Silent Witness (1996–…): Season 11, Episode 3 - Suffer the Children: Part 1 - full transcript
Leo Dalton investigates the death of a young boy whose body is found in the river. He was badly abused and his hands and feet were severed. The child is found to have been HIV positive and the pathologists determine that he may have been the victim of a ritual killing., perhaps as part of an exorcism that went too far. When the skeletal remains of another child is found, Leo believes the police have focused their investigation on the wrong man. Nikki Alexander investigates the apparent suicide of Father Anthony Reid who appears to have jumped from his apartment window on the grounds of a well-known Catholic school. He had colon cancer but those who knew him question that he would take his own life. Harry Cunningham looks into the case of Austin Chambers who is found floating in his swimming pool with an obvious ligature mark on his throat.
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It's just over here.
Yeah, I know.
You keep it nice.
Two years,
that's a long time, isn't it?
Is it?
Why's he doing that?
- I'm not sure.
- I think he looks sad.
Hi, Harry.
No, no it's all right...
Uh, yeah I know it.
Yeah, I can be there in 30 minutes.
OK, bye.
Cassie...
Teresa Dalton
Cassie Dalton
Sorry to pull you away.
They insisted I wait for you.
- Why?
- The DI... I told him you were off
this morning. A real piece of...
Leo.
It's been a long time.
Simon.
Harry Cunningham's a first class
pathologist, he's not my assistant.
I didn't think otherwise.
Look over here.
- There's a bit of history. -
So I see. - It's not about you.
Right.
Case... Get them away from here!
Runner stopped to fish out the boys'
football. Saw this and called it in.
The body was tangled
in these branches.
It wasn't deliberately dumped here.
Have you ever seen
anything like this?
We might be able to trace the team.
Biscuit, cracker?
And some kind of red dye on it.
OK.
Blood?
Check for fibers will you, then
we'll get it sent over to the lab.
Do you think it's a
ritual killing of some sort?
That amount of mutilation,
very possibly.
Decomposition in water
and animal predation
have resulted in a certain degree
of deterioration...
Single cut across the throat
measuring...
Eight centimetres in length
and two centimeters in width,
severing the right internal
and external carotid arteries.
Heart, liver and lungs
have been removed.
The kidneys remain intact.
Mixed dentition - deciduous
and permanent teeth are present
with permanent central incisors
and first molars erupting.
- The epiphyses haven't fused yet.
- Meaning?
Meaning... he was maybe six,
six and a half.
Both hands
and feet have been severed
in a
single blow with a sharpened blade,
possibly a cleaver or an axe,
given that no sawtooth marks
are discernible.
Leo, look at this.
Bruising... and needle marks.
On the left too.
An addict?
More likely medication of some sort.
He might've been ill.
Right.
Or it could have been that someone was
looking to find out whether he was.
These could be blood samples.
Given the bruising patterns
I'm not sure they were done
at the same time.
to the bones and cheekbones indicate
both eyes and lips have been cut away.
The genitals too have been excised.
What's that?
Silt.
Probably from the river bed.
Hand me a slide, will you?
Here you are.
Leo? Stomach contents.
See what you can
identify in the lab.
I'll get copies made.
What do you make of these crosses?
They're barely six months old.
They didn't cause these
stains on the shirt.
No, no, no, no.
- Could they be African tribal markings?
- Not like any I've seen.
Well, we'll go through missing persons
But if he was an immigrant,
or illegal...
Well... maybe we'll get lucky.
We should give him a name.
He has a name...
The least we can do is give him
the dignity of his own name!
If that's any cult, Devil worship,
Conspiracy... This doesn't help.
I hope you've got something
more than tabloid fantasies.
Unfortunately our work is not about
pandering to the imagination.
Right... our victim.
Firstly, the needle patterns...
there is no drug concentration
in any of the skin samples.
Given the bruising
and the cell patterns,
it appears that these were
the results of blood samples
taken separately approximately
a week apart,
one shortly before his death.
Why?
He was HIV positive.
Not common in children here.
But all too common in Africa.
That, perhaps the scars on his back,
and the missing organs...
that I
have seen before in South Africa.
Sometimes in the markets you
see Sangomas who...
Whoa...
Witch doctors.
Well, they have different names
in different countries, but yes...
It's not just mumbo jumbo.
They're diviners or healers,
it can take years of training.
Sangomas sometimes use animal
organs in Muti - their potions.
This is a child, in London.
Well, in South Africa
there are as many as a thousand cases
of human sacrifice a year for muti.
I've known of reports from Nigeria,
Benin, Botswa...
Right.
I get the picture.
And these organs are used for...
medicines?
Hands are burned to ash and made
into a potion to cure strokes.
Blood boosts vitality.
Genitals ward off infertility.
Those of young boys are most valuable
because they're uncontaminated.
More potent.
- And much more expensive, no doubt.
- It all comes down to money.
Apart from the floury paste
in his stomach,
there were also
small stones and bits of gold,
mixed with some kind of plant residue.
Which I haven't yet been able to identify.
Well, that makes sense. I've read that each
muti concoction is like a sangoma's signature,
so if we could read it, we might be
able to trace the person who made it.
Yeah, I'll keep on it, I also
checked out his larger intestine
to find out what he had been
eating before this potion
and there were traces of
maize but nothing else.
- Nothing?
- No.
- Maize is the staple food stuff in Africa.
- Yep.
Right, the object I found in the silt
was the wing of a
Meadow Brown Butterfly.
Unfortunately rather common.
But what we thought was blood
on the shirt turns out to be henna.
