Another teenage girl in Borås, western Sweden, has been subjected to physical abuse such as kicks, beatings and electric shocks, as her parents tried to exorcise her from evil spirits.
“I can confirm that the investigation is under way and we are hoping to complete it before the summer as there is a risk the statute of limitations will come into effect otherwise,” said prosecutor Daniel Larsson to daily Dagens Nyheter (DN).
According to the paper, the girl, who was ten at the time, had been too frightened to let anyone know what was going on at the time.
However, when the parents approached the Swedish social services with an application for a grant in order to take their daughter back to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to have her properly exorcized, she was taken into protective custody by the state.
It wasn’t until last year, when the girl was thirteen that she finally plucked up the courage to tell her foster parents about the torture-like treatment she had been forced to endure.
According to DN, the girl spoke about being kicked and beaten badly with electrical cables. At one point her parents held her down and tried to stick live wires in her mouth to release the evil spirits through electrical shocks.
At one point she was beaten so badly that the parents were forced to bring her to the hospital where they made her say she had been assaulted by other school children, when in fact it had been her father striking her.
The Local says a verdict against another set of parents as well as two priests in a local congregation — all accused of a similar crime – will be given on Monday.
The publication cites Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter which says both sets of parents are connected to The River, a controversial church in Borås.