31 Oct 2010

US girl 'burnt in voodoo ritual'



BBC News - June 19. 2009

New York prosecutors have charged a woman with setting alight her six-year-old daughter in a voodoo rite that left the child with life-threatening burns.

Lawyers say Marie Lauradin, 29, sent her daughter to bed after the ritual with serious burns on 25% of her body.

The girl was taken to hospital the next day, where doctors put her into a drug-induced coma. She has since been placed in foster care.

Ms Lauradin denies charges of assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

Defence lawyer Jeff Cohen said the girl was Ms Lauradin's only child and she would not have hurt her.

Prosecutors say she poured rum over the child during a Haitian voodoo practice known as Loa.

"The child's mother is alleged to have intentionally poured an accelerant over her young daughter's body, causing her to be engulfed in flames," said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

If convicted, Ms Lauradin faces up to 25 years in jail.

The girl's grandmother is also alleged to have taken part in the ritual and faces a separate trial.

This article was found at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8108540.stm


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4 comments:

  1. Voodoo witch doctor kills four children in exorcism ceremony

    Herald Sun AFP August 04, 2012

    FOUR children from the same family have been found dead in Haiti after being treated by a witch doctor who claimed to be able to cure them of a mysterious illness, a local official said Friday.

    "Three girls and a boy, the eldest of whom was seven years old and the youngest only 15 months, suffered abuse from the healer who was treating them," said Wilfrid Brisson, an official from the southern town of Marbial.

    "They were then abandoned in their mother's bed."

    According to neighbours, the sorcerer - who was assisted by his brother - persuaded the victims' mother that the children were possessed by a demon and said he could rid their soul of the devil.

    The witch doctor and his brother beat the children repeatedly, in steps they said were necessary to expel the demon, and the youngsters died from the blows, said Mr Brisson.

    The alleged killers have apparently fled to the capital Port-au-Prince. An investigation by authorities in Marbial is under way and the children's mother is in custody.

    About half of Haiti's population is believed to practice the voodoo religion in some form, though many are thought to also follow other religious beliefs at the same time. Sorcery and spiritual magic have been incorporated into some of the beliefs.

    Voodoo evolved out of the beliefs that slaves from West Africa brought with them to Haiti. It is now deeply rooted in Haitian culture.

    Western evangelical Christian movements, however, have also made inroads in Haiti.

    http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/four-children-killed-by-witch-doctor/story-fnd134gw-1226442670504

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  2. Man Raped Three Teenage Girls During Voodoo Exorcism Sessions Is Jailed

    Malaysian Digest December 1, 2013

    The uncle and mother of three teenage girls have been sentenced to 14 years in jail for raping and assaulting them in voodoo exorcism sessions.

    The man, a 28-year-old from Togo, claimed to have been 'chasing out an evil spirit' when he assaulted his niece and her two older sisters between 2010 and 2011.

    The victims' mother, 41, was found guilty of complicity as she had even supplied the condoms used in the crime.

    'She more or less delivered her daughter to the rapist,' the prosecutor told a court in Bobigny, an eastern suburb of Paris.

    During the sessions, the man would wash the girls' genital areas, and cut their hands and legs before applying a purportedly magical black powder to the wounds.

    His sister-in-law was found to have given her consent.

    The man was arrested in February 2011 after his last rape.

    He claims that he is unaware of the rapes inflicted on his niece.

    The victim's lawyer, Daniel Merchat, said: 'This denial is the second rape. It is a rape of the soul.'

    The prosecutor also said: 'The voodoo belief that was cited is just window dressing,' adding that the man 'does not suffer from any mental illness... he is completely responsible for his acts.'

    The uncle, whose identity is not known, was sentenced to 14 years; the mother was handed a seven-year jail term.

    It is the latest in a number of voodoo cases which have emerged in France, which has a large African community, in the past few years.

    Recently four men were sentenced for holding a young woman captive and torturing her as they believed she was possessed.

    Earlier this year Spanish police broken up a ring that smuggled in women from Nigeria and forced them into street prostitution by burning them with irons and using voodoo rituals.

    The gang tortured the women and scared them with curses to force them on to the streets.

    Six people, including one woman believed to be a ringleader- were arrested after one of the women alerted authorities.

    Last year, a Nigerian people smuggler who used witchcraft rituals to force children to work as sex slaves was jailed for 20 years in Britain.

