Robert Black (serial killer)

Robert Black
Mug shot of Robert Black, taken after his arrest in July 1990
Born	(1947-04-21)21 April 1947 Grangemouth, Scotland
Died	12 January 2016(2016-01-12) (aged 68) HMP Maghaberry, Northern Ireland
Cause of death	Heart attack
Conviction(s)	Murder Kidnap Preventing the lawful burial of a body Sexual assault Attempted kidnap
Criminal penalty	Life imprisonment
Details
Victims	4+
Span of crimes	12 August 1981 – 26 March 1986
Country	United Kingdom
Date apprehended	14 July 1990

Robert Black (21 April 1947 – 12 January 2016) was a Scottish serial killer and paedophile who was convicted of the kidnap, rape, sexual assault and murder of four girls aged between 5 and 11 in a series of killings committed between 1981 and 1986 in the United Kingdom.

Described at his 1994 trial as being the perpetrator of "offences which are unlikely ever to be forgotten and which represent a man at his most vile", Black was convicted of the kidnap, rape and murder of three girls on 19 May 1994; he was also convicted of the attempted kidnapping of a fourth girl, and had earlier been convicted of the kidnapping and sexual assault of a fifth. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 35 years.

Black was further convicted of the 1981 sexual assault and murder of nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy in 2011, and at the time of his 2016 death, was just weeks from being charged with the 1978 disappearance and murder of 13-year-old Genette Tate.

In addition to the disappearance and murder of Genette Tate, investigators had concluded in May 1994 that Black may be responsible for 12 other unsolved child murders committed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and continental Europe between 1969 and 1987.

The nationwide manhunt for Robert Black would prove to be one of the most exhaustive United Kingdom murder investigations of the 20th century.

Early life

Childhood

Robert Black was born in Grangemouth, Stirlingshire on 21 April 1947, the illegitimate child born to Jessie Hunter Black and an unknown father (Black's mother was either unable or unwilling to name Black's father on his birth certificate).

At the time of Black's birth, a child born outside of wedlock was considered a social stigma within the United Kingdom, and within weeks of his birth, Black's mother formulated plans for her child to be adopted (although these proceedings were never formally completed). Nonetheless, six months after his birth, Black was placed the care of an experienced, middle-aged foster couple named Jack and Isabel Tulip, who lived in the Highlands village of Kinlochleven. Black adopted their surname, and would live with the Tulips until 1958, by which time both foster parents had died of natural causes.

According to contemporary records, Black exhibited anti-social tendencies from an early age; becoming known to his foster parents and school peers as an aggressive child, prone to tantrums and with few friends his own age. Furthermore, despite the fact Black was himself a target for bullying among children his own age, he himself became a notable bully towards younger children. In addition, although his foster mother insisted upon physical cleanliness, Black cared little for his bodily hygiene, which earned him the nickname "Smelly Bobby Tulip" among his classmates.

At the age of five, Black and a girl the same age as he both took off their clothes and compared their respective genitalia; this incident triggered a childhood belief within Black that he should have been born female, and he developed a deep interest in both his own genitalia, the genitals of female children, and body orifices: from the age of eight, Black began to regularly insert objects in his own anus (a practice he would carry into adulthood).

Locals later recalled that Black would often be seen bearing bruises to his face and limbs, indicating he may have been physically abused by his foster parents, although Black would later state he could not recollect how he had acquired these injuries, and it is equally possibly this bruising may have been inflicted through childhood skirmishes.

Shortly after his 11th birthday in 1958, Black's foster mother died of natural causes, and he was placed with another foster family in Kinlochleven. Black only resided with this family for a short period of time, however, as shortly after being placed with this family, Black committed his first known sexual assault. In this instance, he dragged a young girl into a public lavatory and sexually fondled her. When his foster mother learned of this incident, she reported the offence to social workers, insisting Black be placed in alternate accommodation.

Adolescence

Black was placed in a mixed-sex children's home on the outskirts of Falkirk. In this residence, Black regularly exposed himself to girls; on one occasion, he is known to have forcibly removed the underwear of a girl. As a result of these incidents, staff at this children's home held a conference with welfare agencies to decide on the best course of action to take: A decision was reached to send Black to a high-discipline, all-male establishment. The locale of this move was the Red House Care Home in Musselburgh.

Within weeks of Black arriving at the Red House Care Home, he had himself become the victim of repeated instances of sexual abuse from a male staff member. This systematic abuse would continue for three years and would typically involve Black being forced to perform fellatio on his abuser. The abuse would only cease when this staff member died of natural causes.

While Black resided at the Red House Care Home, he also studied at Musselburgh Grammar School, where he developed an interest in football and swimming, although his fellow students recall him being a taciturn individual, with few friends.

In 1963, Black left the Red House Care Home. With assistance from child welfare agencies, he relocated to Greenock, where he found lodgings in another boys' home and obtained employment as a butcher's delivery boy. Within this employment, Black later confessed that, while on his rounds, if he discovered a young girl alone in a home to which he made a delivery, he would sexually fondle her before leaving the premises; he would later estimate to have molested between 30 and 40 girls in this manner, although none of these incidents seem to have been officially reported.

First conviction

On a summer evening in 1963, Black—loitering in a local park—encountered a seven-year-old girl playing alone on the swings. After conversing with the child for a few minutes, he lured her to a deserted air-raid shelter on the pretext of showing her some kittens. Inside the shelter, Black held the girl by the throat until she lost consciousness, before masturbating over her body, then running from the scene. The girl was later found close to the air-raid shelter, crying hysterically. The following day, Black was arrested at his lodgings and later appeared at Greenock Sheriff court, charged with lewd and libidinous behaviour.

Prior to his court appearance on 25 June, Black was subject to a psychiatric examination; the official report of which suggested this incident had been an isolated offence, and that he was not in need of further treatment. As a result of this prognosis, Black was simply admonished for this offence. Nonetheless, shortly after this admonition, Black relocated to Grangemouth, where he obtained lodgings with an elderly couple and obtained a job with a builders' supply company. He also began dating a young woman named Pamela Hodgson, whom he had met at a local youth club. Hodgson was to prove to be his only known adult girlfriend, and the two dated for several months. According to Black, he had been smitten with Hodgson, and did ask her to marry him, although he was devastated when Hodgson chose to end their brief relationship.

