Family kills girl in cult rite

[ATAdmin]

A 10-year-old Thai girl died after her throat was allegedly repeatedly slashed by her mother, grandmother and two aunts in a ritual to rid her of an evil spirit, police said today.

Prapasorn Jiamcharoen was found dead in a pool of blood with multiple slash wounds to her neck as the women chanted upstairs to a Hindu goddess they had built a cult around, police said.

"We suspected they committed the crime in a trance-like state without even knowing what they have done," Police Colonel Surachai Kuandechakupt told AFP.

He said the women had used a meat cleaver to hack at Prapasorn's throat and hair - which was ceremonially soaked in a bowl - before burning the girl's clothes and mattress.

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