He was lying in henna?
Missing persons
is a dead end, I'm afraid.
If this child did come
from somewhere in Africa,
where do you begin?
I've taken a bone sample.
That might reveal where he grew up.
Very good.
Well done.
In the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit...
The Abbot just wanted to say some
prayers... he knows not to touch the body.
We think he jumped late last night.
But we don't know he jumped.
In the name of the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit...
No note or anything,
but no sign of any intruder...
Father Kennedy.
Dr Nikki Alexander,
the home office pathologist.
Father Kennedy is the Abbot
here at Copingwood School.
Father.
- A terrible thing.
- Yes. I'm sorry.
Please take a seat.
Had you known Father Reid
for a long time?
Father Reid was a teacher
here when I arrived in 1980.
Shortly after he left to
take up a posting in Ghana.
When he retired
he came back here a few years ago
and we provided him accommodation
back at the school.
Right.
And when's the last time you saw him?
Yesterday morning. I came to collect
a laptop computer that he'd borrowed.
There weren't any notes on it?
No. He told me weeks ago it was broken.
I'd been meaning to collect it.
Do you know if Father Reid had
been anxious or depressed recently?
Father Reid had
been fighting cancer.
Perhaps it beat him in other ways.
I'm so sorry... I must go,
if there's anything I can do.
Yes, if there is we will be in touch.
- Leo.
- Mmm? - Gregory Kris...
Crime lab.
- Oh, right.
- Hi.
The goo from your victim's
stomach and pocket
Just flour and water
I'm afraid, with a trace of Red 40.
So I had this idea,
the plastic wrapper?
I put a red wash over it...
and the dye left
an imprint on the wrapper.
- It's a heart?
- No, no, no, no, it's a Sacred Heart.
It's the latest thing, they
stamp them on communion wafers.
Oh, and I've got results
- that bone sample,
that links it to the Sakania
region of southern Congo.
- Congo?
- Yeah.
Harry,
what do you know about Kindoki?
Kind of puzzle?
Kindoki is used to describe children
who are believed to be possessed
and the only way to cleanse them is
through a kind of church exorcism.
Sometimes they are beaten, sometimes they
have chillies rubbed into their eyes, or worse.
Now there are a number of these churches
around but most of them are in the Congo,
but there have been a few cases
reported in London recently.
Our child had his organs removed.
Be with me. We have the Congo... we have
the communion wafers in the boy's stomach,
that takes us to the church.
We have crosses on the child's back,
which suggests Christianity rather
than black magic. Now what if,
what if this was an exorcism
that went one step too far?
Simon, hello it's Leo,
I think we are dealing with Kindoki,
you need to look at
all the black churches in the area.
I'm sure you will handle it
with sensitivity.
Hi, you're here to see Father Reid?
This way.
- Are you ready?
- I'll wait in here.
- Were you related?
- No. We...
we once worked together.
Um, Father Reid he always, um...
.. stood by Matthew and me
and he always cared.
Thanks.
Do you think it was suicide?
We can't be positive yet, but, um...
No. He wouldn't have done this.
There's got to be
some other explanation.
Well, there was no sign of a struggle
and the door was locked from inside.
We found a tumour on his prostate.
Yeah, I know. He was beating it.
He was in good spirits,
he, he was looking for a new flat.
Really?
Yeah, Father Kennedy wanted
him to move, but no big deal.
It's very frustrating but
often in cases like this,
we never find out what
was troubling someone.
No. I knew him. There has
got to have been somebody there,
or it was an accident,
it's not suicide.
His faith was too important to him.
Mum? Please. You find out the truth.
Is this another one of your community exercises?
No, it's not. Tell me what it is about?
If anything happens around
here, you hear about it...
Tell me what's happened. I should know
about it, because...? I don't know.
SEVERAL PEOPLE TALK AT ONCE
I'm telling you I've done nothing...
Yeah.
Don't waste my time.
Don't waste my time.
You're one of them?
Police? No, I'm a pathologist.
A doctor?
Me too. Sangoma.
You know Sangoma?
They do not believe, these
detectives.
They deal with facts.
And you?
I'm afraid I also deal with facts.
But you see her, don't you?
And it troubles you.
She knows what it means to believe and
and she cannot understand why you do not.
When she asks you, come find me.
Willi of Dalston Road market.
Everyone knows Willi.
I'll read the bones.
Is that Lami Falashie?
You know her?
I heard her lecture
once at a conference.
Several community leaves that we're
targeting the Black community unjustly.
Anything from hospitals?
There are no unaccounted-for HIV positive
six year-olds, from Africa or anywhere else.
Church?
What... to ask for a miracle?
If that boy was labeled Kundoki and
abused in some kind of a Church ceremony...
I am doing my job, Leo, all right?
We've got 23 black majority churches within
two miles of where the body was found.
We've been to every single one -
we haven't come up with anything.
Sir?
Good. Remember, let it
breathe before the last crescendo.
Right, off you go.
Well done.
Uhhh! Who did that, Billy?
No-one, Sir. It was my own fault.
We're looking for Father Kennedy?
Oh, yeah, yeah, sure, follow me.
They make a wonderful sound.
Music is one of the
strengths of our school.
Several of our boys have won
awards in national competitions.
I'm not surprised.
Do you both have boys here?
Er, neither of us, I'm afraid.
Prospective parents?
Horror of horrors!
I'm a home office pathologist, Nikki
Alexander. This is Detective Inspector Thompson.
We're looking into
Father Reid's death.