In 1966, Black's landlords discovered that whenever their nine-year-old granddaughter had visited them, the child had been molested by Black. Out of fear of the trauma to which their granddaughter may be subjected if authorities were informed, Black's landlords chose not to notify police, although he was sternly ordered to leave their house. Shortly after this incident, Black was fired from his job, and chose to return to Kinlochleven, where he lodged with a married couple who had a six-year-old daughter.

Borstal sentence

Within a year of his taking lodgings in Kinlochleven, Black's landlords discovered he had molested their daughter whenever he had been entrusted to babysit the child; he was immediately reported to police, and he later pleaded guilty to the three counts of indecent assault against a child brought against him.

On 22 March 1967, Black was sentenced to a year of borstal training, to be completed at Polmont Borstal in Brightons. This borstal specialised in training and rehabilitating serious youthful offenders, and although Black would later freely talk about every aspect of his youth and adolescence to criminologists—including the sexual abuse he had been subjected to at the Red House Care Home—he resolutely refused to discuss his experiences while incarcerated at Polmont Borstal. This reticence has led to speculation Black may have been brutalised as he served his sentence at this borstal.

Relocation to London

Six months after his March 1968 release from Polmont Borstal, Black chose to leave Scotland and relocate to London, where he initially found lodgings in a bedsit close to King's Cross station. Between 1968 and 1970, he supported himself through various menial forms of employment. One of these employment roles was as a lifeguard at a Hornsey swimming pool, although Black was soon fired from this role for fondling a young girl. No official charges were brought against Black for this offence.

While living in London, Black began to amass a large collection of child pornography, with much of this material initially purchased from a contact he had met at a King's Cross bookshop. Initially, this material was solely in magazine and photographic format, although he would later expand this collection to include videos depicting graphic child sexual abuse. As Black was a keen photographer, he would occasionally discreetly photograph children at locations such as swimming pools; these images would be stored alongside his pornographic material inside locked suitcases, and most images taken were of girls between the ages of eight and 12.

In his free time, Black frequented a Stamford Hill pub named the Three Crowns, where he became known as proficient darts player on the amateur darts circuit. At this public house, he also became acquainted with a Scottish couple named Edward and Kathy Rayson, who offered Black lodgings in their spare room. Shortly thereafter, Black moved into the Raysons' residence. He was considered a responsible, if somewhat reclusive tenant who, beyond his poor hygiene, gave the Raysons no cause for complaint. Although Mrs. Rayson did suspect Black of being an avid viewer and reader of pornographic material, neither she or her husband suspected the material to be paedophilic. Black was to remain their lodger until his arrest in 1990.

Long-distance driving employment

To increase his scope of the casual work he survived upon in the mid-1970s, Black purchased a white Fiat van to enable him to commit to driving for a living. In 1976, Black secured permanent employment as a van driver for a firm named Poster, Dispatch and Storage Ltd.; a Hoxton-based firm whose fleet delivered posters—typically depicting pop stars—and billboard advertisements to numerous locations across the United Kingdom, with other delivery destinations being in Ireland and continental Europe. To his employers, Black was a conscientious employee who was willing to undertake long-distance deliveries some of his married co-workers loathed.

While working as a driver for this firm, Black developed a thorough knowledge of much of the United Kingdom's road network, subsequently enabling him to snatch children across the entire country and dispose of their bodies hundreds of miles from the site of their abduction. To reduce the chance of his being identified by eyewitnesses, Black regularly subtly, but effectively, adjusted his appearance by alternately sporting a beard or appearing clean-shaven, and occasionally shaving his head completely bald. Furthermore, Black owned over a dozen pairs of spectacles, and would wear a pair vastly different from those he regularly wore when committing his abductions.

First murders

Jennifer Cardy

The first murder for which Black was convicted was that of Jennifer Cardy, who was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered on 12 August 1981—just two weeks after her 9th birthday. Cardy was last seen by her mother at 1:40 p.m. as she cycled from her house in the County Antrim village of Ballinderry to play with a friend named Louise Major; when she had not returned home to watch Jackanory, her family telephoned Major's parents, learning their daughter had not arrived at her friend's home. Cardy's parents then reported their daughter missing to police, who immediately implemented a search for the missing child.

Hours later, Cardy's bicycle—covered with branches and leaves—was discovered less than one mile from her home. The stand of the bicycle was downwards, suggesting that Jennifer had stopped her bicycle to converse with whomever had likely abducted her. Despite intensive police inquiries, no potential eyewitnesses to Cardy's evident abduction could be located.

Six days after Cardy's disappearance, two duck hunters discovered her body in a dam located close to a dual carriageway in the village of Hillsborough; just 15 miles (24 km) from her home. Evident signs of sexual abuse were noted upon Cardy's body and underwear by the pathologist called to the scene, although a full autopsy concluded she had died of drowning—most likely accompanied by ligature strangulation.

The A697 towards Cornhill-on-Tweed. Black is believed to have abducted Susan Maxwell as she walked along this road on 30 July 1982

Susan Maxwell

Black's second confirmed victim was 11-year-old Susan Claire Maxwell, whom Black abducted on the afternoon of 30 July 1982. Maxwell lived in the village of Cornhill-on-Tweed on the English side of the Anglo-Scottish border, and was abducted as she walked home from a game of tennis she had played across the border in the Scottish town of Coldstream. She was seen by several eyewitnesses walking the two miles from the tennis courts to her home; although none of these eyewitnesses had seen her after 4:30 p.m., when she was last seen alive crossing the bridge over the River Tweed. Shortly after this final eyewitness sighting, Maxwell was abducted by Black—most likely shortly after she walked across the bridge spanning the River Tweed.

Maxwell was reported missing by her mother, Elizabeth, who had driven to the tennis courts to collect her daughter, only to learn from her daughter's friend the two had parted company outside Coldstream police station to walk their separate journeys home. The following day, a full-scale search was mounted, involving police from both sides of the Anglo-Scottish border, many with search dogs. At the peak of this search, 300 officers were assigned full-time to locate Maxwell; their search involved house-to-house inquiries and would expand to include a thorough search of every property within Cornhill and Coldstream and, with assistance from fell rescue teams, over 80 square miles of terrain. Several individuals spoke of seeing a white van within the locality, with one witness stating the van had been parked in a field gateway off the A697, although the information as to the model of the van was limited.

