Silent Witness (1996) s11e03 Episode Script

Father Reid.
We have an agreement.
I think we need to talk.
INDISTINCT NOISE SINGING HYMN Hang on, I'll get it.
Oh, My God! 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.
MOBILE PHONE RINGS 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.
The body is that of a black male child found partially submerged at the edge of the River Lea, identity unknown.
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? Meaninghe 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.
Bruisingand 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 Wellmaybe 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.
Rightour 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 prayershe 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.
The entirely injuries are consistent with the fall I did find diazepam in his bottom cabinet His GP has prescribing it.
An entity present Well, that'a sedative.
More for anxiety than depression.
So, this all about the cancer? May be This is a tumor.
It's seven millimeters wide.
That's small and it hasn't spread.
Meaning? Meaning why kill yourself if you've got stage two prostate cancer? - 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.
Takes long as you like.
I'm afraid you can't smoking here.
Sorry about your friend.
He wasn't my friend Tell her I pull a car around 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.
Yes, you ignore all of the possibilities I'm sure if you close know I can use it in investigation, Ma'am Excuse me.
You can see the problem? A terrorist blows himself up.
He is Muslim.
So all Muslims are terrorists.
African child may be inflict in ritual murder So all Africans can be ritual murder against children.
Doctor Fallashi, we understand your concern, but in order to eliminate 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? Whatto 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? Can you give me a hand here? Think this one was done and dusted.
You think you missed some? Just turn him over.
He landed face down.
- Any inconsistencies? - No.
Knock where fell? Nygel, can you photograph, please.
He hit something before he died.
Hard.
From the cut? I think so.
- He could fell backwards.
- It's possible.
He was on over seventy.
Suffering of hypotention.
Or he could have been pushed.
CHOIR SINGS BARBER'S ADAGIO (Will we wait till they are finished?) 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 lnspector 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.
Come to think of the He did complain of a back the last time I saw him.
He didn't say falling over.
At our age we all suffer from aches and pains I'm afraid.
He wasn't too steady on his feet.
That probably explains it.
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.
ON FILM: 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.
Why did you insist that I intend this case? I knew the press would be wild with this.
I needed someone I can trust.
Who be well respected.
Am I what should listen? I have been.
Are you decided to ignore me? INAUDIBLE INAUDIBLE SPEECH - 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.
- Sarrah??? - Over here.
When you finished, yep? 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? WILLI: 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? INAUDIBLE SPEECH 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 adeliverance.
What does that mean? - It is a ceremony.
- You mean like an exorcism? Professorthe 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 oddcoincidence maybe.
Who are you? DISTANT GOSPEL SINGING 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! - In London, in Africa.
- Yes! Wherever we are! APPLAUSE He knows what we do what we dream Yes! Our tears, our faith! Yes - And that we all know his ???? -Yes!! God is in our church! 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.
EvilI 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? Iodine 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.
ON PHONE: '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.
' LOUD BANG ECHOES MOBILE RINGS Hello.
Hello! Hello? If you're trying to scare me off, it won't work!