Mormons 'hit children with rolling pins'

Deidre Carrington and Maria Keable are also alleged to have hit them with wooden spoons, made them eat hot chillies and punched and kneed them.

The pair meted out the brutal treatment to children aged from just two to 12, Canterbury Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Robin Johnson said: "This was a case of two women who were completely out of control and were acting in a disgraceful way."

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Keable, 60, originally from Macedonia, is accused of brainwashing 41-year-old Carrington to join her in the beatings after they met at the Mormon Temple in London.

Both deny assault and six counts of child cruelty over nine years in Ramsgate, Kent.

Mr Johnson said: "The prosecution say these women were in technical terms cruel to these children.

2The cruelty amounted to physical harm, punishing these children even when they were very young unnecessarily, and perpetrating emotional abuse on them at a young age.

2The physical abuse included striking and slapping, administering chilli powder and chopped chillies, using rolling pins and spoons to strike them, making them eat raw eggs and striking them with stinging nettles."

The court heard best friends Carrington and Keable would even feed red hot chillies to the twoyearold.

Mr Johnson said the eldest child was gagged when he was naughty and restrained in a sheet while he was beaten. The women would also put him between them and punch him from one to the other.

He was also allegedly thrown across the room repeatedly.

The abuse was uncovered when the 12-year-old showed his bruises to teachers at school and they called in police and social services.

A boy of eight was also allegedly given gloves so he could whip the other children with nettles.

Mr Johnson said: 2He said he did that because had he not he would have been hit." The prosecutor said the boy described Carrington's brutality, saying: "She would whack us and then give us more chilli."

When interviewed by detectives, Carrington, of Chiswick, West London, claimed the children lied, especially the eldest.

She said she had made them eat chillies once and smacked them with an open hand, but denied punching them.

Mr Johnson said: "She said she was a member of the church and had strict principles to teach children to work and be obedient."

During her police interview Keable, of Ramsgate, said she was like a grandmother to the children and they called her Aunt Maria. She told police that in her country "the use of chilli was normal", adding: "My mother used it."

Mr Johnson said: 'She believed her motives were Christian."

Keable also said her mother had used stinging nettles on her bare legs as a punishment and that eating raw eggs with honey was part of a healthy diet.

The pair rose at 4am on Sundays to travel to the London Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as visiting Mormon churches in Kent.

The case continues.