A coroner's inquest would later conclude Susan Maxwell had died shortly after she had been abducted, although her precise date of death remains unknown. Evidently, Maxwell remained in Black's van—alive or dead—for in excess of 24 hours, as his delivery schedule encompassed Edinburgh, Dundee, and finally Glasgow, where he is known to have made his final scheduled delivery close to midnight. The following day, Black returned from Glasgow to London, discarding Maxwell's body in a copse alongside the A518 road near the Staffordshire town of Uttoxeter en route. This copse was a distance of 264 miles (425 km) from where Maxwell had been abducted.

On 12 August, Maxwell's body was found by a lorry driver; her body was covered with undergrowth, and was fully clothed save for her shoes and underwear. Maxwell was later identified via dental records, although the precise date and cause of her death could not be determined due to the advanced state of decomposition. Nonetheless, Maxwell had been bound, her mouth had been gagged with sticking plaster, and her underwear had been removed and neatly folded beneath her head, strongly suggesting she had been subjected to a sexual assault before her murder.

Caroline Hogg

Five-year-old Caroline Hogg was Black's youngest known victim. She disappeared while playing outside her Beach Lane home in the Edinburgh suburb of Portobello in the early evening of 8 July 1983, having asked her mother, Annette, if she could play in the playground outside her home "just five more minutes". When she had not returned home by 7:15 p.m., her parents and brother briefly searched the surrounding streets, where they encountered a boy Caroline's age, who informed the Hoggs he had recently seen their daughter in the company of a man on the nearby promenade. This in turn caused the Hoggs to frantically search the promenade, before reporting Caroline as missing to the Lothian and Borders Police.

The Lothian and Borders Police launched an intense search, coordinated from Leith and Portobello police stations, which was at that time the largest ever conducted in Scottish history. This search saw 2000 local volunteers and 50 members of the Royal Scots Fusiliers search all of Portobello and its environs, then expand their search to Edinburgh. In addition, the missing child search saw extensive local and national media coverage: by 10 July, Hogg's disappearance was headline news across the whole of the United Kingdom. (Nine known paedophiles were identified as having been in Portobello on the evening of Hogg's disappearance, although all were eliminated from the inquiry.)

Numerous eyewitnesses had seen an unkempt, "furtive-looking", balding man, wearing horn-rimmed glasses, watching Hogg as she played in the playground; he had then followed her as she left the playground to walk to a nearby fairground named Fun City. En route, Hogg was seen by a 14-year-old girl named Jennifer Booth sitting on a bench in this man's company. Booth—assuming the pair to be father and daughter—overheard Hogg reply, "Yes please" to an indecipherable question posed to her by this individual, before Hogg had begun walking to the fairground, holding his hand.

At Fun City, this same man had paid 15 pence for Caroline to ride on a children's carousel as he stood and watched her; Hogg then left the funfair in his company, and according to one child who had witnessed her leave the fair, she had seemed frightened.

Hogg remained in Black's van for a minimum of 24 hours, although her precise date and cause of death remains unknown. Black is known to have made a scheduled delivery of posters to Glasgow several hours after the abduction, and to have refueled his van in the Cumbrian city of Carlisle in the early hours of the following morning.

On 18 July, Hogg's naked body was found discarded in a ditch close to the M1 motorway in the Leicestershire village of Twycross. This village was a distance of 310 miles (500 km) from where she had been abducted, and was just 24 miles from where Maxwell's body had been found the previous year.

The precise cause of Hogg's death could not be determined due to the extent of decomposition, although the entomologist who examined her remains opined his belief the body could not have been placed in its location before 12 July, leaving a possibility Black had disposed of the body as he made a delivery to Bedworth on this date. Regardless of the date Black disposed of Hogg's body, the complete absence of any clothing upon her remains again suggested a sexual motive behind the murder.

The following March, a televised reconstruction of Hogg's abduction was broadcast nationally in the hope of producing further eyewitnesses. Following this broadcast, Hogg's father appealed to the public to provide anonymous tips as to the perpetrator, stating: "You think it can never happen to you, but it has proven time and time again that it can, and it could again if this man isn't caught in the near future."

Coordinated task force

By the spring of 1983, the number of detectives assigned to the inquiry into Maxwell's murder had decreased, although a sizeable contingent of detectives nevertheless remained assigned full-time to the case. Following the July 1983 discovery of Caroline Hogg's body in Leicestershire, the Detective Chief superintendent of Staffordshire Police, Dennis Boden, held an emergency meeting with senior Staffordshire and Leicestershire detectives to discuss the possibility the same perpetrator had committed both murders; the unanimous opinion among those present at this meeting was that both murders had been committed by the same perpetrator. (Cardy's murder would not be formally linked to this series until 2009.)

Due to the sheer distance between victim abduction and discovery sites, police suspected the same perpetrator had committed the murders of both Maxwell and Hogg, and that this individual worked in a profession which required him to travel extensively across the United Kingdom to locations which included the Scottish Borders in a profession such as a lorry or van driver, or a sales representative. In addition, both girls had been bound and likely subjected to a sexual assault prior to her murder; and each had been wearing white ankle socks at the time of her abduction, which may have triggered a fetish within the perpetrator's psyche. In addition, due to the geographical and circumstantial nature of the offences, the perpetrator was most likely an opportunist.

Moreover, based upon the actual days of the week when Maxwell and Hogg had been abducted (a Friday), the killer was likely tied to a delivery or production schedule. Following the August 1982 discovery of Maxwell's body, transport firms with links between Scotland and the Midlands were contacted, and drivers questioned as to their whereabouts on the dates of the abductions, although this investigative tactic failed to yield results.

Despite a collective frustration at the lack of a breakthrough in their search for the perpetrator of these murders, complete cooperation existed between the detectives from the four separate police forces thus far involved in the manhunt. Initially, a satellite incident room, based in Coldstream, coordinated the collective efforts of all forces involved in the hunt for Maxwell's killer, with incident rooms in Leith and Portobello coordinating the collective search for Hogg's; however, within hours of Caroline Hogg's body being discovered, consensus among the Chief constables of all forces now involved in investigating these crimes was that the two cases were linked, and all agreed it would be expedient to appoint a senior investigating officer to coordinate the inquiries. A decision was agreed to appoint Hector Clark, the Assistant Chief Constable of Northumbria Police, to take overall charge of the investigation. Clark established incident rooms in Northumberland and Leith police stations, to liaise between the four respective police forces involved in the hunt for the girls' murderer.

