Child trafficker linked to ‘torso boy’ jailed

A CHILD trafficker who may have smuggled the Thames “torso boy” into Britain was jailed for four-and-a-half years yesterday.

Kingsley Ojo headed a “substantial” network thought to have brought hundreds of youngsters and adults into the country to work in the sex trade, as domestic slaves, or for benefit fraud. Now police hope he can shed light on the ritual murder of the five-year-old boy they named Adam.

Detective Chief Inspector Will O’Reilly, head of the Operation Swailcliffe investigation into the boy’s death, said: “I firmly believe he can assist us with our inquiries and we will be looking to speak to him as soon as possible.” London’s Southwark Crown Court heard that, when the people smuggler was arrested during a series of co-ordinated swoops across the capital, he falsely claimed to be 30-year-old Mousa Kamara from Sierra Leone. He was quickly identified as a 35-year-old Nigerian originally from Benin City, where the child used to live. When officers searched his flat, they found a video of mock-up ritual killings as well as a shot of what appeared to be a decapitated head in a basin. Also discovered was a “bizarre” voodoo artefact in the form of a rat’s skull, pierced by a long metal spike and bound in black thread.

Ojo, of Devonshire Close, Stratford, East London, whose case represents the first major prosecution and conviction linked to the murder inquiry, admitted four charges. Two involved dishonestly obtaining a British passport in July 1999, and using a forged driving licence with intent to deceive. The others related to “assisting legal entry” into the country in November 2002 and February last year.

He showed no emotion as Judge Neil Stewart rejected defence pleas for “non-custodial leniency” and said the offences he had committed were so serious that prison was inevitable. There were, he said, a string of “aggravating” features. “The illegal entry offences were repeated, they involved assisting people who were not family members but strangers, and I’m satisfied there was an element of financial gain for you. You also had an organisational role.”