Two women and a pastor found guilty of killing two children because they believed they were possessed by demons have been jailed.
The trio were found guilty of murder in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) High Court sitting in Mtunzini on Tuesday.
The names of the accused have been withheld to protect the families from secondary victimisation.
The victims, aged nine and 10, were murdered in Ntuzuma in March 2020.
Explaining the merits of the case National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson in KZN Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said the two women were related to the children.
“One of the women was the mother of the 10-year-old.”
The NPA said both these women believed that the two children were possessed by demonic spirits.
“They alleged that they were sucking the blood out of one of the accused’s children.
“On March 24, 2020, the women invited the pastor to come over to their home and pray for the two children to drive out the demonic spirits.
“During the prayers, the children were assaulted with plastic pipes and a sjambok. They were also punched and burned with a two-plate stove.”
The NPA said the nine-year-old died immediately, following the assault.
Police were alerted to the going-on’s via a tip-off and went to the scene.
“On arrival, the accused were arrested and the 10-year-old child who was still alive was taken to hospital.
“She died two weeks later.”
The NPA said State advocate Nathi Kunene presented the court with the victim impact statements of the family of the deceased, which showed that the evil actions committed by the accused on the small children had been traumatic.
“They said that the other younger children in the house had to go for counselling following the incident.”
The mother and pastor were jailed to an effective 25 years behind bars, while the other woman was jailed to 15 years.
Ramkisson-Kara said in sentencing the trio, the court deviated from the prescribed minimum sentence of life imprisonment, saying that the case had an “unusual factual matrix, in that the accused believed that the deceased were possessed by demons and inflicted the assaults in the process of driving out the demons from the deceased”.
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