A CATHOLIC nun who has spent 16 years travelling the world with a 3ft statue of the Virgin Mary is warning children against the dangers of Hallowe’en devil masks.

Sister Ruth Augustus has visited 200 countries with the fibreglass statue and is currently touring Greenwich and Lewisham as she completes the last leg of her UK tour.

The 62-year-old, who spends her time talking to people on the streets and in pubs, supermarkets, hospitals and prisons to promote the Bible, says Hallowe’en is ruining children.

She said: “Stationery shops sell devil’s masks. They’re not selling angels. Hallowe’en has been made a devil-worshipping weekend and is ruining our children.

“It makes them very cruel, very selfish and very greedy. When they play trick or treat, they throw broken eggs all over your doorstep if you don’t give them something.” Sister Ruth, who was born in Burma and brought up in Birmingham, says response from people in Lewisham and Greenwich is generally good.

She said: “Black Africans around Lewisham are very warm and full of faith. They come up to me and hug the statue.

“The African children are fabulous and love to sing hymns on the bus.

“Greenwich people are very friendly. But Muslim fanatics swear at me and I tell them to go and live in a Muslim country rather than live on benefits.” With 30 countries left to cover, Sister Ruth calculates her mission will take another two years.

She began her journey after reading about the Apocalypse in the Book of Revelations, an event she believes will take place as the result of a nuclear war in 2006.

She said: “Chapter 18 describes the attack on the World Trade Center thousands of years before it happened.

“Time is very short. We’re living in the dawn of the Apocalypse.”