HOLMES database

All information relating to both child murders was initially logged within a card filing system, which initially grew to contain 500,000 index cards relating to the Maxwell case alone. Mindful of the criticisms pertaining to the then-recent investigation into the Yorkshire Ripper, which had become overwhelmed due to the sheer volume of information filed within a card filing system, one of Clark's first decisions upon taking overall charge of the murder investigation was to introduce computerised technology into the investigation; he and other senior officers agreed that the most efficient way to cooperate in an investigation of this scope was to collate their information pertaining to the Hogg murder into a computerised database, which all forces involved in the manhunt could access. (Information relating to Maxwell's murder initially remained on a card filing system, but would later be entered onto this database.)

By January 1987, all information relating to the three murders initially linked to Robert Black would be entered into the newly established HOLMES information technology system, with the £250,000 cost to implement this technology provided by the Home Office. Information would continue to be entered into this database in order that police forces nationwide would be able to cross-check all data fed into this system. This database—based at the Child Murder Bureau in the West Yorkshire city of Bradford—would expand to hold information upon over 187,000 individuals, 220,000 vehicles, and details of interviews held with over 60,000 people. Much of the information had been obtained through three confidential hotlines established by the inquiry team in 1984. As a result of the investigation into the killings, numerous unrelated crimes, including offences relating to child abuse, were solved.

Brunswick Place, Morley. Sarah Harper is believed to have been abducted from one of the alleyways leading to this street on 26 March 1986

Sarah Harper

At approximately 7:50 p.m. on 26 March 1986, 10-year-old Sarah Jayne Harper disappeared from the Leeds suburb of Morley, having left her home upon an errand to purchase a loaf of bread from a corner shop located just 100 yards from her home. The owner of this shop, a Mrs. Champaneri, was able to confirm that Harper had purchased a loaf of bread and two packets of crisps from her at approximately 7:55 p.m., and that a balding man had briefly entered her shop moments later, before leaving as Harper made her purchases.

Sarah Harper was last seen alive by two girls walking into an alley leading towards her Brunswick Place home; when she had not returned by 8:20 p.m., her mother and sister briefly searched the surrounding streets, before Jackie Harper reported her daughter missing to West Yorkshire Police, who immediately launched an extensive search for the child. Over 100 policemen and women were assigned full-time to the search for Sarah Harper; this full-scale search saw house-to-house inquiries conducted across Morley, over 3,000 properties thoroughly searched, more than 10,000 leaflets distributed, and 14,00 witness statements obtained. Furthermore, a police search of all surrounding land terrain was bolstered by some 200 local volunteers, while a reservoir in nearby Tingley was searched by underwater units.

Extensive inquiries by West Yorkshire Police did reveal that a white Transit van had been in the area where Harper had been abducted. In addition, two suspicious men had been seen loitering in the vicinity of the route Harper would have taken to the corner shop, one of whom was a stocky, balding man. Mindful of the possibility Harper had been abducted, West Yorkshire Police dispatched a telex to all forces nationwide, requesting they search the vicinity of all locations where they had previously discovered child murder victims.

At a press conference on 3 April, Sarah's mother, Jackie, informed journalists she feared her daughter was dead, and elaborated the worst torment she and her family endured was the uncertainty of Sarah's whereabouts. In a direct appeal to her daughter's abductor, Jackie stated: "I just want her back, even if she's dead. If someone would just pick up the phone and tell us where the body is." Upon leaving the press conference, Mrs. Harper fainted.

On 19 April, a man named David Moult discovered Sarah's nude, gagged and bound body floating in the River Trent near Nottingham; a distance of approximately 71 miles (114 km) from the site of her abduction. An autopsy revealed she had died within five hours of her abduction, and that the cause of her death had been drowning, although injuries she had received to her face, forehead, head and neck had most likely rendered her unconscious prior to her being thrown into the water. Furthermore, in addition to being beaten, Harper had been the victim of a violent and sustained sexual assault prior to being thrown into the river, with these pre-mortem internal injuries being described by the pathologist as "simply terrible".

Days after Harper's body had been found, a further witness contacted West Yorkshire Police to state that at approximately 9:15 p.m. on 26 March, he had seen a white van with a stocky, balding man standing by the passenger door, parked close to the River Soar. As the River Soar is a tributary river to the River Trent, and the description of the vehicle and individual matched those earlier obtained from Morley residents, investigators did take this eyewitness account seriously. Moreover, Black is known to have refueled his van in the Buckinghamshire town of Newport Pagnell the following afternoon, leaving a likely scenario he had driven Harper to the village of Ratcliffe on Soar, and had discarded her body in the River Soar either in the late evening of the date of her abduction, or the early hours of the following day.

Realising the likelihood Harper's murderer had travelled on the M1 motorway prior to disposing of her body in the River Trent, and that he would have had to refuel his vehicle as he made this journey, officers from both West Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire Police questioned staff and motorists at all service stations on the M1 motorway between the Yorkshire village of Woolley and the Nottinghamshire village of Trowell, asking all whom they questioned whether they had noted anything amiss or unusual on 26 or 27 March. Staff at one station had noted a white Transit van which had seemed out of place on the evening of 26 March, although they could not offer a clear description of the driver.

Link to series

Detective John Stainthorpe, head of the Leeds South Division of West Yorkshire Police, had initially publicly stated his doubts as to Harper's disappearance being linked to those of Maxwell and Hogg: In one interview, he had stated that although he would not discount the possibility, his conviction had been Sarah's abductor had close, personal connections with Morley. Upon the discovery of her body in the River Trent, he revised his opinion.

Numerous similarities linked the murder of Sarah Harper to those of Maxwell and Hogg: she had been a prepubescent, Caucasian female, abducted from Northern England and found later murdered in the Midlands. Furthermore, all three victims had been discovered within 26 miles (42 km) of the town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and each girl had been wearing white ankle socks at the time of her disappearance.

