BBC journalists have tracked down the mother of the eight-year-old girl who was subjected to months of horrific abuse in London by relatives and friends who accused her of being a witch.

At the trial of her tormentors the young victim, known only as Child B, was said to be an orphan - but now her mother has been tracked down to a poverty-stricken township in the Angolan capital of Luanda.

The woman, who allowed her eight-year-old daughter to leave for London three years ago in the company of relatives, wept as she was told how her child was starved, cut and stuffed into a laundry bag to be drowned.

"I want my daughter back," she sobbed.

The woman's name is being witheld to prevent the identificaton of her daughter - who was referred to in court as Child B. She told reporters from the BBC that while she believed in the phenomenum of ndoki she did not believe her daughter was possessed by evil spirits.

"She hasn't got it. I know my child doesn't have ndoki," she said.

The BBC has passed on samples of the woman's DNA to police to verify her identity, before investigating the possibility of reuniting the two. Officers who investigated the case believed that the child was an orphan, and she is now in protective foster care.

The reporters also discovered that the girl's mother was living with an older woman who claimed to be the mother of two of the three defendents, jailed last week for a total of 24 years for cruelty to the girl. They believed she was possessed and casting spells.

They also discovered evidence of widespread ritual child abuse in the central African nation - and watched as one desperately-ill boy of eight was spat at and assaulted by a witch-doctor at a church clinic. The boy is now dead despite attempts to involve Unicef and the Government.

In another Pentecostal Church, the reporters watched the exorcism of an eight-year-old girl, whose possession was blamed for the breakdown of her mother's marriage. Her mother and a pastor were 'beating the devil' out of her.

Asked whether the child should be in hospital, the pastor replied: 'Why should the child die? If the child dies, it means the child is evil.'

Richard Hoskins, who advises the Metropolitan Police on crimes linked to faith, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that supposed “faith healers” from African churches were now entering Britain. He said: “There are clearly exorcisms taking place in this country.

"I am helping the Metropolitan Police and also social services with six or possibly seven cases UK-wide, and people say there are more. What that highlights is the need for further research, involving the communities, to examine this in a calm, collected but also very determined manner.”

Beverley Hughes, the Children's Mnister, said that a summit of representatives from African churches, social services and the Government was to be held next week as part of a drive to identify the extent of the problem. She said: "Safeguarding children is absolutely paramount. These are relatively new communities in this country.

"They are relatively closed and we can’t be clear that we are safeguarding children properly unless we open up conversations and try to create trust and confidence."

The 40-year-old aunt who brought Child B to England from Africa in 2002 was found guilty of four charges of cruelty on Friday. Her cousin, 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 the torture.

After she was terrorised in the council flat in Hackney, area wardens found Child B shivering in bare feet on the steps, in November 2003. She told them she was hungry and later told police that she had been surviving on tea and bread.

Passing sentence, Judge Christopher Moss told the trio they had conducted a "campaign of cruelty that amounted to a campaign of torture."

"It is the very pinnacle of cruelty to a child that demands the maximum sentence," he said.

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