A black boy, whose family is from Africa, has been taken into care by Islington council in north London, England

His mother, who no longer had responsibility for her child, asked for him to be sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo for "deliverance". The boy's family claimed this was necessary because they believed that he was possessed by kindoki or evil spirits. Islington social services officials then paid more than £4,000 for an expert to travel to Africa to investigate. The expert, Richard Hoskins, an academic specializing in African religions, was alarmed by what he saw on the visit, and advised the council that the boy should not be exorcised. After receiving his report, the council - then under Liberal Democrat control - abandoned the plan. Dr Hoskins said that prior to his trip, some Islington council officials had been "mindful to agree to the request" for exorcism. Speaking at a conference, he said the case demonstrated how officials in Britain were reluctant to challenge the mistreatement of children when it was committed under the guise of religious or cultural practices. "This problem is about the underlying failure to tackle abuse when it is masked behind multiculturalism," he said. "We fear to trend where sensibilities might apparently be affected." During his visit to Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, in 2005, Dr Hoskins met the grandparents of the boy at the center of the case. They told him that the child had been "infected by sorcery" while in Britain and that he "would destroy them all". The deliverance that the boy was to undergo would have involved starving him of food and fluids for three days. At the end of the fasting period, he would be surrounded by the deliverance team who would pray over him and command the evil spirit to be cast out of the child. When deliverance takes place, the child vomits up the "sorcery bread" that has been infecting him. Dr Hoskins also met the pastor from the Pentecostal church attended by the grandparents, who warned that if the evil spirits were not dealt with, they would cause "strife, illness, divorce, hardship, poverty and death". The pastor claimed that the boy would have sorcery tools to perform magic with, such as mirrors, brushes, sticks and string, and warned that these would have to be confiscated. Dr Hoskins asked whether the boy would be beaten, and was assured that this was not part of the normal deliverance process. However, when he was presented with a boy who had recently undergone the ordeal, he found the child scared and traumatized. Witchcraft or "kindoki" is a widespread belief in parts of central and western Africa and in the DRC in particular. It is not uncommon for children to be accused of being witches and have to endure exorcisms. The Islington investigation followed high-profile cases in which children born in Africa, or of African heritage, living in Britain had been abused or killed by relatives who believed they were possessed. In 2000, Victoria Climbié, eight, from the Ivory Coast, was tortured and murdered by her great aunt and her boyfriend in Haringey. Three years later, the mother, aunt and uncle of an eight year old girl in Hackney were sent to prison for between four and ten years for a campaign of torture against her. In both cases the victims' relatives claimed they were witches. Despite the high-profile cases, social services are failing to tackle the problem because of misguided political correctness, according to Dr Hoskins. "Some women and children from diverse cultural backgrounds are suffering horrendous abuse, and even death, because authorities are too afraid to intervene," Dr Hoskins said. "There is growing evidence that all manner of evils are being committed in the name of cultural beliefs and practices that should play not part in contemporary Britain."