It could have been a scene out of a horror film. But the grainy CCTV footage from inside a run-down office block in Hackney, east London, is terrifyingly real. At 10.22pm on April 17, a man is seen dragging a goat by its 12in horns through a set of double doors. The animal is clearly in distress, a rope trailing from its neck. A second man follows carrying a folded metal cage.

Six hours later at 4.31am the two men are seen leaving the room. There is no sign of the goat. Well, no sign of it alive. For one of the two men is carrying a heavy bin bag while the second has a see-through plastic box containing what looks suspiciously like a set of goat horns.

What on earth happened in that room?

It has emerged that one of the two men caught on camera is Hugo Jefferson, the so-called ‘priest’ of Britain’s first ‘Quimbanda’ Satanic cult, a Brazilian quasi-religious movement that practises animal sacrifice, devil worship and black voodoo magic.

In videos shared by Jefferson to Instagram from inside his Hackney ‘temple’ in the office block, the man – who also goes by the name Master Hugo – can be seen holding the goat down, again by its horns. In a room painted red and black, walls adorned with demonic icons, he speaks in Portuguese and promises his followers ‘the best of spirituality’.

There is no conclusive evidence as to the fate of the animal in the early hours of April 18. However, everything points to an act of butchery. And this is only the start.

For an investigation first undertaken by news outlet London Centric, and today continued by the Daily Mail, reveals how Jefferson and his accomplices managed to open the first Quimbanda temple in Britain.

They rented the premises by pretending to be members of a removals firm. Yet it was not their only place of practice – they also conducted a number of Satanic rituals in cemeteries across the capital, where they stand accused of desecrating graves and burning the body parts of animals.

But, first of all, what on earth is Quimbanda?

The tradition emerged in Brazil in the 17th century among African slaves who rejected the Catholicism of their Portuguese colonial overlords and instead adopted and reimagined the ancient practices of their homeland.

Quimbanda practitioners primarily worship two sets of spirits: ‘Exus’, the male spirits, who can be summoned to intervene on material matters such as employment and money problems, as we will later discover; and female spirits known as the ‘Pomba Giras’ summoned for matters of the heart, such as exerting control over a partner or spouse.

Quimbanda rituals – known as ‘trabalho’ – typically involve offerings of food, alcohol, the burning of carnations and, of course, the sacrifice of animals.

Exactly how Jefferson became involved with Quimbanda is unclear. However, we know that he formerly worked as a chef at the Frankie’s By Marco Pierre White restaurant in Knightsbridge.

On his personal Instagram page, there are numerous pictures of immaculately presented dishes and even a comment from a former colleague declaring: ‘Hugo is my best chef.’ But turn to Jefferson’s other account, where he moonlights as Master Hugo of the ‘first temple of Quimbanda Luciferiana in the UK’, and the contrast couldn’t be starker.

The recently deleted page, which once boasted over 40,000 followers, featured a host of terrifying images and videos including one of Jefferson draped in black beads holding the severed head of a black goat – a different animal to the white goat captured on CCTV.

We know that Jefferson – who appears to be in his 40s – inaugurated the temple in January this year. It was from here that, along with an accomplice known only as Michel, he offered a service to individuals requiring spiritual intervention, helping with their problems for £70 a session. From the unverified testimonies Jefferson shared online, it appears the customers were extremely happy.

‘Hello brother Hugo,’ wrote one happy punter. ‘I want to thank you very much for the exorcism service you performed. The result happened in seven days, it was incredible. The boy got a job and is even getting to know someone. The transformation in his life since you removed the evil spirit from his path is incredible.’

‘I have no words to describe the change in my life,’ read another. ‘Twenty-nine years were lost to alcohol, drug and cigarette addiction. My biggest dream in my life was to one day stop it all... Thank you so much for freeing me to a new life! Free people from evil!’

It is unclear exactly what Jefferson’s ‘exorcisms’ involved, though the images of decapitated animals and Satanic icons on his Instagram page give a pretty clear idea.

A reporter who monitored Jefferson’s temple for weeks reported hearing chanting and loud music while witnessing dancing and alcohol consumption. At one point, a woman – overcome by the occasion – left the temple itself to lie down in a corridor outside where she was cooled with a fan.

Jefferson vacated and closed his temple last month and is no longer taking spiritual-intervention commissions. But to learn more I inquired after the Quimbanda services of another so-called ‘priest’ based in Brazil who said he could secure me a promotion at work by conducting a ritual ‘involving the sacrifice of goats, chickens, roosters and other materials.’

The price quoted was £2,050 and the priest promised ‘all work is filmed, photographed and sent in real time’. When I suggested it was an expensive ritual, the priest responded: ‘But the return is guaranteed.’

I chose not to proceed with the mass animal sacrifice.