Despite these similarities, several investigators initially held reservations as to whether Harper's murder should be linked to the series due to the differing factors in the circumstances of her abduction and the details of her subsequent autopsy, which had revealed the child had been subjected to a serious sexual assault prior to her murder, whereas decomposition had erased any such clear traces upon the bodies of the two previous victims. Furthermore, Harper had been abducted on a rainy Wednesday evening from a suburb in the north of England, wearing a hooded anorak covering much of her face, as opposed to being abducted on a summer Friday afternoon at or near the Scottish Borders while wearing clothing which could to a pervert be described as being "revealing". Nonetheless, investigators did remain open-minded as to whether Harper's murder had been committed by the same perpetrator, and telephone and computer connections were established between the incident room in the Leeds district of Holbeck and Leith.

Harper's murder was formally linked to the series in November 1986.

National manhunt

Following the murder of Sarah Harper, with six separate police forces now involved in the collective hunt for the same offender, a consensus was reached among the two further police forces now involved in the manhunt that Hector Clark (by this time Detective Chief Constable of the Lothian and Borders Police) should maintain overall command of the investigation. Clark opted to create new headquarters in the West Yorkshire city of Wakefield, to act as a liaison branch between the six separate forces united in the manhunt for the same offender.

On 21 April 1986, the head of Scotland Yard's Criminal Intelligence Branch, Phillip Corbett, hosted a summit meeting at Scotland Yard, to discuss the methods used to collate and share information between respective forces involved in the manhunt, and to investigate potential links between 19 other unsolved child murders across the United Kingdom which may have been committed by the same perpetrator or associates of his. In attendance were senior officers from 16 separate forces across the United Kingdom. (At this stage, the inquiry had cost in excess of a million pounds.)

"The abduction of this victim from a public area within walking distance of the victim's residence represents a desperate act by a man whose need for little children is greater than his fear of being exposed as a paedophile. He was relaxed and comfortable while "buying" the victim's favour in a public area, because he spends a great deal of time in such places watching and seeking out young victims."

Section of the 1988 FBI psychological profile of Robert Black, pertaining to the abduction of Caroline Hogg.

One of the suggestions raised at this meeting was for investigators to contact the FBI and formally request they compose a psychological profile of the perpetrator for U.K. investigators. This suggestion was approved, and the FBI did receive this formal request in 1986, although they would not complete their profile until early 1988.

In relation to the criteria pertaining to individuals previously convicted of sexual offences against children to be entered into the HOLMES database, investigators concluded only those with convictions for serious sexual offences against children were to warrant further investigation as to their alibis on the dates the three victims linked to the killer had been abducted, and their otherwise potential involvement. Those to be checked were to have been convicted of child murder, child abduction or attempted child abduction, or the indecent assault of a child. Every police force within the United Kingdom was asked to check their databases for any individuals who had received convictions for any of these offences within 10 years of the 1982 murder of Susan Maxwell. This criteria only narrowed the number of individuals to be checked to 40,000 men, and Black's name was not among those compiled upon this list, as his sole conviction for a sexual offence against a child had dated from 1967.

In January 1988, the FBI announced the completion of their psychological profile to their U.K. counterparts. The profile drawn by the FBI described the killer as a white male aged between 30 and 40 (likely closer to 40), who was a classic loner. This offender would appear unkempt in appearance, and had received less than 12 years of formal education. He likely lived alone, in rented accommodation, in a lower-middle class neighbourhood. Furthermore, this profile deduced the motive for the child killings was sexual, that the offender held a fixation with child pornography, that he retained souvenirs from his victims, and he most likely engaged in necrophilia with his victims' bodies shortly after their death, before disposing of them.

Attempted abduction

On 23 April 1988, an attempted abduction of a teenage girl occurred in the Nottingham district of Radford which was initially deemed by Nottinghamshire Police to be unlinked to the three child killings under national investigation, and thus remained unreported to Hector Clark or any senior investigators in the national manhunt despite the fact all Chief Constables across the United Kingdom had earlier received instructions to report incidents of this nature to the inquiry team. The victim of this attempted abduction was a 15-year-old named Teresa Thornhill, who was just 4 ft 11 in in height, which may have led Black to assume she was younger than her 15 years.

That evening, Thornhill had been at a social gathering in a local park with her boyfriend, Andrew Beeston, and other teenagers before opting to walk home with her boyfriend. The pair had parted company at the end of Norton Street before Thornhill noted a blue Transit van slowing to a stop shortly ahead of her; the driver of this van then exited this vehicle, before raising the van's bonnet and asking Thornhill whether she knew how to fix engines. When Thornhill replied she did not, Black clasped his arms across her mouth and naval and attempted to drag her into his vehicle.

Thornhill fiercely resisted her abductor: writhing and kicking as she attempted to free herself from what she later described as his "vice-like" grasp of her body. As her would-be-abductor wrestled her to his van, Thornhill squeezed his testicles, causing him to loosen his grasp sufficiently enough for her to bite into his right forearm. In response, Black shouted, "Oh! You... bitch!" as Teresa herself began to scream for her mother, wedging her feet on each side of the door frame as she struggled to resist being forced into the van. At the same time, Andrew Beeston ran towards the van shouting: "Let go of her, you fat bastard!" Upon hearing this, Black loosened his grip on Thornhill, who slumped into the road, sobbing. Black himself ran into the driver's seat of his vehicle and sped away from the scene.

Both Thornhill and Beeston ran to Teresa's home and informed her parents what had occurred; in response, Thornhill's parents immediately reported this attempted abduction to Nottinghamshire Police, who questioned both youngsters. Both Thornhill and Beeston described her would-be-abductor as an overweight, balding and heavily built man aged between 40 and 50 who had been approximately 5 ft 7 in in height.

Capture

Black was arrested in the Scottish village of Stow on 14 July 1990. On this date, a 53-year-old retired postmaster named David Herkes had been mowing his front garden in this village. As he did so, he witnessed a blue Transit van slow to a standstill across the road from his residence and the driver of this vehicle exit the van—ostensibly to clean his windshield—as the six-year-old daughter of his (Herkes') neighbour passed his field of view. As Herkes stooped to clear grass cuttings from his lawnmower, he noticed his neighbours' daughter's feet raise from the pavement; Herkes then straightened his back to observe the vehicle's driver hastily pushing an object through the passenger door, before clambering across to the driver's seat, closing the passenger door shut, then rapidly switching on the engine.

