Mardoche Yembi, Fatmata B Jalloh and Jeriah Kibusi. — L-R: Mardoche Yembi, whose story is told in the film; Fatmata B Jalloh, his real-life foster mother who plays herself in the film; and actor Jeriah Kibusi, who plays Mardoche as a child in the film. Photograph: Sarah Ainslie

Thousands of children in England suffered faith-based abuse in past decade

Figures that include children accused of witchcraft are highlighted as Kindoki Witch Boy film tells true story of boy who underwent an exorcism

Thousands of children in England have been subject to abuse relating to faith or belief over the past decade, according to figures highlighted ahead of a film released on Monday.

Faith-based abuse is a worldwide phenomenon but since 2018 experts found 14,000 social work assessments in this category, which includes harm caused by belief in witchcraft and spirit possession. In the year running to March 2024 alone, the Department for Education (DfE) recorded 2,180 assessments of “abuse linked to faith or belief”.

The statistics have been emphasised alongside the release of the film Kindoki Witch Boy, which tells the story of Mardoche Yembi, 33, who was accused of witchcraft as a child growing up in north London and subjected to an exorcism. Its release date also marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Victoria Climbié, an eight-year-old girl who was tortured after accusations of witchcraft were levelled against her.

Leethen Bartholomew, a working committee member of the International Network Against Witchcraft Accusations and Ritual Attacks who has conducted research into accusations of witchcraft as a form of child abuse, highlighted children in need assessments data from the DfE.

Although the data does not say which types of belief are involved in the recorded assessments of abuse, Bartholomew said: “For my research, I submitted a freedom of information request to all police and children’s services departments in England and gained access to one police force database (I sat alongside a police officer who read out cases that met the criteria for witchcraft and spirit possession accusations against children). The data obtained provided further evidence of such accusations.”

Yembi hopes that the new film will encourage more of these children who are suffering behind closed doors to come forward.

He said: “If a story like Kindoki Witch Boy had been out there when I was a child going through those experiences I would have felt less alone. I want this film to transform something that was bad into something good, to help other children going through the same thing. I hope children who are being accused will see that there is help out there and they can survive it.”

Kindoki is one of several words used to describe the kind of witchcraft Yembi and Victoria were accused of along with terms sucha as djin, juju and voodoo.

Victoria, who died on 25 February 2000, was brought to the UK by her great-aunt Marie-Thérèse Kouao, offering Victoria’s parents a European education. But Victoria was killed, after suffering prolonged and extreme abuse, by Kouao and her partner Carl John Manning.

'They did not love their little girl like me'

They said she was possessed by evil spirits and she was exorcised by a pastor and forced to sleep in a bin bag in a freezing cold bathroom. At the time of her death, 128 separate injuries were found on her burned and malnourished body, in one of the most horrific cases of child abuse doctors had ever seen.

She had come into contact with several health and social care services in the months before her killing. Manning and Kouao were jailed for her murder in 2001. Her death led to a child protection service overhaul.

Yembi and Victoria were born just weeks apart and lived a few miles from each other in north London. Yembi was sent to the UK at the age of eight by his father from his home country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo after his mother died, to be looked after by relatives.

Like many other children facing witchcraft accusations, Yembi was scapegoated for causing health and financial misfortunes in his relatives’ lives. Social services became concerned about him because his extended family said they wanted to send him back to DRC for an exorcism.

Unlike Victoria, he did not experience physical abuse, but social services placed him with a foster mother who supported him for the next decade. He thrived in her care and now works to support young care leavers.

The film, directed by Penny Woolcock, was shot over a period of nine days using a mix of professional and non-professional actors. Jeriah Kibusi plays Yembi and Fatmata B Jalloh plays herself as his foster mother.

Yembi and Victoria never met, but he said that she had been very much in his mind while he had been working on the film.

He said: “Part of this film is for her. She didn’t have a chance to make it. I want to keep her name alive.”