Is there an evil cult in the UK?

Adam Minter was late for work. Like many Londoners on 21 September last year, his morning had been thrown into chaos by yet another tube strike.

Ahead of Minter lay the murky swell of the Thames almost bursting its banks after an unseasonal downpour that had sent the last of the summer tourists running for cover.

As he strode across Tower Bridge into the city the 32-year-old IT consultant peered through the haze at the familiar flotilla of barges ploughing downstream to the Thames estuary.

But Minter spotted something else, an unwordly object caught up in the oily residue of the river close to the north bank. It looked like a body. Forgetting he was already late, Minter ran along the bank of the river, his eyes firmly focused on the object bobbing alongside a moored pleasure cruiser.

He laughed for a second, thinking he’d run after a floating tailor’s dummy, until he saw flapping skin and ragged bones. Filled with dread, he realised he was gazing at the butchered remains of a child. He pulled out his mobile phone and called 999.

Within ten minutes the police had fished the body out of the water. Minter’s discovery was more gruesome than he could ever have imagined - he had spotted the mutilated corpse of a five-year old boy. The legs had been severed above the knee and arms cut off at the shoulder.

As they examined the body, Scotland Yard forensic officers knew they were facing an investigative black hole - bodies are not rare in the Thames, an average of 45 are fished from it each year - but dismembered children are a rarity.

The police had scant detail to go on - they knew the boy had been circumcised, that he was probably African, around 3ft 10in tall and about five or six. The torso showed no obvious signs of sexual abuse, the boy was well nourished and had been in the water for between one and ten days. What police didn’t know was the boy’s identity, where he’d lived or who had mutilated him. The police named the boy after his finder - "Adam".

Adam’s death led to one of the most bizarre murder inquiries in Metropolitan Police history, embroiling detectives in a macabre web of ritualistic killings and witch doctors.

One of the most baffling aspects of the case is that no-one has reported a child of similar description as missing.

In the absence of fingerprints and dental records, Scotland Yard have no means of identifying the youngster. DNA technology is similarly useless because there was nothing with which to match it, no grieving relatives to provide hair fibres as a starting point for scientists.

But one forensic officer had what seemed like an outlandish theory - the wounds inflicted on the child and the manner of his death bore all the hallmarks of a ritualistic killing. Adam looked to have been killed by witch doctors in an ancient black magic ceremony.

"Muti", the Zulu word for medicine, is an ancient form of black magic or voodoo in which human body parts are used to create special potions believed to heal people or imbue them with powers. Muti followers believe children’s body parts are more valuable because they are uncontaminated by sexual activity and thus more "pure and potent".

To murder squad officers the voodoo theory seemed like a shot in the dark, but they had little else to go on.

Within days of Adam’s discovery the Metropolitan police began looking to Europe and Africa in a bid to find similar murders. They didn’t have to look too far - three weeks before the body in the Thames was discovered the naked torso of a white girl, aged between five and seven, was found floating near the Dutch Lake resort of Nulde. The girl had been butchered in exactly the same way.

The Dutch police were also looking at the possibility of a ritualistic killing and had contacted detectives in Hamburg, Germany, where a similar case had been reported. The black magic theory was gaining credibility.

Last month, almost three months after Adam was found, police discovered candles and sheets two miles upstream from Tower Bridge. A name, Adekoye Jo Fola Adeoye, had been written three times on the sheet in crude blue ink and Fola Adeoye inscribed on the candles.

Scotland Yard officers believed they had made a breakthrough and in order to conclusively link Adam’s murder to black magic they already knew where to look - South Africa, the heart of the Muti ritual.

Six thousand miles from London, in the remote Zulu settlement of Eshowe in KwaZulu-Natal, North of Durban, the locals had been living in fear after the bodies of six villagers were found with organs missing. One of the victims was Bhekinhos Ngema, a nine-year-old boy, whose eyes, tongue and testicles had been removed by his assailants. What appeared to be the limbs of five other children had been scattered in the scrubland. The locals knew it was the work of Muti witch doctors.

