How a criminologist probing the ritual 'boy in the Thames' murder had to confront the personal tragedy of his own daughter's mysterious death in Africa

It’s a story that could be taken from a novel – but every word is true. When Dr Richard Hoskins, an expert on African religion, was asked  to investigate the murder of  a young boy in London, he was driven to revisit his own terrible experience of death and witchcraft in the Congo...

London, September 21, 2001 

Aidan Minter was lost in thought as he climbed the steps to Tower Bridge. Crossing to the South Bank of the Thames, the young IT consultant glanced idly at the river below and in that instant he caught sight of something floating in the water – a dummy, perhaps, with what seemed to be a red cloth attached to it. 

Minter ran down the steps on to the south side of the river and stepped closer to the water’s edge. His curiosity turned to horror. He was staring at a body. Or what was left of one. He pulled out his mobile and dialled 999. 

Drawing level with Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, the crew of the police launch saw a flash of colour against the bank. Moments later an officer hauled the mutilated torso of a little boy from the water. The child had no name, so the police called him Adam.                  More