You'll find Father Kennedy's office
just on the right. Would you excuse me?
Boys, boys, keep moving
on to your next class, come on.
Suicide is not an easy subject for us to
deal with, I'm sure you can understand.
A friend of Father Reid's,
Marie Williams.
She thinks there must be an
explanation other than suicide.
Ah, Marie.
She used to work at the school.
She left around the same time.
Why was that?
Um...
Well, she got pregnant.
In those days, the church
frowned on single mothers.
Father Reid was particularly
supportive to her.
No doubt that's what coloured
her emotions.
Thank you, Father.
She also said you wanted
Father Reid to move into town.
Father Reid was welcome here
whenever he wanted.
What friends he had
were not at the school.
We only wished for him to be happy
for his remaining years.
This is Lee 12 days ago,
about 200 yards up from
where the victim was found.
He didn't want us to see the reg.
But he missed this one.
Well done.
- Derek Tibbs?
- Yeah, what of it?
- Is this your Jeep?
- So what?
You don't mind if I have a look
around, do you, Derek?
Hey, come on.
A film director in your spare time?
Yeah, well there's no law against it.
Can I take your jacket?
'You just have a seat. '
'Can I get you a drink?
'How about a beer? Yeah!'
'LAUGHING'
'Take your top off
while you're waiting... '
Nice photos, Derek.
Didn't know holidays was a
crime in this country yet.
Where were they taken?
Africa?
- Ah, South Africa.
- So?
You seemed to have
missed the cricket tour.
This is bollocks.
I was dumping chemicals,
that's all.
The henna on the boy's shirt...
not much luck I'm afraid. It was
pure, could have originated anywhere.
Thanks.
Um, by the way, it's the Small Heath,
not the Meadow Brown...
Your butterfly.
Easy mistake.
Small Heath smaller, the
orange spot a bit brighter.
You don't see them as often.
I thought about becoming
a lepidopterist once.
One butterfly wing...
It could've travelled downstream.
According to the park rangers, this butterfly
is only found in this part of the Lea.
The wing was already in the silt and
was found in the boy's chest cavity.
That doesn't mean this is
where the boy was killed.
But it means he may
have been dumped here,
this has to be the
centre of your search.
Sir! I think he's found something.
What can you give me?
Not as much as I'd like.
Male, seven or eight years old.
The body's been in the
water perhaps a year.
There's no dental restoration to help
with ID. There's no damage to the rib cage.
However, the hands and the feet
have been cut off.
And if you look here...
you see the cut across
the cervical vertebral bodies.
It's a single blow, of the same
kind of tool as our other child.
And here there is a similar cut,
on the pubic bone.
Forensics are searching
Tibbs' place now.
We'll see what they turn up.
Ooh, I really don't think this
is the work of a paedophile.
But I give you good odds that
when Harry Cunningham evaluates
the bone isotopes this child
turns out to be African born.
And we've established
Tibbs was in South Africa recently.
He's got a thing about black kids.
Well, why would he go to the trouble of removing
their hands, and the feet and the genitals?
Maybe he wants to disguise it.
Make it look like muti.
And what about Kindoki?
What about the potion
and the scarring on the back?!
You think he just do this to confuse us?
Leo, we've been through the church
angle and come up with nothing.
Tibbs is our strongest link.
I'm not about to rule him out.
- Closed! - I'm sorry.
I was looking for a small boy who...
No boy.
This church is closed.
Is there a pastor
or an elder I can speak to?
No boy, no open!
All right.
OK now. No open.
Harry Cunningham, pathologist.
DI Sam James.
This is Austin Chambers.
That's his boyfriend. Flew home from New
York, found him at the bottom of the pool.
There's a lot of semen on this bed,
we will need to take samples.
Probably best if you come this way.
It's all right.
Quite a party.
Looks like the boyfriend
was being two-timed.
Four-timed more like.
The body had been in the water
for six hours or so.
Ligature marks suggests he'd been
strangled from above and behind...
and I'll have more
for you after the PM.
"Qui Patitur Vincit... "
What are these? School medals?
Yeah, Chambers was some sort
of swimming champion as a kid.
Maybe I should take up swimming.
- Paracetamol?
- Hmm. Best brand.
I remember when that was taken.
You were so scared, that
first day of school.
You and Mum took me to the
school gates that morning.
I took the day off.
I wanted to be there.
Do you remember how sometimes you'd
come back late and find me awake?
You'd sit on my bed,
read me my favourite story.
Where the Wild Things Are.
The monsters under the bed. You'd look
under, make sure there weren't any.
Not that you were ever convinced.
I always believed in monsters. I wonder
why I always believed, and you never did?
She knows what it means
to believe
and she cannot
understand why you do not.
Excuse me, I'm looking
for Willi's shop?
- Hi, I'm looking for Willi's shop.
- Here. - Thank you.
A doctor must have the
instruments of his profession.
- How much?
- For you...
Ten pounds. Very good price.
Genuine, from Nigeria.
OK.
The bones said you would visit.
Ah, the bones.
Of course.
The spirits speak through them.
No, I was just curious.
Curiosity kills cats, no?
What do you want?
To know if she's safe?
You think there's truth in
a few bits of old wood and bones?
Tell me, are you a religious man?
- I'm a scientist.
- Science, yes.
Does science explain why
your heart is empty?
Science may explain what
happened to these dead children.
We think their organs may have been
taken for some kind of muti concoctions.
Muti.
That is not the meaning of muti.
There are people that think
that it is. You must know, ya?
Muti, is healing.
Healing of the spirit.
