Boy, 8, Left for Dead After ‘Exorcism’ by Family
An eight-year-old boy was left for dead in a hotel carpark, after his father and aunt attempted an exorcism on him, believing he was possessed by evil spirits, a court on the outskirts of Paris heard this week.
The boy, who was born in Cameroon, was found “cold, frightened and covered in bruises” by a warden at the carpark of a hotel in Yvelines, west of Paris, in the early hours of Saturday morning, French daily Le Parisien reported.
Both the boy’s father, aged 33, and aunt, aged 24, have admitted to beating the child. His aunt told local family division police investigators they attacked the boy and abandoned him because, “he was bewitched”, according to a source quoted by France 3 TV.
The boy himself told investigators that he had suffered physical abuse by his aunt since she arrived from Cameroon at the end of February. The woman had become suspicious of her nephew, and wanted to rid him of “evil spirits”, before baptizing him.
“He was forced to hold out his arms and tilt his head back,” said one police officer. “While his aunt beat him with a bat, his father whipped him with a belt,” the officer told France 3.
More: Boy, 8, Left for Dead After ‘Exorcism’ by Family - the Local