A five-year-old girl has suffered extensive burns while she was undergoing deliverance rituals from alleged demons that had made her stubborn.
Two sisters reportedly tied down and burned the girl, permanently disfiguring her, in a voodoo ritual meant to rid her of a demon causing her to misbehave, police said.
The women also threatened to cut off the head of the girl’s eight-year-old brother with a machete, authorities said.
The boy said his sister was tied down on at least two occasions while the sisters blew fire over her face and cut her on the arm and in the collar area with a needle-like object, drawing blood, according to police.
The victim also testified that the women poured over her eyes a “substance that stung.”
The incident happened in Brockton area of Massachusetts, United States of America.
Peggy LaBossiere, 51, and Rachel Hilaire, 40, of East Bridgewater, denied injuring the girl and threatening the boy, the Brockton Enterprise reported.
They pleaded not guilty on January 29 to mayhem, assault and other charges.
Police say the girl’s mother is a hair stylist of Haitian descent who has LaBossiere as a client and requested the ritual. She has not been charged but is receiving mental health treatment.
The sisters will be back in Brockton Superior Court on Wednesday for a hearing to determine whether they’re too dangerous to be released.
The sisters told police that they have performed “cleansing baths” for family and friends in the past, something that involves chanting prayers, rubbing frankincense and eucalyptus oils and sea salt on their bodies, and burning myrrh, the newspaper reported.
Children sometimes get burned as spirits leave the body, they said.
The girl suffered a third-degree burn across her face that will leave her permanently disfigured, police said.
She was treated at a hospital and taken into custody by state welfare authorities, along with her brother, who described to police what happened at the sisters’ house over multiple days.
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