Muti does not kill children.
Sangoma does not kill children.
I've read that sometimes
children are killed.
Others are forced to have sex with
men who think it'll cure them of AIDS.
You think we are like this?
Ignorant white man. We scare you...
I scare you.
Two boys have been killed,
possibly in a ritual sacrifice.
What do your bones say about that?
Hey, you can't play with us.
I like your shirt.
You're not going to play football?
He doesn't speak English.
He's not from round here, is he?
- Is that why he can't join in?
- He can't play before his deliverance.
Children! Let's go!
Come on now, hurry. Come on! Come on!
Yes?
The pastor... Is he here?
Pastor Lambo is a very busy man.
I was wondering if I might
have a few words with him.
Like I said. A very busy man.
Benga.
I am Pastor Lambo.
Professor Leo Dalton.
Home office pathologist.
On this case. I wondered if I might
have a few minutes of your time.
I have spoken to the
police about this. Twice.
You must excuse Benga.
He and his father
act as our caretakers.
They never quite learnt the
manners of their adopted country.
WOMAN AND CHILDREN SPEAK
School time?
Auntie Grace leads class
twice a week with our young ones.
Now...
your murdered child.
Yeah. The remains
of a second victim have been found.
What do you wish of me?
The first child - there's evidence
that his was a ritual killing.
Parts of his body may have been
used for some kind of a muti.
This is a church of Christ.
When the children were outside,
they said that the young boy
must undergo a... deliverance.
What does that mean?
- It is a ceremony.
- You mean like an exorcism?
Professor... the ways of your world
are not always the ways of ours.
The dead child had scars,
possibly from an exorcism.
There is no abuse here.
No violent rituals. Not in my church.
I wasn't suggesting that there was.
Then what were you suggesting?
Whatever happened to
your dead children,
it did not happen in the name of God.
And it did not happen here.
Best so to leave us in peace.
He didn't drown.
This is what killed him.
The ligature mark is quite fine,
from some sort of wire.
It almost cut through his jaw.
My guess is he was killed
while he was in the pool.
No bruising or marks. Short fingernails and
they've been in water, so we'll not find any DNA.
We're doing tests on the sheets -
we might find something there. Right.
Tox reports shows traces of cocaine,
diazepam, methamphetamine.
He was probably high as a kite.
- Hi.
- Hi.
DI Sam James this is Nikki Alexander
- pathologist, forensic anthropologist, trombonist probably.
I finished the facial reconstruction
from the skeletal remains
of the Tottenham Marshes child.
Best I can do.
Good. Mineral analysis from the
bones shows that he was from Rwanda.
- Africa again.
- Yeah.
New case?
Yes, Austin Chambers.
Garrotted while
swimming naked in his pool.
- What?
- Nothing. He just... looks familiar somehow.
Nice to meet you.
Have a look at these.
Like a tiny ring and loop.
And the wire extends from it,
but look at the mark...
I think the wire's gauged.
Insulation?
Electrical, maybe, or...
Musical instrument.
Yeah, possibly.
Oh, well...
Qui Patitur Vincit.
Who is patient, triumphs.
Actually, who endures, overcomes.
Shut up!
Why did you say that?
Because I want you to shut up.
Oh, Chambers had some
swimming medals in his room.
What did they look like?
Some school medals.
Black and white shield, Christ in
the middle, Latin underneath.
That's the Copingwood emblem.
That's where I saw him.
He was at the school.
Coincidence.
No-no, that's where the priest
who committed suicide was a teacher.
Copingwood Abbey is one of the largest
independent Catholic Schools in the South East.
A lot of Catholics go there.
I still think it's strange.
Matthew? Nikki Alexander.
We met at the Lyell Centre Mortuary.
Is your mum about?
She's through there.
Does the name Austin Chambers
mean anything to you?
No, I don't think so.
How about when you were
working at the school?
Well, there was a Chambers.
Um, an older boy. Bit of a bully
as far as I remember. Why?
It's just that he was found dead. Murdered,
actually, at his house a couple of days ago.
God.
Well, he might have been at the reunion
celebrations, but I wouldn't have known him.
- You don't think...
- Oh. No, no, no, no.
It's just an odd... coincidence maybe.
Who are you?
Brothers and sisters...
Many of us are far away from home.
Too far!
Strangers in a foreign land.
Yes!
And we are not always understood.
But God understands us. Yes, yes!
He does!
- He is in our hearts!
- Yes!
But...
the devil is here too.
The evil one
who would have us turn away,
or sentence us to
disease and damnation.
God has commanded
that we cast him out.
Yes! Cast out all evil!
Yes. Amen.
Deliver us and turn to God!
There is evil within this child.
Deliverance to save him.
Evil... I know you.
I see you within this innocent
child.
But God does not want you here.
You will be cast out
and you will die.
Death is your name
but his heart will be pure.
In the name of Jesus, I refute you.
Leave this boy Laurence,
to his innocence and youth.
This boy is delivered from darkness.
Yes! Yes!
Praise the Lord! Evil!
Yes. We know you! We know him!
Be gone! Be gone!
Professor.
Interesting trick.
What was it? lodine protected
by some kind of a wash?
Something in your ring?
Perhaps, professor,
it's God's will.
Some people might call it abuse
masquerading as religion.
You know what might happen
to him at his home in Congo?
There are people there who cut children
with razor blades... here, and here.
Who rape.
Is it not better that Laurence
experience what you call mumbo jumbo,
in order to save him
from something far worse?
God, the devil, Kindoki, deliverance,
throwing bones... It's still about abuse.
