Mother Acquitted Of Son’s Ritual Murder

A mother with a strong interest in the occult was acquitted Wednesday of murdering her son in an apparent sacrificial rite, but she was sentenced to seven years in prison for child cruelty.

Rikki Neave, 6, was found strangled, naked and laid out inside a pentagram shape two years ago in woods near his home in the central city of Peterborough.

Ruth Neave, 28, denied that she killed her son, but admitted in Northampton Crown Court, 60 miles northwest of London, that she severely beat and burned with cigarettes three of her four children from 1986 to 1994.

Police found books on the occult, devil worship and murder in Neave’s home.

Neave had reported her son missing, and a timeline of the murder indicated that Neave would not have had time to place the body where it was found.

A statement from Cambridgeshire Social Services Department said two social workers had been suspended from duty for failing to remove Rikki from his home after neighbors reported incidents of cruelty.

Neave’s other three children are to be put up for adoption.