US Amish haircut attacks 'done out of love'

on 30/08/2012 18:17:25

An Amish woman has said she and brothers cut the hair of her parents to help them get to heaven.

The woman told jurors in Cleveland, Ohio, hearing the hate crimes trial of 16 members of a breakaway Amish group that her siblings had been worried that their parents were drifting away from their religion.

She said they piled into a van and drove two hours last October to take her father's hair and beard and her mother's hair to help them.

Prosecutors say what happened in five hair-cuttings in the US state of Ohio last fall amounted to hate crimes because they were motivated solely by religious disagreements.

The government says the suspects targeted the hair and beards of Amish people because of its spiritual significance in the faith.