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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Culture cited in voodoo whipping case

Culture cited in voodoo whipping case

The Calgary Sun - February 28, 2008

by Kevin Martin - Sun Media

Cultural and generational differences played a part in a case where a voodoo practitioner whipped a young girl under her care, a lawyer argued yesterday.

Defence counsel Sheldon Kaupp said his client, who can't be named to protect her victim's identity, is from Africa, where using force as punishment is more accepted.

And, Kaupp told Judge Heather Lamoureux, his client also comes from a generation where corporal punishment was more allowable than today, even in Canada.

"It's not that long ago in our history," said Kaupp, relating how he and his brothers used to be whipped by their father with a belt as youngsters.

Kaupp noted that in some African nations, offenders can be sentenced to lashes.

Kaupp's client was convicted in November of assault causing bodily harm for whipping a girl she claimed was her daughter with a cable cord for coming home late.

The girl, who was 12 when assaulted in December 2005, said she was handed over to her abuser by her real parents in Sierra Leone so she could seek a better life in Canada.

Kaupp suggested probation would be appropriate, but Crown prosecutor Grant Schorn said a short jail term or more lengthy conditional sentence is warranted.

The woman was also disruptive after being taken into custody to provide a DNA sample. Defence counsel Patrick Flynn said the woman is a practitioner of voodoo and giving up any bodily fluid violates her religion.


http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/
2008/02/28/4881889-sun.html


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US girl 'burnt in voodoo ritual'