Malaysia: A 10-year-old girl who was bound, beaten and burnt for a month as part of an exorcism ritual escaped on Monday after picking the lock on the chain around her ankle.

The girl, who had burn marks on both hands, bruises on her face believed to be from being punched, swollen wrists and also fractured ribs, was rushed to the hospital by a neighbour.

Police were later called in and a relative was arrested 24 hours later when he surrendered at a police station.

The relative started performing the exorcism rituals on her shortly after a medium told him that she was an unlucky omen for the family.

A four-year-old boy has died during an exorcism ritual carried out by a traditional healer in the Far East of Russia, investigators say.

The boy apparently suffocated during the ritual, after healers held him face-down to the ground.

As a fully authorized exorcist of the Catholic Church, Fr. Thomas Euteneuer has performed dozens of full exorcisms over the last seven years.

He recently told a congregation in Florida the ritual is methodical and precise: The demon is required to name itself, indicate the sign of its departure and state what retains it in the possessed body.

“It’s kind of like a prosecution in a courtroom a criminal interrogated in the name of Jesus,” he said. “You work patiently and undo whatever has been done one by one.”

A Australian police officer and seven other men accused of attempting to exorcise demons from a teenager have been slapped with two-year restraining orders.

The group will not, however, face any other court proceedings after prosecutors today dropped all charges against them.

Each member of the group was originally charged with false imprisonment and aggravated assault charges.

The group allegedly restrained a boy, 15, after he complained of stomach pains and conducted an “exorcism ritual” for about 12 hours.

The government of Guyana says acute meningitis caused the death of a 15-year-old who died following an exorcism.

Police says no criminal charges are expected against a pastor who treated the girl’s convulsions with an exorcism that lasted some five hours.

During Friday’s proceedings, the defense had Dr. Patricia Rosen, a toxicology expert, testify about the effects methamphetamines have on a person and to describe the levels found in Milam after he was taken into custody in 2008.

Dr. Rosen said a user of methamphetamine at the levels Milam had in his systems could experience hallucinations and other delusions.

Postpartum psychosis with delusions, including demonic possession with the ability to talk to the dead, is how a psychiatrist described the mental health of Jesseca Carson when her 13-month-old daughter Amora was brutally beaten and strangled to death in December 2008.

The psychiatrist testified in Blaine Milam’s capital murder trial Wednesday in a Montgomery County courtroom as Milam’s defense team attempted to shift the blame of the death from their client to Ms. Carson.

Blaine Milam, 20, is facing the death penalty for the December 2008 beating death of 13-month-old Amora Bain Carson.

Milam and his fiancee, Jessica Carson, are charged with beating the toddler 20 times with a hammer while allegedly attempting to perform an exorcism on the little girl.

Jurors heard compelling evidence Monday from a bite expert who testified Blaine Milam could not be ruled out as the contributor of the majority of bite marks on 13-month-old Amora Carson.

Forensic odontologist Robert Williams testified his area of expertise has been used to identify serial killers, Hurricane Katrina, 9/11 and Branch Davidian victims when other methods failed.

Blaine Milam and Jesseca Carson stand accused of murdering her 13-month-old daughter, Amo­ra, on Dec. 2, 2008, by beating the child to death while performing what they claim was an exorcism to drive out demons from the toddler.

If convicted, both parties face the death penalty.

A forensic pathologist told a Montgomery County jury Wednesday there were too many injuries suffered by 13-month-old Amora Bain Carson to give a definitive cause of death.

The doctor told jurors Amora had 18 breaks in her ribs and at least 24 human bite wounds covering her body.

Dr. Pinckard said it appeared she had been strangled as well as having suffered multiple skull fractures, brain injuries, a torn liver, her arms and legs had been twisted to the point of breaking, her retinas detached and internal injuries from apparently being sexually assaulted with an object authorities believe was a pipe wrench.

Detectives investigating the Dec. 2, 2008, death of 13-month-old Amora Bain Carson in Rusk County found a wrench under the home where she had been living hours after Blaine Keith Milam asked his sister to find and retrieve some evidence there, witnesses testified.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Milam, 20, if he is convicted of capital murder for Amora’s beating death.

Rusk County District Attorney Micheal Jimerson said on Dec, 2, 2008 13-month-old Amora Carson was robbed of her life and of her innocence. He apologized for what the jurors would have to endure during the trial.

He explained the murder was brutal, and the scene was one that gave law enforcement officials nightmares.

The affidavit alleges that after Blaine Milam killed the child, with the child’s mother Jessica Carson looking on.

Detectives said that Carson and Milam reportedly beat the child multiple times with a hammer and bit the child more than 30 times.

Australia: A psychologist who helped perform exorcisms on his patients and believed in “satanic abuse” has been banned from practising by the state’s health watchdog.

Mark Edward Tynan, of the western Sydney-based Christian group Servants of Jesus, was found to have blurred his spiritual beliefs and professional duties, placing clients in “grave risk of harm”.

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