Call for serious case review to shed light on Bamu ‘witchcraft' murder

Accused of being a witch, 15-year-old Kristy Bamu was tortured for four days then drowned in a bath by his sister and her boyfriend in 2010.

Kristy had arrived in the London Borough of Newham from France days before the incident for a brief Christmas holiday. He was therefore not on the radar of any of the local authority’s services.

But Newham’s decision not to carry out a serious case review into the killing has prompted questions over the circumstances in which such reviews should take place.

The Victoria Climbié Foundation acknowledges that the murder of Kristy could not have been foreseen; but it argues that failure to carry out a review implies “there are no lessons to be learned from the tragic death”.

“The criminal proceedings led to successful prosecutions against both defendants, one of whom did not give evidence directly,” a spokeswoman for the foundation says.

“A serious case review would address the significant gaps in information around the background of this person leading up to Kristy Bamu’s death, and what may have influenced the defendants’ belief in witchcraft.”

“Even for specialist organisations working on issues of child abuse linked to witchcraft and spirit possession, there would be some added learning from this tragedy.”

Kamini Rambellas, chair of Newham’s local safeguarding children board (LSCB), says its serious case review panel examined all the available evidence in the Bamu case, but decided not to hold a review because it would not offer “additional learning opportunities for professionals and communities”.

“Abuse linked to spirit possession is no more an issue for Newham than it is for any other London Borough,” she says. “We have implemented a number of initiatives to capture learning from this tragic case and are using the knowledge gained to ensure the highest possible standard of safeguarding and child protection.”

Since the incident, Newham Council has charged its LSCB faith and culture working group with raising awareness of the issue of spirit possession, and has provided safeguarding checklists and training to 98 local faith organisations.

Newham’s children’s services department is working with the Metropolitan Police on an initiative that will adopt a “neighbourhood watch” approach to identifying faith organisations that may need training on safeguarding, as well as situations that require a child protection response.

Debbie Ariyo, executive director of Africans Unite Against Child Abuse (Afruca), says her charity is working with Newham on a one-year pilot project to offer intensive support to families affected by allegations of witchcraft and spirit possession. Afruca will also be working with Newham to conduct community education programmes in the area.

The government is due to publish an action plan on child abuse linked to belief in witchcraft and sprit possession this summer. Meanwhile, Afruca is campaigning for a change in the law to criminalise people who brand children as witches.
“We believe that child branding needs to be recognised by law as ‘incitement to harm’ and children need to be protected by the law from those who would want to cause harm in this way,” Ariyo says.

“Afruca has written to the Home Secretary regarding some foreign pastors who are known to brand children as witches and abuse them as a result. We hope the Home Secretary will use her powers to prevent such people from coming to the UK so they do not harm children as a result.”