No. In my church, it's about faith.
I doubt that child would agree.
'Leo, it's Simon.
'We found a container a couple of hundred
yards from where Tibbs was dumping.
'Looks like he was
telling the truth.
'Anyway, I'm sure we'll
speak in the morning. '
Hello.
Hello!
Hello?
If you're trying to scare
me off, it won't work!
search Steam for PROJECT WARLOCK
It's just over here.
Yeah, I know.
You keep it nice.
Two years,
that's a long time, isn't it?
Is it?
Why's he doing that?
- I'm not sure.
- I think he looks sad.
Hi, Harry.
No, no it's all right...
Uh, yeah I know it.
Yeah, I can be there in 30 minutes.
OK, bye.
Cassie...
Teresa Dalton
Cassie Dalton
Sorry to pull you away.
They insisted I wait for you.
- Why?
- The DI... I told him you were off
this morning. A real piece of...
Leo.
It's been a long time.
Simon.
Harry Cunningham's a first class
pathologist, he's not my assistant.
I didn't think otherwise.
Look over here.
- There's a bit of history. -
So I see. - It's not about you.
Right.
Case... Get them away from here!
Runner stopped to fish out the boys'
football. Saw this and called it in.
The body was tangled
in these branches.
It wasn't deliberately dumped here.
Have you ever seen
anything like this?
We might be able to trace the team.
Biscuit, cracker?
And some kind of red dye on it.
OK.
Blood?
Check for fibers will you, then
we'll get it sent over to the lab.
Do you think it's a
ritual killing of some sort?
That amount of mutilation,
very possibly.
Decomposition in water
and animal predation
have resulted in a certain degree
of deterioration...
Single cut across the throat
measuring...
Eight centimetres in length
and two centimeters in width,
severing the right internal
and external carotid arteries.
Heart, liver and lungs
have been removed.
The kidneys remain intact.
Mixed dentition - deciduous
and permanent teeth are present
with permanent central incisors
and first molars erupting.
- The epiphyses haven't fused yet.
- Meaning?
Meaning... he was maybe six,
six and a half.
Both hands
and feet have been severed
in a
single blow with a sharpened blade,
possibly a cleaver or an axe,
given that no sawtooth marks
are discernible.
Leo, look at this.
Bruising... and needle marks.
On the left too.
An addict?
More likely medication of some sort.
He might've been ill.
Right.
Or it could have been that someone was
looking to find out whether he was.
These could be blood samples.
Given the bruising patterns
I'm not sure they were done
at the same time.
to the bones and cheekbones indicate
both eyes and lips have been cut away.
The genitals too have been excised.
What's that?
Silt.
Probably from the river bed.
Hand me a slide, will you?
Here you are.
Leo? Stomach contents.
See what you can
identify in the lab.
I'll get copies made.
What do you make of these crosses?
They're barely six months old.
They didn't cause these
stains on the shirt.
No, no, no, no.
- Could they be African tribal markings?
- Not like any I've seen.
Well, we'll go through missing persons
But if he was an immigrant,
or illegal...
Well... maybe we'll get lucky.
We should give him a name.
He has a name...
The least we can do is give him
the dignity of his own name!
If that's any cult, Devil worship,
Conspiracy... This doesn't help.
I hope you've got something
more than tabloid fantasies.
Unfortunately our work is not about
pandering to the imagination.
Right... our victim.
Firstly, the needle patterns...
there is no drug concentration
in any of the skin samples.
Given the bruising
and the cell patterns,
it appears that these were
the results of blood samples
taken separately approximately
a week apart,
one shortly before his death.
Why?
He was HIV positive.
Not common in children here.
But all too common in Africa.
That, perhaps the scars on his back,
and the missing organs...
that I
have seen before in South Africa.
Sometimes in the markets you
see Sangomas who...
Whoa...
Witch doctors.
Well, they have different names
in different countries, but yes...
It's not just mumbo jumbo.
They're diviners or healers,
it can take years of training.
Sangomas sometimes use animal
organs in Muti - their potions.
This is a child, in London.
Well, in South Africa
there are as many as a thousand cases
of human sacrifice a year for muti.
I've known of reports from Nigeria,
Benin, Botswa...
Right.
I get the picture.
And these organs are used for...
medicines?
Hands are burned to ash and made
into a potion to cure strokes.
Blood boosts vitality.
Genitals ward off infertility.
Those of young boys are most valuable
because they're uncontaminated.
More potent.
- And much more expensive, no doubt.
- It all comes down to money.
Apart from the floury paste
in his stomach,
there were also
small stones and bits of gold,
mixed with some kind of plant residue.
Which I haven't yet been able to identify.
Well, that makes sense. I've read that each
muti concoction is like a sangoma's signature,
so if we could read it, we might be
able to trace the person who made it.
Yeah, I'll keep on it, I also
checked out his larger intestine
to find out what he had been
eating before this potion
and there were traces of
maize but nothing else.
- Nothing?
- No.
- Maize is the staple food stuff in Africa.
- Yep.
Right, the object I found in the silt
was the wing of a
Meadow Brown Butterfly.
Unfortunately rather common.
But what we thought was blood
on the shirt turns out to be henna.
He was lying in henna?
Missing persons
is a dead end, I'm afraid.
If this child did come
from somewhere in Africa,
where do you begin?
I've taken a bone sample.
That might reveal where he grew up.
Very good.
Well done.
In the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit...
The Abbot just wanted to say some
prayers... he knows not to touch the body.
We think he jumped late last night.
