Warning: this report contains some disturbing details, including references to torture and sexual assault.

A landmark conviction in Papua New Guinea relating to the murder of a mother-of-five, accused of sorcery, has been hailed as a victory in the fight to stop attacks and murders in the country.

For the first time, the National Court has found a person guilty of accusing someone of sorcery under the Glasman Act - passed by the Port Moresby parliament in 2022.

Belief in magic or of the supernatural has often been blamed to explain the misfortunes of various kinds on the New Guinean archipelago, with people accused of sorcery often facing horrific violence.

While sorcery claims are levelled at men and women, nearly all of the accused victims are female, who are often "punished" with gang rape, beatings, torture and even burnt.

Fear of sorcery has been so big of a problem in the PNG that it has come to the attention of the Vatican. Pope Francis during his recent visit to the highly Catholic country last year alluded to the issue, calling on locals "to drive out fear, superstition and magic from people's hearts, to put an end to destructive behaviours such as violence".

The National Court in Bulolo, in the Morobe Province, sentenced James Mon to five years in prison for accusing an innocent 39-year-old woman, Lorna Nico, of sorcery.

Ms Nico was chased by a group of local men, who caught and beat her to death in front of her eight-year-old daughter in August 2023.

Mon was not present when Nico was killed. However, under the 2022 Act, the accuser does not need to participate in the physical harm of the accused, nor do they need to be present when the victim is harmed or killed.

Mon was proven to be connected to the murder as an accessory to the crime.

"These people called glasman come into a community and say, 'I've gotten special training, and I can see who is a sorcerer in your community'," Papua New Guinea Tribal Foundation president Gary Bustin told BenarNews.

"So, if you pay me, I will identify them so that you can handle them."

The conviction of Mon is seen as significant by those working to stop the practice in a step towards justice for victims.

An estimated number of 700 people are tortured or killed each year across the nation from sorcery accusations, based on data compiled by the Papua New Guinea Tribal Foundation, a non-profit organisation to prevent the crime.

SinceDecember last year, the foundation has recorded a further 87 people charged with a series of related offenses that has ensured more than 560 victims have been rescued.

Mr Bustin said the breakdown of Traditional cultural and societal structures in PNG had led to a vacuum, allowing the exploitation of sorcery beliefs.

"It may be revenge, it may be land, it may be jealousy, whatever the case, but it's become a coverall for whoever you want to harm," he said.

The Papua New Guinea Tribunal Foundation worked with East Sepik governor Allan Bird in 2022, who was the first leader in the nation to sponsor the glasman private members' bill.

Seven perpetrators have been convicted under the Glasman Act across the past two years, handing out sentences ranging from five to 25 years in prison.

However, Mon's conviction is the first of its kind for accusing someone of being a sorcerer.

Detective Senior Constable Regina Patmo prosecuted Mon while she also received a spate of personal threats to her safety for presenting the case in court.

"Sorcery Accusation Related Violence happens across the country, and my hope is that because of this case, judges will give stiff penalties," Det Snr Cst Patmo said.

"We need more awareness about this case so people will be educated on the penalty for accusing someone of sorcery."

Director of the International Network Against Witchcraft Accusations and Ritual Attacks, Miranda Forsyth, also lauded the decision as a milestone.

"To be honest, it's not the length sentences that's important, it's the certainty of being caught and convicted," she told ABC Pacific in a radio interview.

"I've found that 694 victims reported as killed ... that's just the cases that's reported in newspapers - it's just a tip of the iceberg."

The youngest person accused of sorcery in PNG, who was raped and killed, was a five-year-old girl.

Prime Minister James Marape has condemned these forms of violence against women that includes sorcery-related killings as an "affront" to traditional Papuan culture.

"We must work to eliminate these harmful practices before they become embedded in future generations," Mr Marape told an International Women's Day meeting last month.

"This requires educating our young people, empowering our women, and ensuring that all men take responsibility for their actions."

Parliamentary records suggest there are 86 other glasman cases before the courts currently.

PNG law until 2013 accepted witchcraft as a legitimate defence if the accused victim was said to be performing sorcery.

That Sorcery Act was repealed in 2013 after the murder of Kerpari Leniata in Mount Hagen, who was accused after the death of a young boy. Media reports and photos shared at the time on social media showed she was stripped, doused in gasoline and burned to death on a garbage pile on busy street corner.

There have been about 18,000 documented cases of violence against women and children, but only 200 of them have been prosecuted.

Tribal fighting, massacres and human rights abuses are commonplace across the nation, with under resourced police unable to enforce the law in some parts of PNG.

Researchers on sorcery often refer to the commonly held belief that death, sickness and other misfortune are caused by people possessed by a spirit that goes out to "steal and eat people's hearts".