Two women and a man were found guilty today of cruelty to a young African girl who was tortured and threatened with death for being a "witch".

The eight-year-old from Angola was cut with a knife, beaten with a belt and shoe and had chilli peppers rubbed in her eyes to beat the devil out of her. And, in a final cruel twist, she was put into a zip-up laundry bag and told she would be "thrown away" into a river, the Old Bailey heard.

The orphan was beaten until she was made to admit she had been doing witchcraft and is still traumatised by the experience.

After she was terrorised in the council flat in Hackney, east London, area wardens found her shivering in bare feet on the steps. She told them she was hungry and later told police that she had been surviving on tea and bread.

The girl, who is now 10, was brought to Britain in 2002 by her 38-year-old aunt after her parents were killed in Angola.

The aunt, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found guilty of four charges of child cruelty. Another relative, Sita Kisanga, 35, of Hackney, east London, was found guilty of three charges of aiding and abetting child cruelty. Kisanga’s brother Sebastian Pinto, 33, of Stoke Newington, north London, was found guilty of one charge of aiding and abetting child cruelty.

The two women were found not guilty of a charge of conspiracy to murder the girl. All three were remanded in custody and were warned by Judge Christopher Moss that they faced jail sentences.

The girl's ordeal shocked child welfare experts, who called after today's verdicts for agencies and welfare officers to develop a deeper understanding of African culture so they could prevent similar cases.

After the girl made her first complaint to police, she was taken into care by social services and then returned to the 38-year-old woman for a month. She alleged she was mistreated again, but the woman was cleared of a child cruelty charge alleging she beat the girl in those four weeks.

During the trial, the girl, who gave evidence via video link, became angry when a barrister suggested she had dreamt the episode. She said: "I know it happened. In my mind, I will never forget what happened."

In her video interviews, the girl said: "My aunty (Kisanga) said that my mum and me have got witchcraft. I said if we had been involved in witchcraft we would have killed someone. That is why she wakes us up every night and tells us we are involved in witchcraft."

She said Kisanga hit her with a high-heeled black shoe which she kept with her, even when she went to bed. "She hits children who come to visit her because everyone who comes to visit her, she says they are involved in witchcraft."

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