But we don't know he jumped.
In the name of the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit...
No note or anything,
but no sign of any intruder...
Father Kennedy.
Dr Nikki Alexander,
the home office pathologist.
Father Kennedy is the Abbot
here at Copingwood School.
Father.
- A terrible thing.
- Yes. I'm sorry.
Please take a seat.
Had you known Father Reid
for a long time?
Father Reid was a teacher
here when I arrived in 1980.
Shortly after he left to
take up a posting in Ghana.
When he retired
he came back here a few years ago
and we provided him accommodation
back at the school.
Right.
And when's the last time you saw him?
Yesterday morning. I came to collect
a laptop computer that he'd borrowed.
There weren't any notes on it?
No. He told me weeks ago it was broken.
I'd been meaning to collect it.
Do you know if Father Reid had
been anxious or depressed recently?
Father Reid had
been fighting cancer.
Perhaps it beat him in other ways.
I'm so sorry... I must go,
if there's anything I can do.
Yes, if there is we will be in touch.
- Leo.
- Mmm? - Gregory Kris...
Crime lab.
- Oh, right.
- Hi.
The goo from your victim's
stomach and pocket
Just flour and water
I'm afraid, with a trace of Red 40.
So I had this idea,
the plastic wrapper?
I put a red wash over it...
and the dye left
an imprint on the wrapper.
- It's a heart?
- No, no, no, no, it's a Sacred Heart.
It's the latest thing, they
stamp them on communion wafers.
Oh, and I've got results
- that bone sample,
that links it to the Sakania
region of southern Congo.
- Congo?
- Yeah.
Harry,
what do you know about Kindoki?
Kind of puzzle?
Kindoki is used to describe children
who are believed to be possessed
and the only way to cleanse them is
through a kind of church exorcism.
Sometimes they are beaten, sometimes they
have chillies rubbed into their eyes, or worse.
Now there are a number of these churches
around but most of them are in the Congo,
but there have been a few cases
reported in London recently.
Our child had his organs removed.
Be with me. We have the Congo... we have
the communion wafers in the boy's stomach,
that takes us to the church.
We have crosses on the child's back,
which suggests Christianity rather
than black magic. Now what if,
what if this was an exorcism
that went one step too far?
Simon, hello it's Leo,
I think we are dealing with Kindoki,
you need to look at
all the black churches in the area.
I'm sure you will handle it
with sensitivity.
Hi, you're here to see Father Reid?
This way.
- Are you ready?
- I'll wait in here.
- Were you related?
- No. We...
we once worked together.
Um, Father Reid he always, um...
.. stood by Matthew and me
and he always cared.
Thanks.
Do you think it was suicide?
We can't be positive yet, but, um...
No. He wouldn't have done this.
There's got to be
some other explanation.
Well, there was no sign of a struggle
and the door was locked from inside.
We found a tumour on his prostate.
Yeah, I know. He was beating it.
He was in good spirits,
he, he was looking for a new flat.
Really?
Yeah, Father Kennedy wanted
him to move, but no big deal.
It's very frustrating but
often in cases like this,
we never find out what
was troubling someone.
No. I knew him. There has
got to have been somebody there,
or it was an accident,
it's not suicide.
His faith was too important to him.
Mum? Please. You find out the truth.
Is this another one of your community exercises?
No, it's not. Tell me what it is about?
If anything happens around
here, you hear about it...
Tell me what's happened. I should know
about it, because...? I don't know.
SEVERAL PEOPLE TALK AT ONCE
I'm telling you I've done nothing...
Yeah.
Don't waste my time.
Don't waste my time.
You're one of them?
Police? No, I'm a pathologist.
A doctor?
Me too. Sangoma.
You know Sangoma?
They do not believe, these
detectives.
They deal with facts.
And you?
I'm afraid I also deal with facts.
But you see her, don't you?
And it troubles you.
She knows what it means to believe and
and she cannot understand why you do not.
When she asks you, come find me.
Willi of Dalston Road market.
Everyone knows Willi.
I'll read the bones.
Is that Lami Falashie?
You know her?
I heard her lecture
once at a conference.
Several community leaves that we're
targeting the Black community unjustly.
Anything from hospitals?
There are no unaccounted-for HIV positive
six year-olds, from Africa or anywhere else.
Church?
What... to ask for a miracle?
If that boy was labeled Kundoki and
abused in some kind of a Church ceremony...
I am doing my job, Leo, all right?
We've got 23 black majority churches within
two miles of where the body was found.
We've been to every single one -
we haven't come up with anything.
Sir?
Good. Remember, let it
breathe before the last crescendo.
Right, off you go.
Well done.
Uhhh! Who did that, Billy?
No-one, Sir. It was my own fault.
We're looking for Father Kennedy?
Oh, yeah, yeah, sure, follow me.
They make a wonderful sound.
Music is one of the
strengths of our school.
Several of our boys have won
awards in national competitions.
I'm not surprised.
Do you both have boys here?
Er, neither of us, I'm afraid.
Prospective parents?
Horror of horrors!
I'm a home office pathologist, Nikki
Alexander. This is Detective Inspector Thompson.
We're looking into
Father Reid's death.
You'll find Father Kennedy's office
just on the right. Would you excuse me?
Boys, boys, keep moving
on to your next class, come on.
Suicide is not an easy subject for us to
deal with, I'm sure you can understand.
A friend of Father Reid's,
Marie Williams.
She thinks there must be an
explanation other than suicide.
Ah, Marie.
She used to work at the school.
She left around the same time.
Why was that?
