CHILD abuse ­linked to faith or belief has soared in Blackburn with Darwen.

The borough has the highest figure of such abuse ­— which is often linked to witchcraft and demonic possession ­— in the North West.

Social services investigated 51 episodes of such incidents between 2017/ 2018. The year before the number of cases was below five.

Faith and belief-based incidents include abuse of child who is branded a witch or said to be possessed by “evil spirits”and ritualistic abuse which could take the form of prolonged sexual, physical and psychological abuse.

The Government says child abuse linked to faith or belief includes a belief in concepts of witchcraft and spirit possession, demons or the devil acting through children or leading them astray and use of belief in magic, or witchcraft to create fear in children to make them more compliant. Other examples include where children have been harmed when adults think that their actions have brought bad fortune.

High profile cases in the UK include the death of 11-year-old Victoria Climbie in 2000 which shocked the nation.

The youngster was murdered by her aunt and her aunt’s boyfriend, who believed she was possessed by an evil spirit and the case gained an international profile.

But Blackburn with Darwen Council stresses that its definition is broader than that and covers incidents of where belief is used in other forms to harm a child ­— which is not related to witchcraft or demonic possession.

Jayne Ivory, director of children’s services, said: “In our experience abuses linked to faith or belief can relate to a range of circumstances where people abuse positions of power to harm children and are not specific to any one faith or belief.

“Clearly abuse of any description is not tolerable and we are confident that we have strict protocols in place to understand all of the potential risks that children may face.

“We work with partners across multi-agencies to identify and deal with any issues, regularly monitoring our robust procedures and systems. Any concerns for the welfare of a child should be immediately directed the police or ourselves.”

Social services also investigated 33 cases of possible female genital mutilation ­— the second highest in the North West, only Manchester’s social services investigated more ­— 44.

Nationally, there was an 11 per cent increase in cases of child abuse due to harmful practices related to witchcraft beliefs from 1,460 to 1,630 cases.

A leading expert at the University of Bolton is trying to raise awareness of the abuse connected to faith and belief and develop ways of preventing it.

Dr Samantha Spence says the North West has a particular problem with the issue.

She is working with the United Nations to raise awareness of such child abuse cases and bring about a resolution outlining steps for countries to take to prevent further cases of abuse.

Dr Spence said: “The statistics for Blackburn with Darwen do show a huge rise.

“I do think abuse linked to faith and belief is on the rise internationally, however it’s not possible to speak about the rise shown here.

“It could be that people are now more aware of this form of abuse, and maybe it wasn’t categorised this way before.”

She added: “I am part of a working group asking the United Nations to pass a resolution on this issue.

“The UN does work on political will, so there are always issues with enforceability, however what it does do is raise awareness of the issue."

Experts stress that a belief in witchcraft, which forms part of everyday life for some people and does not cause harm, is vastly different from when others choose to carry out harmful acts as part of their beliefs.