Woman held over torso killing

Detectives are today awaiting the result of a DNA test on a woman arrested over the Thames-torso child murder case, to ascertain if she is related to the victim.

The woman, a 31-year-old mother of two of West African origin, is still being questioned at a south London police station after being arrested at her tower-block flat in Glasgow yesterday in a joint operation by Metropolitan and Strathclyde police.

Forensic science teams are also examining items recovered from her home.

A Strathclyde Police source said: "The woman has been under surveillance for some time, but people were only told on a need-to-know basis."

The woman, who was flown to London accompanied by detectives, is the first person to be held over the mutilated torso case.

Police described her arrest as "significant". They believe the unidentified boy, who was aged five or six when he died and named "Adam" by detectives, was murdered as part of a voodoo or black magic sacrifice before being thrown into the Thames.

After his throat was cut, his head and limbs were hacked off. His dismembered torso was spotted in the river between Tower Bridge and the Globe Theatre on 21 September last year.

Yesterday's arrest followed a worldwide appeal for information, including a televised plea from ex-South African President Nelson Mandela.

Scotland Yard detectives have been advised by an expert in African ritual practices and travelled to Johannesburg to liaise with the South African police Occult Crime Unit. In May, they joined police from across Europe for a conference on ritualistic killings following similar cases in France, Italy, Greece and the US.

One theory is that the Thames victim was bought as a slave in sub-Saharan African and brought to the UK where he was sacrificed.

Officers believe the numbers of ritualistic or voodoo killings over the last 10 years runs into double figures. The victim and his body parts would have been used to make a "magical" potion, practising a perversion of the traditional "muti" medicine.

Human sacrifices are common in Africa, where remains are used for black magic.

The Thames discovery has led to a 33-year-old murder case being reopened over the headless torso of a baby girl found in bushes in Epping Forest in Essex.