Instantly realising a child kidnapping was in progress, Herkes noted the number plate of the van as the driver rapidly negotiated a three-point turn and accelerated from the scene. Herkes ran to the home of the schoolgirl who had been abducted and informed her mother of what he had observed; in response, the girl's mother immediately called the police.

Within minutes, six police vehicles had arrived in the village, where they were met by Herkes and the schoolgirl's distraught mother; when police began questioning Herkes outside his address, he (Herkes) relayed a description of the van in which the schoolgirl had been abducted, before providing officers with the vehicle's number plate. As Herkes conversed with these officers, he observed the same van driving in their direction and exclaimed, "That's him! That's the same van!" Immediately upon hearing this, one officer jumped in front of the van, forcing the driver to swerve and brake to a halt. This officer and his colleagues at the scene removed the van driver from his seat and handcuffed him as they straddled him face-down on the pavement.

One of the officers who had raced to the scene of the abduction was the father of the abducted child. As Black was restrained by his colleagues, this officer opened the rear doors of the van and clambered inside, calling his daughter's name, before noting movement in a sleeping bag located towards the partition separating the rear of the van from the driver's compartment. The girl's father then untied the drawstring sealing this bag to discover his daughter with her hands bound behind her back, her legs tied together, her mouth gagged with sticking plaster, and a hood tied over her head.

Upon removing his daughter from the van, the father of this child turned to Black and exclaimed: "That's my daughter, you bastard!" Black was then taken to Selkirk police station. En route, he informed a Sergeant Ormiston: "It was a rush of blood to the head; I have always liked little girls since I was a lad. I tied her up because I wanted to keep her until I had dropped a parcel off. I was going to let her go." Black then claimed he had only interfered with his victim "a little" before his capture.

Shortly after her rescue, the child victim of this abduction was examined by a doctor, who discovered she had been subjected to a serious sexual assault. (Black's intention had been to quickly make a final scheduled delivery to Galashiels before further abusing and almost certainly killing his victim.)

Investigation and charges

At Selkirk police station, Black was charged with plagium, and held on remand prior to his scheduled court appearance at Selkirk Sheriff court. As Black awaited this scheduled 16 July court appearance, the detective superintendent—noting the similarities between the Stow abduction and the three child killings—notified Hector Clark of Black's arrest. On 16 July, Clark travelled from Wakefield to briefly interview Black at Edinburgh's St. Leonard's police station. Although the answers Clark received from Black in this brief interview were largely monosyllabic, he concluded the interview with an instinctive feeling Black was the man he had sought since 1982. (Black's initial remand hearing saw him ordered to stand trial at the Edinburgh High Court for the abduction of the Stow schoolgirl; he was then transferred to the custody of Saughton Prison.)

A search of Black's impounded Transit van revealed numerous instruments used as restraining devices including assorted ropes, sticking plaster, and hoods. In addition, investigators discovered numerous articles of girls' clothing, a mattress, and a selection of sexual aids. When asked to explain these items, Black explained that, on his long-distance deliveries, he had been in the habit of pulling into a lay-by and dressing in the children's clothing before masturbating. He was unable to give a plausible explanation pertaining to the sexual aids recovered. (Investigators would later discover that although none of the clothing recovered from Black's van had belonged to any of the victims, he had kept the mattress, restraining devices and sexual aids stowed for use upon his victims.)

At the request of Scottish detectives, the Metropolitan Police conducted a search of Black's Stamford Hill lodgings to determine whether any incriminating evidence existed at Black's address. This search revealed a large collection of child pornography in both magazine, photographic and video format, including 58 videos and films depicting graphic child sexual abuse which Black later claimed to have purchased in continental Europe. Also found were several items of children's clothing, a copy of a Nottingham newspaper detailing the 1988 attempted abduction of Teresa Thornhill, and a variety of purpose-designed sex aids. This material was confiscated and sent to Edinburgh to assist in the ongoing investigation.

Prior to his scheduled trial, both Black's appointed defence attorney, Herbert Kerrigan QC, and the Edinburgh procurator fiscal ordered that he undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Both assessments were undertaken by eminent psychiatrists, and both reports were uncompromising regarding Black's deviancy and proclivities towards children.

In his pretrial consultations with Herbert Kerrigan, Black informed his attorney of his intentions to plead guilty to the abduction charges.

Abduction trial

Robert Black was brought to trial for the abduction and sexual assault of the Stow schoolgirl on 10 August 1990. He was tried at the Edinburgh High Court before Lord Donald MacArthur Ross. This trial would last just one day.

In his opening statement on behalf of the defence, Herbert Kerrigan announced to the court his client's intention to plead guilty to all charges within the indictment. The Lord Advocate of Scotland Lord Fraser of Carmyllie QC (personally appearing on behalf of the prosecution), then outlined all facts pertaining to the case, hearkening to the implements found within Black's van as a clear sign of premeditation, and further referring to medical testimony delivered at the trial from a medical expert who had stated the schoolgirl would likely have died of suffocation within 15 minutes had she not been rescued. Lord Fraser of Carmyllie then requested the judge impose a lengthy sentence upon Black.

Testimony delivered at the trial also revealed that, after kidnapping the Stow schoolgirl, Black had briefly driven his victim to a lay-by to sexually abuse her, before returning through the village from which he had abducted her. A statement by the child victim of this abduction was read to the court, in which the Stow schoolgirl had stated she "didn't know he [Black] was a bad man" as Black had stared at her before bundling her into his van.

In rebuttal to the prosecution's testimony, Kerrigan reiterated his client's insistence that the abduction had been unplanned, and that he had intended to release the girl after assaulting her. Kerrigan further stated that his client freely admitted his paedophilic preferences, and his claims to have successfully fought against the overwhelming urges to abduct young girls prior to the incident in question. Finally, Kerrigan argued that Black accepted his being a danger to children and his (Black's) wish to undergo treatment. Upon conclusion of this surrebuttal, both counsels rested to await Judge Ross's verdict.

