“Terrifying” brothers who tormented children in a warped exorcism ritual have avoided jail.

One victim was discovered pinned to a bed, so horrified her hair was matted and she was drenched in sweat when police swooped.

Paranormal obsessed Reece and Jamie Brosnan, 31 and 20, pleaded guilty to two counts of child cruelty earlier this year.

The duo have now been handed suspended prison sentences for terrorising their victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in a three-hour ordeal.

A judge labelled their actions “entrenched wrong-headed beliefs in the paranormal”, after hearing the men became convinced evil spirits were attempting to overcome their victims.

Prosecutors told how police were called after people heard wailing, in what sounded like “some sort of exorcism.”

“Both Brosnans believed some sort of paranormal was happening, and the children were under the hold of the Devil or some kind of demon,” barrister Nathalie Carter added.

'The children were under the hold of the Devil or some kind of demon...'

“(They) were acting in a bizarre manner because of their beliefs. This happened over a period of time - several hours,” she continued.

“Texts from Reece showed him talking of things flying off walls, plates being smashed.”

The court heard Jamie also dialled 999, where he told one call operator the children “kept switching bodies”, while the call handler could hear screaming in the background.

Officers rushed to the scene to find Reece pinning down one victim with his leg, while the door had been barricaded.

Following their arrest the pair admitted taking cocaine.

Former prison worker Reece told officers he was trying to protect the children by fending off evil spirits, a sentiment echoed by Premier Inn worker Jamie, who added the children were "possessed.”

The court heard one victim still suffers night terrors following the ordeal.

Recorder David Jeremy QC told the brothers: “(Your victims) were quite simply absolutely terrorised.

“Because of the entrenched matter of your views there is nothing the probation service can do in the way of rehabilitation.”

Mitigating, Steven Mould, argued the incident was a one off and the brothers, of previous good character, had “washed their hands completely of cocaine”.

Jamie, of Carlisle Close, Strood, was handed 12 months' custody suspended for 18 months and Reece, of Beechings Way, Twydall, who sat in a wheelchair throughout the hearing was sentenced to an 18-month tariff suspended for 18 months.

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