‘Plot to drown girl’ thought to be witch

An aunt put her 10-year-old niece into a laundry bag to drown
her after becoming convinced the girl was a witch, the Old Bailey
was told this week.

The child, who fled with her aunt from Angola, was cut with a
knife, beaten with a belt and had chilli pepper rubbed in her eyes
after a nine-year-old boy said she was practising black magic, the
prosecution alleged.

The 37-year-old aunt, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and
Sita Kisanga, 35, were alleged to have been about to drown the girl
but stopped only when they were warned by another defendant,
Sebastian Pinto, that they could face jail.

The girl was taken into council care for a month after being
found sitting outside Kisanga’s house with facial injuries. But she
was returned to the aunt after the girl claimed it was only Kisanga
who had hurt her.

The aunt, from Crouch End, London, and Kisanga, from Hackney,
deny child cruelty and conspiracy to murder. Kiwonde Kiese, 21, and
Pinto, 32, both of Stoke Newington, deny aiding and abetting
cruelty.