Posted on 05/03/2007 10:48:30 AM PDT by Gamecock
A pair of Mormon churchgoers who force fed six young children tablespoons of hot chilli powder were found guilty of child cruelty offences today.
Maria Keable and Deirdre Carrington punished the four girls and two boys, all aged under 16, by making them eat tablespoons of chilli powder or raw chillies, raw eggs, and stinging them with nettles.
The children were also routinely hit with wooden rolling pins and lined up in a row and punched and kicked. One boy was also gagged, tied to a bed and covered with a sheet.
He was also forced to administer the stinging nettle treatment to the other children for fear of being hit.
The best friends' reign of physical and emotional cruelty over the children in Ramsgate, Kent, lasted for nine years.
The jury of nine men and three women at Canterbury Crown Court took five hours to convict them both of six child cruelty offences and one assault charge.
Keable, a 60-year-old Macedonian, regarded her actions as Christian and believed in "love with boundaries".
One boy, now aged 12, told the jury during the two-and-a-half week trial that Keable would substitute chilli powder with raw, chopped chillies if she ever ran out. He said: "We sometimes cried because it was really hot and all she'd do was just whack us and give us some more."
On another occasion he was set upon by both women, who pushed him back and forth between them "like a football".
Carrington also carried out the chilli pepper punishment, the boy said.
Carrington told police she was having "emotional problems" when she made one girl eat chilli powder.
The chilli-powder punishment was also given to a two-year-girl.
Keable told police that "in her country, the use of chilli was normal" and that she believed "her motives were Christian".
She admitted to police she hit the children for not eating raw eggs and honey because it was a "healthy part of their diet".
Carrington, 41, of Chiswick, west London, and Keable, of Ramsgate, both denied six counts of child cruelty and one assault charge between January 1997 and January last year.
They met at a Mormon temple in London 10 years ago. They also attended Mormon churches in Deal and Canterbury in Kent.
Prosecutor Robin Johnson told the jury: "This was a case of two women who were completely out of control and were acting in a disgraceful way to these children."
Judge Timothy Nash remanded the pair in custody and indicated that he may sentence later on today.
Judge Nash, referring to the assault charge, told the two women: "This isn't excessive chastisement in the court's view. It may have started off like that but there came a time towards the later years where it had an element of sadism, I think, about it."
The children were punished by the pair for not completing their chores satisfactorily. The judge said: "I'm quite satisfied that where nettles were concerned it was no botany lesson."
Addressing the pair he said: "Deidre wouldn't say boo to a goose. The strength lay with Maria. This matrimonial figure, initially perhaps with the best intentions, took complete control and lost it."
He warned them that they both faced a custodial sentence and adjourned the case for pre-sentence reports. The next court hearing will be at the same court on June 4. The women were remanded in custody.
My parents tried to use hot peppers and chili spices on me when I was a kid, but it didn't go over to well, and realized it was a mistake and dumped it.
peppers don't always do the trick.
Let alone the Editor who approved it.
Seems to me like an all-out effort to avoid taking a swipe at their sexual orientation. We aren't even told which woman was the natural mother of those children, or if neither one was. The cat doesn't come out of the bag until the end of the article, when judge refers to the older woman as a "matrimonial figure".
Instead the author goes on and on about Mormon this and Mormon that, as if the Mormons would actually sanction this arrangement.
I know about that as a member of the church and having grown up in the Church all my life. There is NOTHING in our religion, beliefs, doctrine, practices, traditions or culture that sanctions this kind of behavior. If I were to make a prediction, this woman is going to be in danger of excommunication.
There's wackos in all faiths. If we were to characterize every religion by the wackos that happen to belong to them and hold them up as an example of that religion per se, there would be no religions left in the world worth believing in.
This one kind of surprised me, although it really shouldn't. It's just sad when people feel justified in using religion to justify their cruelty. I hope the kids can get removed from that environment and have a chance to recover from the hell they've had to go through.
to match the smear campaign here on fr against Rudy?......seems plenty of Mitt fans have been active on that front.
I get it. You are an anti-mormon bigot that is using a report on child abuse as an attack on the LDS religion.
Horrid.
EXTRINSIC religiosity and AUTHORITARIANISM and DISCIPLINE WITHOUT RELATIONSHIP
produce rebellion and horror quite routinely.
I know that there are crazies in every religion. I am Catholic and I believe we have 3 for sure...I know I don’t have to list them. lol. I agree that this women is just nuts to do this to her children and did not learn it from a religion.
You mean they were lesbians? I didn’t catch that at all.
You know why? because it said they were mormons. So I assumed they did this at some sort of day-care environment, or maybe to their own children when they watched them together, a children’s play group.
I never thought they were living together.
Nope.
Are you saying that it is impossible for a mormon to do something like this? Should it be ignored or not included in a News discussion because it hurts your feelings?
You make a very good point here, where were the “elders?”
No problem. You know I now wish they said “Some crazy lady fed her kids some disgusting stuff and is a freak!” That would have more than truthful.
They wouldn't happen to be Senators, would they? And just for the record, I apologize on behalf of my Church for the existence of Harry Reid. LOL!
We already have a Mormon as Senate Majority Leader, but the MSM doesn't seem to have a problem with that.
If there was a rash of Mormons doing what these women were doing, you’d have a point.
See my post #54.
I suspect it was somewhat IN-GROUP/OUT-GROUP sensibilities and protecting their own.
But, the whole denomination had a horrid beginning with a convicted fraud guy as it’s founder. And he ordered murders amongst other stuff. So there is likely some spiritual ‘heritage’ which is ‘helping’ folks act out . . . as is true, to some degree, in every religious group. Some worse than others.
Between all the Rudy threads, Mitt threads and Mormon threads, this place is starting to look more like a barroom brawl than an internet forum.
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