Eyes
A mother - along with other relatives - gouged out the eyes of her son with a spoon.Anil kumar/Flickr

A Mexican court has sentenced the members of a family to 30 years each in jail, for gouging out the eyes of a five-year-old over two years ago.

In the horrifying incident, which took place in the town of Nezahualcoyotl in Mexico back in May 2012, a mother - along with other relatives - gouged out the eyes of her son with a spoon.

According to a Daily Mail report, the child was subjected to such a fate as part of a Satanic ritual, which the family was partaking in.

The report suggests that during the ritual, the woman, identified as Maria del Carmen Garcia Rios, told her son Fernando Caleb Alvarado Rios to close his eyes several times. However, when a petrified Fernando failed to act according to his mother's orders, the woman grabbed a spoon and gouged his eyes out.

The whole family was apparently chanting and dancing in circles as part of the ritual, and all of them assisted Rios in taking her son's eyes out.

The boy was finally rescued when the neighbours, who had heard the chanting and the screams, walked up to the house and knocked the door. Though the family did not answer the door initially, neighbours called the police to finally break in.

"We could hear screaming and we were banging on the door but nobody was answering, then a police patrol came past and one of the women who was with us ran into the road to flag it down, and officers forced their way inside," neighbour Joaquin Arguello revealed.

Arguello added that while the family was always perceived as deeply religious, none of the neighbours had a clue about their Satanic rituals.

"I asked one of the women what was going on and she told me her name was Carmen Rios Garcia, and that the boy was her son. She identified him as Fernando Caleb Alvarado Rios, and said he was five years old, and said that she and her sister Lizbeth had done it," policeman Benet Curiel pointed out.

The boy has been given glass eyes and is now in care.

The report suggests that with the ritual that cost the boy his eyes, the family was trying to please Satan so that when the world ends, they are all protected.