'Adam' — child ritual murder, torso in the Thames

Cited record

Sources

Dols García, A. (2013) NEW ISSUES IN REFUGEE RESEARCH: Voodoo, Witchcraft and Human Trafficking in Europe. Research Paper No. 263. Geneva: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Available at: unhcr.org (Accessed: 29 June 2024).

'The growing numbers of Africans in Europe has led to the proliferation of marabouts—traditional African priests—offering advice on how to obtain love and money or achieve success in business, get rid of the evil eye or heal diseases. Also, in some African communities children are being accused of practicing witchcraft and voodoo threats have become one of the characteristics of African sex trafficking networks... Ritual oaths ceremonies include body parts from the person on whom the oath is being administered, as well as from one of her relatives, usually her mother or sister. The use of body parts such as fingernails, blood, sweat, teeth and/or pubic hairs 'give the voodoo priest possession of some part of the victim, creating a sense of fear and an unwillingness to speak out.' ... In September 2001 the torso of a five-year-old African boy was discovered floating in river Thames. Further investigation showed that the boy was brought expressly from West Africa to be sacrificed in a witchcraft ritual. The boy was poisoned before his body was mutilated and drained of blood by an expert marabout. According to a report by the Metropolitan Police, children are being trafficked into the UK from Africa and used for human sacrifices. Once in Britain, they are exposed 'to violent and degrading treatments, often involving the forced extraction of their blood to be used for clients demanding blood rituals.''

BBC News (2005) 'Hundreds of children vanishing', BBC News. Available at: news.bbc.co.uk (Accessed: 29 June 2024).

'Hundreds of African boys have disappeared from London schools, police investigating the murder of a boy whose torso was left in the Thames have said... Scotland Yard asked London education authorities how many black boys aged four to seven had vanished from school... Between July and September 2001, 300 had disappeared, and police fear thousands may go missing annually... Child welfare experts say the figures hint at the scale of child trafficking, sometimes for labour or benefit fraud... A previous BBC investigation found some African children were being held by their parents' creditors, so they could claim extra benefits... The boy found in the River Thames in September 2001 - called Adam by police - is thought to have been the victim of a ritual killing after being brought to London from Nigeria... Detective Chief Inspector Will O'Reilly said inquiries revealed 300 black boys of a similar age to Adam had not reported back to school in the three months before his death and were 'lost into the system'... Despite an international search, police were able to find only two of them, Mr. O'Reilly said. Most of those questioned said the children had returned to Africa.'

Owen, J. (2005) 'London Witchcraft Murder Traced to Africa Child Trade', National Geographic News. Available at: web.archive.org → news.nationalgeographic.com (Accessed: 29 June 2024).

'In September 2001 a gruesome discovery was made in London's River Thames. The hideously mutilated torso of a small black boy was found floating through the city. The boy's arms, legs, and head had all been hacked off... So began a stranger-than-fiction detective story that led U.K. investigators into a macabre netherworld of witchcraft and child sacrifice... The autopsy report concluded that Adam's throat had been slit. His body was then deliberately drained of blood... Richard Hoskins, a U.K.-based expert on African religion and voodoo, says the Calabar bean, in combination with the other ingredients in Adam's gut, pointed to the West African country of Nigeria. There, witch doctors are known to use such potions for black magic... The [beans are] ground down and then burnt in a pot. Taken together, this is the final clinching point that proves as near as certain that this was a sacrifice... The special police unit that investigates muti killings in South Africa estimates that there may be as many as a hundred such murders in the country each year... Adam had been earmarked for human sacrifice. To find out why and by whom, murder squad detectives traveled to Nigeria and the city of Benin. They were beginning to close in on Adam's witchcraft killers, thanks to the clues revealed by forensic science.'

Crawford, A. and Smith, T. (2021) 'The torso in the Thames: A 20-year mystery', BBC News. Available at: bbc.com (Accessed: 29 June 2024). [archived copy]

'It's the longest unsolved child murder case in the recent history of the Metropolitan Police. Twenty years ago, a young African boy was murdered in a brutal ritual, his head and limbs removed, and his torso dumped in the Thames... Experts agreed that—because Adam's body had been expertly butchered—it had been a ritualistic murder... Some thought it had been one of the rare so-called 'muti' killings found in southern Africa—when a victim's body parts are removed and used by witchdoctors as 'medicine' for a client who wants, for example, to win a business deal or secure good luck... Other experts believed it was more likely a human sacrifice with its origins in a twisted version of Yoruban belief systems from Nigeria. A perverted offering to the goddess Oshun—a deity typically associated with water and fertility...'

Adam (murder victim) (2024) Wikipedia. Available at: en.wikipedia.org (Accessed: 29 June 2024). [archived copy]

'Adam' was the name police gave to an unidentified male child whose torso was discovered in the River Thames in London, United Kingdom, on 21 September 2001. Investigators believe the child was likely from southwestern Nigeria, and that several days before his murder, he was trafficked to the United Kingdom for a ritual sacrifice... Dubbed 'Adam' by police officers, the unidentified remains belonged to a black male, around four to eight years old, who had been wearing orange girls' shorts. The post-mortem showed that Adam had been poisoned, his throat had been slit to drain the blood from his body, and his head and limbs had been expertly removed. Further forensic testing examined his stomach contents and trace minerals in his bones to establish that Adam had only been in the United Kingdom for a few days or weeks before he was murdered, and that he likely came from a region of southwestern Nigeria near Benin City... Some investigators suspected that Adam was trafficked to Britain for a muti killing, a rare Southern African ritual sacrifice performed by a witch doctor that uses a child's body parts to make medicinal potions called 'muti'.

Murder for body parts (2024) Wikipedia. Available at: en.wikipedia.org (Accessed: 29 June 2024).

'Mrs Osiagede denied any involvement with the death of the young boy. Asked who killed him, she said a 'group of people'. She added: 'They used him for a ritual in the water.' Claiming the boy was six years old, she said: 'He was a lively boy. A very nice boy, he was also intelligent.' Detailed analysis of a substance in the boy's stomach was identified as a 'black magic' potion. It included tiny clay pellets containing small particles of pure gold, an indication that Adam was the victim of a Muti ritual killing in which it is believed that the body parts of children are sacred. Bodies are often disposed of in flowing water.'