Torment of voodoo ritual girl, 6

The mother of a girl who suffered horrific burns during a voodoo ritual faces 17 years in prison after admitting setting her alight.

Marie Lauradin, 31, yesterday pled guilty to first-degree assault in relation to the incident at her New York home, which left six-year-old Frantzcia Saintil fighting for her life.

The child's grandmother, 72-year-old Sylvenie Thessier, could be sentenced to up to three years behind bars for ignoring Frantzcia's cries for help. She was admitted to a hospital in Queens on 6 February, 2009, with second and third-degree burns covering 25 per cent of her body, including her face and chest.

Her mother claimed the injuries were caused when a pot of boiling water accidentally spilled over her.

But the truth was exposed after the child was placed in a foster home and eventually confided in her carers.

It emerged that Lauradin, originally from the Caribbean island of Haiti, had poured an accelerant over her daughter and placed her in a ring of fire as part of voodoo ritual to invoke the spirits known as Loa.

Even after the girl caught fire and started screaming, her grandmother, who was in the same room at the time, did not intervene.

Queens district attorney Richard Brown said the six-year-old was "engulfed in flames".

He added: "Despite the child's cries for help and the severity of her injuries, (her mother] failed to seek immediate medical attention."