Witchcraft child abuse cases have risen by a third in two years, as experts blame “cultural sensitivity” and “political correctness” as barriers to protecting children.
Abuse of children based on faith or belief – which includes witchcraft, spirit possession and black magic – increased from 1,460 to 1,950 cases between 2016/17 and 2018/19.
This marks an increase of 34 per cent, with councils dealing with the equivalent of 38 such cases a week.
The figures, published today by the Local Government Association (LGA) also show that the number of children identified by councils through a social work assessment as either having or being at risk of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) has reached a record high – with 1,000 such cases in 2018/19, up 6 per cent on the 940 cases in the previous year.
This comes after a trial at the Old Bailey earlier this year which saw a woman who mutilated her three-year-old daughter become the first person in the UK to be found guilty of FGM.
Responding to the figures, Nimco Ali OBE, co-founder and CEO of The Five Foundation, the global partnership to end FGM said: “this is so depressing”. DT.
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