Could similar ceremonies have been conducted in the east London temple Jefferson set up in January?

With its exposed brickwork and trendy postcode, it’s the sort of place you’d expect to find a vegan cafe or a vintage clothing store, certainly not a Satanic cult.

What’s more, the neighbouring property is nothing less than a Christian church hall where services are conducted twice a week and Bible study takes place on Tuesdays. Ironically, less than a hundred yards away there is a vegan restaurant called Temple of Seitan.

One woman, who works in a neighbouring art studio, revealed that an A4 piece of paper had been pinned to the door of the Quimbanda temple earlier this year declaring: ‘We can either be Gods or rats.’ Initially, the woman – who didn’t wish to be named – believed it to be a joke. However, she then spotted dried blood on the front door one morning.

‘My first thought was that there’d been a stabbing,’ she declared, fear returning to her eyes. ‘There was blood in the door well, too. Then a neighbour told me they were a cult that sacrificed animals.’

One local businessman questioned whether the goat seen on CCTV may have been stolen from nearby Hackney City Farm, which keeps a small herd of pedigree Anglo-Nubians as petting animals. Thankfully, the farm reassured the Daily Mail that no animals had been reported missing.

The company which sublet the space to Jefferson in the first place then revealed that, despite conducting due diligence, it had been supplied with false documentation regarding the intended use of the office. ‘They gave us a website for a removals company,’ the firm disclosed in a statement.

While the temple has been vacated, further evidence shared online suggests Jefferson also conducted rituals in cemeteries across the capital.

Since-deleted Instagram posts appear to reveal what Jefferson has been up to in these places of rest. One image shows what looks like an ox heart placed on the ground. Another from December 2024 depicts the head of a goat in a bowl beside a spear. In the caption to a third image, Jefferson wrote: ‘In some situations, it is necessary to open a portal and centralise the energy imposed on the space under influence.’

One of the locations was identified as Heston Cemetery near Heathrow Airport in west London. This week, when we visited the cemetery – which is next door to a school – we found an animal skull similar in size and shape to that of a goat. There were also bones that appeared to belong to a chicken, small pieces of red string and several areas where the grass beside graves had been burnt.

A woman who works at the adjoining St Leonard’s Church revealed her own bewilderment: ‘We found a skull of a large animal in the churchyard this week,’ she declared. ‘We found lots of voodoo bits, bones and bags with bits of chicken with candles and string… bags with chicken meat in a coconut shell, with a face on it.’

A spokesman for the church later clarified: ‘This matter was brought to our attention by a journalist on the morning of June 4, at which point we immediately reported it to the police. The investigation is ongoing, and we will assist in any way we can.’ However, the police insist there is no official investigation under way. Rather, that officers ‘are assessing a report of a ritual taking place in a churchyard in Heston, Hounslow. At this time, we have not identified any criminality.’

While the Daily Mail is not accusing Jefferson of wrongdoing, what would meet the threshold for ‘criminality’? Under UK law, there is no specific prohibition on Satanic practice, worship or ritual – provided it does not impinge on the rights or safety of others. Where Jefferson may, however, be in trouble is with regards to animal safety legislation.

The requirements for keeping goats, for example, are onerous. First, a keeper must register with the Rural Payments Agency and secure a county parish holding number. One must also register with the Animal and Plant Health Agency to acquire a ‘herd mark’, and each animal has to be tagged.

Then there’s the law around slaughter. Although animals do not need to be stunned for certain religious slaughter such as kosher and halal, ritualistic sacrifice is not included under this exemption.

Furthermore, unless it’s an emergency, animals should only be killed at an approved slaughterhouse by a licensed slaughterer.

It begs the question as to whether Jefferson or his accomplices had a slaughter licence if they did, indeed, kill the goat in Hackney. It seems unlikely, not least because their former temple premises does not appear on the Food Standards Agency’s list of approved establishments permitted to handle products of animal origin in England and Wales. Nor is it on the agency’s eFoodchain map of UK red-meat slaughterhouses.

Responding to the allegations outlined in this article, Jefferson said of his online presence: ‘The images do not demonstrate unnecessary suffering as defined by the Animal Welfare Act 2006, nor do they establish any criminal offence. They do not show the full circumstances of any animal depicted, how it was handled, whether legal requirements were met, or if any suffering occurred.

‘Similarly, images showing animal remains and ritual objects do not, by themselves, establish unlawful conduct.’

He added: ‘Like many religions, Quimbanda includes ceremonial offerings and rituals that may be unfamiliar to those outside the faith.’

For those living and working near Jefferson’s former temple, ‘unfamiliar’ is certainly one word to describe the extraordinary goings on. Only time will tell whether the Metropolitan Police adds ‘criminal’ to that list.