Police in the Natal had seen this grim scenario before and suspected witch doctors were involved. One of the experts involved in the case was South African academic Dr Hendrik Scholtz. Earlier this week Scotland Yard officers flew in Dr Scholtz, an world-renowned expert on witch doctors and black magic, to study Adam’s remains.

Dr Scholtz’s report details scars on the youngster’s torso bearing all the hallmarks of a ritualistic death and says his murder may have been carried out as part of an African occult ceremony.

Yesterday Dr Scholtz said the human sacrifice would take place when a small group of people aiming to obtain supernatural advantages in business or politics.

"The person is sacrificed to awaken the supernatural force required to attain that goal," he added: " The nature of the discovery of the body, features of the external examination including the nature of the wounds, clothing and mechanism of death are consistent with those of a ritual homicide as practised in Africa."

Last night Scotland Yard’s Serious Crime Group Commander, Andy Baker, said: "We are looking at the possibility of a ritual murder.

"Muti is a taboo subject in the sub-Sahara, let alone in London, but there is some suggestion of ceremonies taking place in the UK and strong rumours that body parts are used. They could be brought in or taken from murdered bodies. Our fear is it is the first of many.

"The rumours are it is opening up. I don’t want to raise the fear factor but if it is a ritualistic Muti murder others will follow, according to the South African authorities. With the movement of people around the world and the spread of this culture it is bound to come here because we have a high African population. If the murder was ritualistic we believe this is the first in this country. Our inquiries abroad suggest there are many of these types of murders across the world."

But police concerns that Muti rituals may be taking place across Europe have not surprised everyone.

Dr Anthony Minnaar, a South African Police researcher and another international expert on witchcraft-related violence, told The Scotsman that ritual Muti killings were becoming increasingly common in the Natal area and across Africa.

"It is impossible to say just how many missing people in South Africa had been murdered for their body parts but belief in the power of body parts is widespread and we believe hundreds of people are killed every year," he says. "Such is the demand for children’s limbs we recently prosecuted a mortuary attendant for selling body parts. I know these rituals have been carried down through generations and don’t just occur in South Africa, they are also very common in the Ivory Coast and Ghana.

"Muti witchdoctors believe that while all human body parts are powerful, the genitals of young boys and virgin girls are regarded as particularly potent. Sometimes a severed hand, for instance, is often buried at the entrance to a shop to encourage customers to come in. But often parts are mixed with other ingredients and they are smeared on the body as medicine against disease and illness."

Dr Minnaar claims authorities in South Africa play the phenomenon down, partly because the total number of witchcraft-related killings pales against the 68 murders a day currently committed in the country. There is also considerable political sensitivity around the issue.

"Muti raises all those images of Darkest Africa," he says, "and these images are particularly embarrassing for a government stepping on to the international stage as a progressive force."

But the South African government suggests otherwise, claiming it is now starting to take notice of Muti and has established a commission to investigate witchcraft killings in the Northern Province.

Last year The Commission of Inquiry into Witchcraft Violence and Ritual Murders was set up to investigate 140 killings since the beginning of the year in remote areas of Northern Province.

In one recent incident the commission studied a human skull which had been embedded in the foundation of a new building in Durban to ensure the business thrived, and are now prosecuting the site manager. They are currently examining reports that brews containing human parts were buried on farms to secure good harvests.

But the South African authorities have a battle on their hands - witchcraft and ritual killing, once confined to remote rural areas, has in recent years moved into the urban areas.

Last weekend a man was arrested in Johannesburg after allegedly selling a pair of eyes to a police informer. According to the report, human parts needed to perform certain rituals can be found easily in the city. As this sinister trade continues in several countries, little Adam remains in a London morgue and the man who found him floating in the Thames is none the wiser as to the boy’s killer.

Adam Minter will never forget the vision of the youngster in the water: "I just hope they solve this. The last thing I expected was black magic to be involved in the boy’s death. I pray no other children get caught up in this evil."