Um...
Well, she got pregnant.
In those days, the church
frowned on single mothers.
Father Reid was particularly
supportive to her.
No doubt that's what coloured
her emotions.
Thank you, Father.
She also said you wanted
Father Reid to move into town.
Father Reid was welcome here
whenever he wanted.
What friends he had
were not at the school.
We only wished for him to be happy
for his remaining years.
This is Lee 12 days ago,
about 200 yards up from
where the victim was found.
He didn't want us to see the reg.
But he missed this one.
Well done.
- Derek Tibbs?
- Yeah, what of it?
- Is this your Jeep?
- So what?
You don't mind if I have a look
around, do you, Derek?
Hey, come on.
A film director in your spare time?
Yeah, well there's no law against it.
Can I take your jacket?
'You just have a seat. '
'Can I get you a drink?
'How about a beer? Yeah!'
'LAUGHING'
'Take your top off
while you're waiting... '
Nice photos, Derek.
Didn't know holidays was a
crime in this country yet.
Where were they taken?
Africa?
- Ah, South Africa.
- So?
You seemed to have
missed the cricket tour.
This is bollocks.
I was dumping chemicals,
that's all.
The henna on the boy's shirt...
not much luck I'm afraid. It was
pure, could have originated anywhere.
Thanks.
Um, by the way, it's the Small Heath,
not the Meadow Brown...
Your butterfly.
Easy mistake.
Small Heath smaller, the
orange spot a bit brighter.
You don't see them as often.
I thought about becoming
a lepidopterist once.
One butterfly wing...
It could've travelled downstream.
According to the park rangers, this butterfly
is only found in this part of the Lea.
The wing was already in the silt and
was found in the boy's chest cavity.
That doesn't mean this is
where the boy was killed.
But it means he may
have been dumped here,
this has to be the
centre of your search.
Sir! I think he's found something.
What can you give me?
Not as much as I'd like.
Male, seven or eight years old.
The body's been in the
water perhaps a year.
There's no dental restoration to help
with ID. There's no damage to the rib cage.
However, the hands and the feet
have been cut off.
And if you look here...
you see the cut across
the cervical vertebral bodies.
It's a single blow, of the same
kind of tool as our other child.
And here there is a similar cut,
on the pubic bone.
Forensics are searching
Tibbs' place now.
We'll see what they turn up.
Ooh, I really don't think this
is the work of a paedophile.
But I give you good odds that
when Harry Cunningham evaluates
the bone isotopes this child
turns out to be African born.
And we've established
Tibbs was in South Africa recently.
He's got a thing about black kids.
Well, why would he go to the trouble of removing
their hands, and the feet and the genitals?
Maybe he wants to disguise it.
Make it look like muti.
And what about Kindoki?
What about the potion
and the scarring on the back?!
You think he just do this to confuse us?
Leo, we've been through the church
angle and come up with nothing.
Tibbs is our strongest link.
I'm not about to rule him out.
- Closed! - I'm sorry.
I was looking for a small boy who...
No boy.
This church is closed.
Is there a pastor
or an elder I can speak to?
No boy, no open!
All right.
OK now. No open.
Harry Cunningham, pathologist.
DI Sam James.
This is Austin Chambers.
That's his boyfriend. Flew home from New
York, found him at the bottom of the pool.
There's a lot of semen on this bed,
we will need to take samples.
Probably best if you come this way.
It's all right.
Quite a party.
Looks like the boyfriend
was being two-timed.
Four-timed more like.
The body had been in the water
for six hours or so.
Ligature marks suggests he'd been
strangled from above and behind...
and I'll have more
for you after the PM.
"Qui Patitur Vincit... "
What are these? School medals?
Yeah, Chambers was some sort
of swimming champion as a kid.
Maybe I should take up swimming.
- Paracetamol?
- Hmm. Best brand.
I remember when that was taken.
You were so scared, that
first day of school.
You and Mum took me to the
school gates that morning.
I took the day off.
I wanted to be there.
Do you remember how sometimes you'd
come back late and find me awake?
You'd sit on my bed,
read me my favourite story.
Where the Wild Things Are.
The monsters under the bed. You'd look
under, make sure there weren't any.
Not that you were ever convinced.
I always believed in monsters. I wonder
why I always believed, and you never did?
She knows what it means
to believe
and she cannot
understand why you do not.
Excuse me, I'm looking
for Willi's shop?
- Hi, I'm looking for Willi's shop.
- Here. - Thank you.
A doctor must have the
instruments of his profession.
- How much?
- For you...
Ten pounds. Very good price.
Genuine, from Nigeria.
OK.
The bones said you would visit.
Ah, the bones.
Of course.
The spirits speak through them.
No, I was just curious.
Curiosity kills cats, no?
What do you want?
To know if she's safe?
You think there's truth in
a few bits of old wood and bones?
Tell me, are you a religious man?
- I'm a scientist.
- Science, yes.
Does science explain why
your heart is empty?
Science may explain what
happened to these dead children.
We think their organs may have been
taken for some kind of muti concoctions.
Muti.
That is not the meaning of muti.
There are people that think
that it is. You must know, ya?
Muti, is healing.
Healing of the spirit.
Muti does not kill children.
Sangoma does not kill children.
I've read that sometimes
children are killed.
Others are forced to have sex with
men who think it'll cure them of AIDS.
You think we are like this?
Ignorant white man. We scare you...
I scare you.
Two boys have been killed,
possibly in a ritual sacrifice.
What do your bones say about that?
Hey, you can't play with us.
I like your shirt.