"The abduction of this little girl was carried out with a chilling, cold calculation. This was no 'rush of blood', as you have claimed. This is a very serious case; a horrific, appalling case ... You will go to prison for life, and your release will not be considered until such a time as it is safe to do so."

Lord Donald MacArthur Ross pronouncing sentence on Robert Black for the abduction of the Stow schoolgirl. 10 August 1990.

Life imprisonment

Prior to sentencing, Judge Ross first paid tribute to David Herkes, whose vigilance had been responsible for Black's arrest, before delivering his verdict. Sentencing Black to a term of life imprisonment for what he described as "a horrific, appalling case", Judge Ross stated his decision for this term was greatly influenced by the opinion of both psychiatrists who had concluded that Black was, and would remain, an extreme danger to children.

In September 1990, Black's announced his intention to file notice of appeal against his life sentence, although he would later abandon his appeal on the advice of his lawyers. In November 1990, he was transferred to Peterhead Prison to continue his sentence.

Further investigation

Formal questioning

Two weeks after Black's trial for the abduction of the Stow schoolgirl, Hector Clark again travelled to St. Leonard's police station to conduct a second, recorded interview with Black. On this occasion, he was accompanied by two colleagues named Andrew Watt and Roger Orr, whom he had appointed to conduct the actual interview, with specific instructions they were to inform Black from the outset they were in no way judgmental to anything he chose to divulge.

In this six-hour interview, Black freely discussed his early sexual experiences, his experimentation in various forms of self-abuse, and his attraction towards young children; he also divulged his penchant for wearing young girls' clothing, and further confided to having sexually assaulted in excess of 30 young girls between the 1960s and 1980s; however, he was largely uncommunicative in response to questions even loosely pertaining to any unsolved child murders and disappearances. Nonetheless, Black did confide to having successfully enticed two young girls into his van in Carlisle upon the pretext of asking for directions in late 1985, before opting to allow the girls to leave when eyewitnesses had appeared.

The latter stages of this interview saw both men steer their questioning directly to the subject of child abduction and murder. Both men had chosen to focus their questions on these subjects specifically in relation to the murder of Caroline Hogg. Informing Black that police had already established he had been in Portobello on the date of Hogg's abduction, Watt and Orr then tacitly informed him they had eyewitness accounts and petrol-station receipts, further proving his being in the vicinity of Portobello on the date of Hogg's abduction. Orr then produced a composite drawing of the man with whom Hogg had left the funfair, and placed this composite alongside photographs of Black dating from the early 1980s—hearkening as to their similarities.

As had been the case in Clark's interview on 16 July, Black's replies became evasive and monosyllabic in response to this line of questioning. The final question both men asked Black was a direct appeal for him to at least confess to end the suffering of the families of his victims. Black chose not to respond to this question.

Despite the fact the information gleaned in this exhaustive interview would achieve little to actually advance the ongoing murder inquiry, upon the conclusion of this six-hour interview, Clark informed his two colleagues: "That's our man. I'd bet my life on it."

Accumulation of evidence

Detectives from the six respective forces in the United Kingdom linked to the joint manhunt leading to Black's capture then began an intense and painstaking endeavour to gather sufficient evidence to convince the Crown Prosecution Service sufficient circumstantial evidence existed to justify instigating legal proceedings against Black with a reasonable chance of securing convictions. (As was his legal right, Black refused to cooperate with the detectives in their investigation.)

One of the first areas of focus for this joint investigation was the firm at which Black had been employed since 1976. Investigators contacted Poster, Dispatch and Storage Ltd. in an attempt to establish whether travel records could confirm Black's whereabouts on crucial dates linked to the investigation. Staff at this firm were able to confirm that Black had always purchased petrol using credit cards, the receipts of which he would then submit to his firm to claim expenses. These files, plus several historical delivery schedules, were still in the company's archives. Investigators searched through these archives; discovering that Black had made scheduled delivery runs to the counties from where the abductions had occurred on the dates of each victim's abduction, and although the precise times he had been in the actual abduction vicinity were difficult to adduce, petrol receipts confirmed he had purchased petrol close to the location from where each girl had been abducted on the date of her disappearance. For example, on the date of Sarah Harper's disappearance, Black had been scheduled to make a series of deliveries across the Midlands and Northern England. The two final deliveries upon this schedule had been in West Yorkshire: the town of Brighouse; then a final delivery in Morley at a firm located just 150 yards from Harper's home. Black had refueled his van between these two destinations shortly before Harper had last been seen alive.

In addition, investigators discovered that upon his return to London from his long-distance deliveries to Northern England or Scotland, Black had regularly slept overnight in a house in the Midlands village of Donisthorpe which belonged to his landlords' son. This village was close to where all three victims' bodies had been discovered. Furthermore, Leeds detectives discovered that, on his regular deliveries to Morley, Black often slept in his van overnight in premises just 150 yards from where Sarah Harper had been abducted.

Upon learning of the fact Poster, Dispatch and Storage Ltd. had accounts with several oil companies which allowed their drivers to purchase fuel without cash exchanging hands, investigators then approached these oil companies with which Black's employers had this arrangement. With the cooperation of these firms, investigators obtained seven million archived microfiched credit card slips detailing fuel purchases paid via this method at every one of their nationwide premises between 1982 and 1986. These were sent to the reopened incident room in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, where a team of officers undertook the task of searching for Black's distinctive signature in an effort to pinpoint precisely when, where and at what time he had purchased his fuel. Although tedious, this endeavour did bear fruition: beginning in October 1990, investigators began to discover vital evidence proving Black had purchased fuel at petrol stations close to each abduction site shortly before or after each child had been abducted.

By December 1990, the inquiry team decided they had accumulated sufficient circumstantial evidence to convince the Crown there existed a reasonable prospect of securing convictions against Black, although Clark did harbour concerns the inquiry had not uncovered any actual forensic evidence to tie Black to the murders. Nonetheless, all accumulated evidence was submitted to the Crown in May 1991. In March 1992, Crown lawyers decided that although most of the evidence was circumstantial, the sheer weight of this evidence was sufficient to warrant Black being tried for the three murders, in addition to the attempted abduction of Teresa Thornhill. At a news conference held on 11 March, Hector Clark informed the press he was able to confirm that "criminal proceedings have been issued on the authority of the Crown Prosecution Service against Robert Black".

