• Mother harmed daughter during “exorcism” ritual
• Daughter found dead the next day

A court in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, southern China, sentenced a mother to prison after her daughter died accidentally while she was performing a ritual known as “exorcism.”

According to a report by the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Procuratorate, the court sentenced the mother, surnamed Li, to three years in prison with a four-year suspended sentence in July.

Li and her two daughters were obsessed with supernatural practices and superstitions involving telepathy and certain medications, believing they were under demonic attacks and that their “souls had been sold.”

In December last year, Li’s younger daughter, surnamed Xie, claimed she was possessed by a demon and asked her mother and elder sister to perform an exorcism, which involved pressing on her chest and pouring water down her throat to induce vomiting.

The mother and elder sister carried out the ritual without hesitation. The younger daughter confirmed its “effectiveness” and requested that the procedures continue.

However, the next morning, family members discovered bleeding from her mouth and alerted the police, who arrived with medical staff and pronounced her dead at the scene.

The court ruled that the mother committed negligent homicide.

The elder sister received the same sentence.