‘I moved in with my aunt for a better life. Then she started to believe I was possessed by the devil’

Although only a few incidents are reported to police each year, thousands of British children are subjected to “horrific abuse” under the guise of witchcraft or spiritual possession.

For some children, conditions such as autism, epilepsy or Down syndrome are wrongly interpreted as evidence of evil, while others are forced to become scapegoats for their families’ own misfortunes.

One of these children, 11-year-old Mardoche Yembi, was “treated like a monster” after his priest convinced his family that he was possessed by evil spirits.

he said Independent He described how he was starved, kept away from other children, and labeled a “servant of the Devil” by people who wanted to take care of him.

Now, along with other victims and campaigners, she is calling for stronger protection for children subjected to abuse linked to spiritual possession or witchcraft.

There were 2,180 known examples of this abuse in 2024, but only seven reports were made to the police. Organized or ritual abuse was mentioned in more than 1,300 of 36,700 calls to the National Association of Childhood Exploited Persons’ hotline between 2016 and 2025.

Mr Yembi was born in a small village in Congo, but following his mother’s death in 1999, he was sent to London to live with his uncle and aunt.

He was only eight years old at the time, and his father hoped that England would offer him a better life.

“I remember talking to my uncle’s wife about the UK and what a different color of blue the sky was here,” he said. “I truly believed I was going to a safe place.”

But a few years after Mr Yembi moved to north London, his aunt began having spiritual dreams and confided in her pastor at a church in Brixton, who told her that Mr Yembi was a “Kindoki” child, meaning possessed by the devil.

“The priest told them that I was traveling at night on a peanut shell to practice my witchcraft. And every time he came to our house, he made me search that peanut shell, knowing there was nothing there, sometimes for hours, but everyone would panic and watch me cry while looking at me.”

Her uncle told her that she was “too black,” which meant she must be a witch. “He would come into my room and start yelling at me,” Mr Yembi said. “I was alone, scared and thinking ‘this can’t be life’.”

Mr Yembi was banned from playing with other children and was blamed when anyone got sick or injured.

“People stopped talking to me. Adults looked at me with fear. Children avoided me,” she said.

“Once, I was playing football in the park with other kids in the neighborhood, and my aunt came up to the kids and told them that I was a witch, a bad person, that I flew at night to hurt people, and that I also killed my own mother and sister. The news quickly spread throughout the community.”

Mr Yembi sometimes ran away from home for days for fear of being trapped in his home. “I went to the police to explain this and one of them said ‘you’re wasting our time’.”

Social services did not become involved until his aunt told her school that she was sending Mr. Yembi to Africa for “salvation,” spiritual salvation.

He was eventually placed in foster care, where he said “it was the first time anyone saw me as a child.”

After finishing secondary school as the head boy, he went on to make ‘Kindoki Witchboy’, a short film depicting his experience.

The statement marked the anniversary of the death of eight-year-old Victoria Climbié, who was murdered just a few kilometers away in 2000 following accusations of witchcraft made against her by her family.

Mr Yembi and other victims joined Jess Phillips and Barrister Kirsty Brimelow in parliament on Monday to call on the government for stronger protections for children facing similar charges.

Ms Phillips, the Labor MP for Birmingham Yardley, said: “Anyone who thinks witchcraft, spirit possession and ritual abuse is something that only occurs in certain communities or other countries is mistaken.

“This type of abuse is happening in our country today, and we need to do more to listen and understand.”

Barnardo’s FGM center has spent a decade investigating such cruelty. Rohma Ullah, the organization’s president, has witnessed many children being physically, emotionally and sexually abused.

“It’s often linked to families experiencing some sort of misfortune…usually things like mental health, financial burden, domestic abuse, poor health…or families experiencing isolation due to poverty, for example.

“They use children as scapegoats for this misfortune.”

Abuse is often described as a “community crime” because a wider network of people is usually involved, he said.

Children with differences or disabilities are also targeted more often, he said.

To talk IndependentMs. Ullah recalled encountering a boy with a “cone-shaped head” whose father was considering an exorcism at the instruction of his priest.

“It turned out that the little boy had a tumor”

He is calling on the government to update its existing legislation and introduce civil protection orders, as well as provide specialist support for victims.

The charity is also calling for better data collection, including a data marker on the National Referral Mechanism, the UK’s official framework for identifying and supporting victims of human trafficking and modern slavery.

“There is a strong connection between human trafficking, modern slavery and witchcraft spirit possession.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “There is nothing more important than the safety of our children and no child should be subjected to abuse of any kind.

“Our empowered Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance explicitly requires those working with children to recognize and respond to faith and belief-based abuse, as well as our Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance which gives staff robust, clear information on identifying and responding to such harm.”