A young boy has been taken into care after police raided a string of addresses connected with a church at the centre of an international baby smuggling scandal.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Child Abuse Investigation Command entered five Gilbert Deya Ministries properties across the country on Friday morning.
It is understood that a four year-old boy was taken into care following the raids in Birmingham, south London, Manchester and Scotland.
The church has been the subject of a series of Sunday Mercury special reports probing its miracle baby claims.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman told the Sunday Mercury: “Officers from Child Abuse Investigation Command, accompanied by social workers, entered five addresses as part of an investigation into alleged child trafficking between the UK and Kenya.
“The purpose of the visits was to ensure the welfare of children situated at the addresses.
“No arrests were made in connection with the inquiries in south London, Birmingham, Manchester and Scotland.
“Assessments were made of the children at the premises visited and one child was taken into care.
“We are continuing to liaise with the UK Immigration Service and authorities in Kenya in relation to this matter.”
It is believed that the youngster was taken from the Scottish home of one of self-styled Archbishop Gilbert Deya’s sons.
The address raided in Birmingham is understood to be that of another son, Amos Deya, who rents a house in Salisbury Road, Moseley. Amos is pastor of the Birmingham branch of the church, situated on Cardigan Street in the city centre.
The Sunday Mercury has also discovered that the Cardigan Street base was raided last month by West Midlands Police who executed a warrant under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
No arrests were made and no illegal substances were seized.
It is believed that the property targeted in Friday’s raid in London was Mr Deya’s offices and the address in Manchester was the home of another of his pastors.
Authorities began investigating British-based Gilbert Deya earlier this year after it was revealed that he claimed he could make infertile and post menopausal women pregnant by prayer.
But a High Court UK judge has ruled that the ‘birth’ of one of his ‘miracle babies’ was a deception motivated by financial greed last month.
And a British coroner found the DNA of another baby who died after three weeks did not match that of her alleged parents.
Police in Kenya have taken about 20 children into care, many of them from the home of Archbishop Deya and his wife, Mary, following the revelations. DNA samples have been taken from them to try to establish their true identities.
Cops in Kenya are currently investigating allegations of stolen babies in one of the country’s biggest maternity hospitals.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that dozens of Kenyan parents who were told that their babies died at birth, have come forward in the hope of finding their children alive.
The Kenyan authorities have applied for Archbishop Deya’s extradition from the UK.
Gilbert Deya Ministries is registered as a UK charity but the Charities Commission is currently investigating the church and has frozen its accounts.
And the Nursing and Midwifery Council is probing the activities of seven British nurses and midwives who are also members of the church, which has branches in Birmingham, Nottingham and Leicester as well as London, Manchester and Liverpool.
