London, England - An 8-year-old schoolgirl was starved, cut with a knife, beaten with a high-heeled shoe and had chili pepper rubbed in her eyes by a woman who accused her of being a witch, a British court heard on Wednesday.
Prosecutors said the girl was brought to London from Angola by a woman who claimed to be her mother. The woman took the girl with her to live in London with another woman who said she was the girl's aunt.
The aunt, 35-year-old Sita Kisanga, became convinced the girl was a witch. She regularly abused her and conspired to murder her by putting her in a bag and drowning her in a river, prosecutors said.
The case came to light when the girl was found sitting outside Kisanga's house with bruising around her eyes. Her school and the police were alerted.
"She hits me when my mum is not there," the girl told the Old Bailey court, speaking in Portuguese through an interpreter. "She slaps me a lot. She hit me nearly every day. It is because my auntie says we are involved in witchcraft."
Prosecuting lawyer Patricia May told the jury: "You would think that in Britain in 2005 such a notion would be incredible and no adult would believe it."
The mother and the aunt are standing trial for conspiracy to murder. They and two other defendants have also been charged with child cruelty.