Ritual killings 'pushing double figures'

The comment from a senior Scotland Yard officer comes as police forces exchange information at the first-ever conference into such killings.

Commander Andy Baker met with detectives from France, Greece, Italy and the United States, who presented details of their own unsolved deaths at a conference in the Hague.

Mr Baker said three killings in Italy had "striking similarities" to the mutilation and dismemberment involved in the London murder.

"We knew about a couple already, it's pushing double figures across Europe now."

He said ritual killings could easily have spread from Africa to Europe.

"People move around and languages, cultures, beliefs and religions move with them. Who's to say this has not been imported as well," he said.

Britain's first suspected case emerged last September when the torso of a still unidentified African boy was found near Tower Bridge.

Black magic

The boy, dubbed Adam, was thought to have been five or six years' old when he died after his throat was cut and his head and limbs cut off.

Police in South Africa have estimated that hundreds of children may have been killed by witchdoctors practising a perversion of traditional "muti" medicine, using body parts to make life enhancing ointments and potions.

But an expert on African ritual practices, who has been advising the Metropolitan Police on the case, has said it might also be linked to West African voodoo.

Following the discovery of Adam detectives are already re-examining a 33-year-old murder case in which the headless torso of a baby girl was found hidden in bushes in Epping Forest, Essex.

Her head was later found nearby and the girl, said to be of mixed race, was identified but police have not released her name.