Ninety-seven people in PNG found guilty of multiple sorcery-related murders

Ninety-seven people in Papua New Guinea have been found guilty of multiple sorcery-related murders.

The group went on a rampage in 2014, killing seven people, including a three-year-old boy who was pulled from his mother and chopped up, as well as a five-year-old.

The Crown alleged the group walked for at least 10km in the province of Madang with the intention of seeking out and killing sorcerers who lived in a small village.

All 97 will reappear at the Madang National Court at a later date for a sentence hearing.

Before the law was repealed in 2013, suspicion of sorcery was allowed to be used as a defence in murder trials.

However the law was abolished after a series of gruesome witch killings.