    Osezua Osolase, 42, tricked poverty-stricken Nigerian orphans into travelling to the UK with the promise of a better life.

    But the young victims were raped, sexually abused and subjected to voodoo-style rituals by a child trafficking ring.

    Osolase, the linchpin of a multi-million pound global sex trafficking ring, used 'juju' magic to control his victims.

    He told the teenage girls they would die or never bear children if they tried to escape or revealed what had happened to them.

    http://malaysiandigest.com/world/480579-man-raped-three-teenage-girls-during-voodoo-exorcism-sessions-is-jailed.html

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2516065/Togolese-man-raped-teenage-girls-voodoo-exorcism-jailed-France.html

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  3. Voodoo priest accused of having sex with girl

    Sunrise police say Brogenet Cinor claimed to use sex as his way of 'cleansing' spirits

    Author: Troy Blevins, Online Editor, Producer, Local10 News, Sunrise, Fld. July 02 2015


    A man claiming to be a "voodoo priest" accused of having sex with an underage girl has been arrested, Sunrise police said.

    Brogenet Cinor, 48, faces a charge of sexual battery on a child under the age of 12.

    The victim went to the Sunrise Police Department with her parents Sept. 25 to provide details of an incident that happened when she was in middle school between 2009 and 2010, police said.

    The victim and a person believed to be the girl's mother met with Cinor, a "voodoo priest," at his home, police said. The girl's mother stayed in the front of the home while the girl was brought to a man-made structure in the backyard, described as being like a tiki hut made out of wood, according to the police report.

    The girl told police that once she was inside the structure, Cinor asked her to pull her pants down. Police said Cinor then pulled his pants down, exposing his genitalia, and sat on a chair.

    Cinor told the girl to sit on top of him, and he then performed a sexual act, police said. According to the report, Cinor restrained the girl's arms and would not allow her to get up.

    The girl told police that when Cinor was finished having sex with her, he took out his wallet and gave her money.

    According to the police report, the girl's mother told police a few weeks after the incident happened. Cinor was confronted on the phone, at which time he denied having sex with her, but told the mother "that she would be cursed and that she would die if she mentioned this to anyone else," the report stated.

    The girl's mother then went to three sessions with Cinor, which included prayer by candlelight and two liquid "potion" treatments, police said. The girl's mother said Cinor never attempted to have sex with her during her treatments.

    During her final treatment, Cinor told the girl's mother that her daughter had bad spirits inside of her and needed to be cleansed, according to the report. The mother strongly believes in Haitian voodoo and was still in fear of what Cinor may do to her or her daughter, police said.

    It wasn't until the girl's father became aware of the incident that they went to the Sunrise Police Department to speak with officers.

    continued below

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  4. In another incident police also spoke with two women who allegedly had relationships with Cinor in 2008-09. Police said the women are sisters who went to him seeking spiritual readings.

    One woman was told to come back so Cinor could treat her because she was being plagued by evil spirits, according to the report.

    The woman went with Cinor into the backyard structure and was told to remove her pants and underwear. According to the police report, Cinor had her lay on a shirt on the floor, at which time he had sex with her.

    Cinor told the woman that she would die if she didn't continue to see him romantically. The woman told police she had sex with him six times over the course of the following months.

    Police said during their relationship, the woman became pregnant with Cinor's child. Cinor took the woman to a clinic where he paid $450 for her to terminate her pregnancy, according to the police report.

    Cinor continued to threaten the woman, telling her that she would die if she told anyone of their relationship, police said.

    A similar situation happened to a woman who was 28 years old in 2009. She told police Cinor took her into the structure and told her that she "must act quickly or that she would die." According to the report, the woman had sex with Cinor and was told to return the next day so he could "cleanse her of the spirits."

    The woman eventually became pregnant with Cinor's child, in which she was taken to a woman's clinic where Cinor paid $500 to terminate her pregnancy, police said.

    Another similar incident detailed how Cinor used sex as his way of "cleansing" the person's so-called spirits. Cinor also used threats of voodoo to inhibit the women from telling anyone of their relationships, the report said.

    A warrant for Cinor's arrest was issued June 19 and he was later taken into custody at the Sunrise Police Department. He was taken to the Broward Sheriff's Office main jail facility. Bond was set at $75,000, police said.

    Sunrise police said they are hoping to identify any additional victims who have not been in contact with them.

    http://www.local10.com/news/voodoo-priest-accused-of-having-sex-with-girl-sunrise-police-say/33971970

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