You're not going to play football?
He doesn't speak English.
He's not from round here, is he?
- Is that why he can't join in?
- He can't play before his deliverance.
Children! Let's go!
Come on now, hurry. Come on! Come on!
Yes?
The pastor... Is he here?
Pastor Lambo is a very busy man.
I was wondering if I might
have a few words with him.
Like I said. A very busy man.
Benga.
I am Pastor Lambo.
Professor Leo Dalton.
Home office pathologist.
On this case. I wondered if I might
have a few minutes of your time.
I have spoken to the
police about this. Twice.
You must excuse Benga.
He and his father
act as our caretakers.
They never quite learnt the
manners of their adopted country.
WOMAN AND CHILDREN SPEAK
School time?
Auntie Grace leads class
twice a week with our young ones.
Now...
your murdered child.
Yeah. The remains
of a second victim have been found.
What do you wish of me?
The first child - there's evidence
that his was a ritual killing.
Parts of his body may have been
used for some kind of a muti.
This is a church of Christ.
When the children were outside,
they said that the young boy
must undergo a... deliverance.
What does that mean?
- It is a ceremony.
- You mean like an exorcism?
Professor... the ways of your world
are not always the ways of ours.
The dead child had scars,
possibly from an exorcism.
There is no abuse here.
No violent rituals. Not in my church.
I wasn't suggesting that there was.
Then what were you suggesting?
Whatever happened to
your dead children,
it did not happen in the name of God.
And it did not happen here.
Best so to leave us in peace.
He didn't drown.
This is what killed him.
The ligature mark is quite fine,
from some sort of wire.
It almost cut through his jaw.
My guess is he was killed
while he was in the pool.
No bruising or marks. Short fingernails and
they've been in water, so we'll not find any DNA.
We're doing tests on the sheets -
we might find something there. Right.
Tox reports shows traces of cocaine,
diazepam, methamphetamine.
He was probably high as a kite.
- Hi.
- Hi.
DI Sam James this is Nikki Alexander
- pathologist, forensic anthropologist, trombonist probably.
I finished the facial reconstruction
from the skeletal remains
of the Tottenham Marshes child.
Best I can do.
Good. Mineral analysis from the
bones shows that he was from Rwanda.
- Africa again.
- Yeah.
New case?
Yes, Austin Chambers.
Garrotted while
swimming naked in his pool.
- What?
- Nothing. He just... looks familiar somehow.
Nice to meet you.
Have a look at these.
Like a tiny ring and loop.
And the wire extends from it,
but look at the mark...
I think the wire's gauged.
Insulation?
Electrical, maybe, or...
Musical instrument.
Yeah, possibly.
Oh, well...
Qui Patitur Vincit.
Who is patient, triumphs.
Actually, who endures, overcomes.
Shut up!
Why did you say that?
Because I want you to shut up.
Oh, Chambers had some
swimming medals in his room.
What did they look like?
Some school medals.
Black and white shield, Christ in
the middle, Latin underneath.
That's the Copingwood emblem.
That's where I saw him.
He was at the school.
Coincidence.
No-no, that's where the priest
who committed suicide was a teacher.
Copingwood Abbey is one of the largest
independent Catholic Schools in the South East.
A lot of Catholics go there.
I still think it's strange.
Matthew? Nikki Alexander.
We met at the Lyell Centre Mortuary.
Is your mum about?
She's through there.
Does the name Austin Chambers
mean anything to you?
No, I don't think so.
How about when you were
working at the school?
Well, there was a Chambers.
Um, an older boy. Bit of a bully
as far as I remember. Why?
It's just that he was found dead. Murdered,
actually, at his house a couple of days ago.
God.
Well, he might have been at the reunion
celebrations, but I wouldn't have known him.
- You don't think...
- Oh. No, no, no, no.
It's just an odd... coincidence maybe.
Who are you?
Brothers and sisters...
Many of us are far away from home.
Too far!
Strangers in a foreign land.
Yes!
And we are not always understood.
But God understands us. Yes, yes!
He does!
- He is in our hearts!
- Yes!
But...
the devil is here too.
The evil one
who would have us turn away,
or sentence us to
disease and damnation.
God has commanded
that we cast him out.
Yes! Cast out all evil!
Yes. Amen.
Deliver us and turn to God!
There is evil within this child.
Deliverance to save him.
Evil... I know you.
I see you within this innocent
child.
But God does not want you here.
You will be cast out
and you will die.
Death is your name
but his heart will be pure.
In the name of Jesus, I refute you.
Leave this boy Laurence,
to his innocence and youth.
This boy is delivered from darkness.
Yes! Yes!
Praise the Lord! Evil!
Yes. We know you! We know him!
Be gone! Be gone!
Professor.
Interesting trick.
What was it? lodine protected
by some kind of a wash?
Something in your ring?
Perhaps, professor,
it's God's will.
Some people might call it abuse
masquerading as religion.
You know what might happen
to him at his home in Congo?
There are people there who cut children
with razor blades... here, and here.
Who rape.
Is it not better that Laurence
experience what you call mumbo jumbo,
in order to save him
from something far worse?
God, the devil, Kindoki, deliverance,
throwing bones... It's still about abuse.
No. In my church, it's about faith.
I doubt that child would agree.
'Leo, it's Simon.
'We found a container a couple of hundred
yards from where Tibbs was dumping.
'Looks like he was
telling the truth.
'Anyway, I'm sure we'll
speak in the morning. '
Hello.
Hello!
Hello?
If you're trying to scare
me off, it won't work!