evil spirits - of Kindoki and fetishism.
Jose Gomes the National Secretary told me: "Well we can find children with witchcraft. The parents bring him here and they explain to the pastor, they explain that we have the children but he has problem, sometimes he says he if flying at night things like that."
I asked him what happened if a child was suspected of being possessed.
"If these are children who can speak the pastor will ask him to confess, confess, confess. Pastor can see if the child has witchcraft or not," he said.
In the last few years there has been an explosion in the number of breakaway churches. The Government here says there are more than a hundred different denominations in Luanda alone.
And on the dusty streets of the Palanca Township, we stumbled upon a small Pentecostal church. Through a metal door is a compound - on the left - a small concrete out-house. There were people inside - we opened the door - and what we found was shocking.
Sitting on the floor was a terrified, near naked girl of eight - her head shaven. She cowers as her mother and a pastor shout at her. We take him outside. This is an exorcism he told us - the reason - the mother's marriage broke down - it's the child's fault - and she's possessed with Kindoki.
Something had been rubbed into her eyes as part of this ritual. Her ordeal has already lasted 3 days - we were told there was another 24-hours to go.
I was desperately concerned for the little girl and told the pastor he would face a long jail sentence if the girl died
"That child isn't going to die," he said "If the child dies it means the child is evil."
Again we contacted the authorities in the hope that someone would intervene.
Near to the airport of this oil rich- nation - half an hour's drive from the plush city centre hotels - is a stark reminder of life for the majority in this country.
I came across a makeshift market here - rickety stalls selling everything and anything. On my right children were sliding down the banks into absolute squalor - children were scavenging amongst the rubbish next to an open sewer.
And this is part of the problem - poverty. This is a country that's been wracked by nearly 30 years of civil war. Many children have been orphaned - cared for by aunts, uncles - the extended family. But they can't afford to keep them. It's unacceptable to push a child out because of poverty. But if they're possessed - it's a different matter.
The dinner bell rings at an Orphanage in Luanda. It's run by Argentinian Catholic priests - there is ample evidence of this belief in possession here. There are more than a hundred hungry mouths to feed. Up to 40 per cent of them were abused, beaten, cast out from their homes - believed to be witches.
Father Pablo Jose Galvan explained: "What we find is - the very clever - the expert - somehow special are accused of witchcraft."
I asked how these children were treated.
Father Pablo said: "Usually they are much mistreated. The ones here accused of witchcraft... suffer a lot of violence they are beaten with machetes."
The children still bear the scars. They have been crippled - tied up, burnt, left to die - discarded like rubbish. One boy was kept in a chicken coop - parasites ate out his eye. Another found living in a toilet pit - a latrine. One was accused of being a witch after his parents died of AIDS - he is HIV too.
On the word of a pastor - of a fetish priest - children are beaten, murdered - parents jailed - lives and families are shattered.
The mother of the little girl in London is desperate for news of her daughter - We asked if she wanted her back.
"Yes I want my daughter back," she said.
But a relative interjects. He says it's better if the girl stays in Britain at least for now. Cowed - the mother agrees.
This is a family divided by fear and poverty. And as this case demonstrates it's not just a problem just for the African continent.
This week a British court will decide the fate of a sister and brother and another distant relative. They face long prison sentences. And there is also the future of the little girl to consider to.
This is a complex issue. For most people understanding how anyone can believe a child is a witch and then beat them is near impossible. But to understand the motivation of the traditional healers and pastors is easy.
We are told it's greed and power. In a bid to line their pockets they are guilty of distorting legitimate beliefs - preying on the vulnerable - the needy. This aside in the course of our investigation a young boy died badly mistreated in the name of faith - regardless of the pain and suffering it caused.
And then there's the plight of a mother grieving for her daughter savagely beaten thousands of miles from home.
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