Two Mormon women tortured six young children by forcing them to eat red-hot chillies and whipping them with nettles, a court was told yesterday.

Deidre Carrington, 41, and Maria Keable, 60, are also alleged to have punched and kneed the four girls and two boys, hit them with wooden spoons and rolling pins, and gagged them.

The women, close friends who met at the Mormon Temple in London, meted out the severe punishment to teach the children discipline and to work hard, a jury at Canterbury Crown Court was told.

Ms Keable, originally from Macedonia, is accused of brain-washing Ms Carrington to join her in beating the youngsters, aged 2 to 12. The two women both deny seven counts of child cruelty over a nine-year period at a house in Ramsgate, Kent.

Robin Johnson, for the prosecution, said: “This was a case of two women who were completely out of control.” The children were woken at 5am every day, made to say prayers and read scripture, before doing hours of housework. If they did not do their chores quickly enough and to a high standard, they were punished.

“The cruelty amounted to physical harm, punishing these children even when they were very young,” he said. “The physical abuse included striking and slapping, administering chilli powder and chopped chillies, using rolling pins and spoons to strike them, making them eat on the floor, making them eat raw eggs and striking them with stinging nettles.”

The eldest, a boy now aged 13, was gagged when he was naughty and bundled into a sheet to be restrained while he was beaten, the court was told. The women were also said to have placed him between them and punched him to each other like “a football”. They would also pick him up and throw him across the room.

Ms Carrington and Ms Keable would even feed red-hot chillies to the youngest victim, aged 2, if she would not sleep or cried. A boy aged 8 was allegedly provided with gloves to administer the stinging nettle punishment to other children. Mr Johnson added: “He said he did that because, had he not, he would have been hit.”

The alleged abuse was exposed when a teacher at the school of the oldest boy became suspicious. Ms Carrington had called to say that he had to leave early for a dentist’s appointment. He became “distressed, fidgety, anxious and frightened”. As the teacher tried to calm him, he started to shake and cry, and lifted his shirt to show marks and bruises. The school called police and social services, and the children were taken into care.

When interviewed by detectives, Ms Carrington, from Chiswick, West London, claimed that the children lied from time to time and that the eldest was the worst. She said that she had made them eat chillies once and smacked them with an open hand, but denied ever punching them.

Mr Johnson said: “She said she was a member of the church and had strict principles to teach the children how to work and be obedient. She said the children ate off a sheet on the floor as they had destroyed the dining room table.” Ms Keable, from Ramsgate, said that she was “like a grandmother to the children”. Mr Johnson told the jury: “She said in her country the use of chillies was normal.” Ms Keable said her mother had used nettles as a punishment and that eating raw eggs with honey was part of a healthy diet. The case continues.

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