Several pretrial hearings were held between July 1992 and March 1994; these hearings saw Black's defence counsel submit contentions that their client be tried on each count separately, and that the prosecution not be allowed to demonstrate a any similarity between the modus operandi of each offence at the upcoming trial. In the penultimate pretrial hearing, held in January, Judge William Macpherson ruled against defence motions to try Black on each charge separately, and also ruled to allow the prosecution to submit similar fact evidence between the cases. This similar fact ruling allowed the prosecution to impart towards the similarities between each case tried, and to introduce into evidence Black's recent conviction for the abduction and sexual assault of the Stow schoolgirl.

Murder trials

On 13 April 1994, Robert Black stood trial before Judge William Macpherson at Moot Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne. Black pleaded not guilty to each of the 10 charges of kidnap, murder, attempted kidnap, and the preventing the lawful burial of a body for which he was indicted.

In his opening statement on behalf of the Crown, prosecutor John Milford QC described the case to be tried as "every parent's nightmare" as he outlined the prosecution's contention that Robert Black had committed the three child murders and the attempted abduction for which he was charged, and that the similarities between these offences and the 1990 abduction and sexual assault of the Stow schoolgirl for which Black was already serving a life sentence had been remarkable. Milford then chronologically outlined the circumstances of each abduction and murder for the jury; contending that each victim had remained alive in Black's van for several hours before her murder, and that each had been killed at or close to the location Black had disposed of her body. In the latter stages of this five-hour opening statement, Milford contended that Black had kidnapped each victim for his own sexual gratification, and hearkened to both Black's extensive record of child sexual abuse and the paraphernalia discovered in his vehicle and at his London address. Milford closed his opening speech by stating the petrol-station receipts and travel records to be produced would prove Black had been at all the abduction, attempted abduction and body recovery sites on the dates in question.

On the third day of the trial, the prosecution began to introduce witnesses, witness statements and forensic testimony into evidence. The evidence introduced saw each case covered chronologically, and contemporary statements made by the mother of each murder victim at the time of her child's abduction were read to the court, alongside testimony delivered by the pathologists who had examined each body at the recovery location, and general eyewitnesses.

Upon reliving the details of their daughters' kidnap and murder recited in these opening proceedings, relatives of the three murder victims wept openly.

Several of these initial witnesses were subjected to intense cross-examination by Black's appointed defence counsel, Ronald Thwaites, upon issues such as memory accuracy, and earlier police contact, although most witnesses remained steadfast in their insistence as to the accuracy of their testimony.

The trial of Robert Black lasted for five weeks. Following closing arguments delivered by both counsels, Judge Macpherson delivered final instructions to the jury on 16 May (these instructions would continue into the following morning). In these final instructions, Judge Macpherson implored the jury to discard any personal distaste as to Black's extensive history of sexual offences against children when considering their verdict, and not to simply prejudge his guilt simply because of his 1990 conviction in the Stow abduction and sexual assault. Judge Macpherson directed the jury to instead focus on the physical and circumstantial evidence presented at the trial and decide whether the "interlocking similarities" between the cases presented were sufficient to convince them of Black's guilt. The jury then retired to consider their verdict, and their deliberations would continue for two days.

First murder convictions

On 19 May, the jury found Black guilty of three counts of murder, in addition to the April 1988 attempted abduction of Teresa Thornhill; he was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 35 years on each of the three murder charges for which he was convicted. These life sentences were to be served concurrently.

Black remained unmoved upon receipt of this sentence, although as he prepared to leave the dock, he turned to the numerous detectives from the various United Kingdom forces present at his sentencing who, since 1982, had been involved in his manhunt and proclaimed, "Tremendous. Well done, boys." This statement caused several of the detectives to openly weep.

In July 1995, Black—at the time incarcerated at Wakefield prison—was attacked in his cell prison by two fellow inmates. In this attack, Black endured boiling water mixed with sugar thrown over him, before he was bludgeoned with a table leg, then stabbed in the back and neck with an improvised knife. Black sustained superficial wounds, burns and bruising in this attack; his attackers were each jailed for three years after admitting wounding Black with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Fourth murder trial

The trial of Robert Black for the sexual assault and murder of Jennifer Cardy began at Armagh Crown Court on 22 September 2011. He was tried before Judge Ronald Weatherup.

Black had been served with a formal summons to attend trial in Northern Ireland on 15 December, and was formally charged with Cardy's murder the following day. Despite acknowledging he may have been in Ireland on the date of Cardy's abduction, Black pleaded not guilty to the charges against him at his 2011 trial.

On the second day of the trial, prosecutors introduced into evidence petrol receipts proving he had been the region of Ballinderry on the date of her abduction; further evidence presented at trial included a salary ledger proving Black had been paid the sum of £50, which had only been given to drivers from his firm who made deliveries to Northern Ireland, and an order book confirming a delivery of billboard posters had been due in the vicinity of Ballinderry on the date of Cardy's abduction. Furthermore, Black was one of only two employees of Poster Dispatch and Storage Ltd. willing to travel to Northern Ireland due to the Troubles, and travel records from all other drivers employed at this firm eliminated them from any possibility of culpability on the date of Cardy's abduction, and a travel records had also had proven that, on the night of Cardy's abduction, Black had travelled on an overnight ferry from Northern Ireland to Liverpool, before refueling at Coventry the following day, en route to London.

In an effort to discredit the prosecution's contention Black had been making deliveries to Ireland, Black's defence counsel, David Spens, suggested on the fourth day of the trial the Coventry petrol receipt could only indicate Black had been making deliveries to Coventry on the day after Cardy's murder, although in rebuttal, prosecutor Toby Hedworth questioned a colleague of Black's, who confirmed the firm did not make deliveries to Coventry in the early 1980s.

Further conviction

Black's second murder trial lasted six weeks. On 27 October, he was found guilty of the abduction, sexual assault, and murder of Jennifer Cardy. For this fourth murder, Black was given a further life sentence, with formal hearings deferred as to the minimum term to be served.

On 8 December 2011, Judge Weatherup imposed a minimum term of 25 years for this offence. Upon imposing this sentence, Judge Weatherup informed Black: "Your crime was particularly serious; you subjected a vulnerable child to unpardonable terror and took away her life." Prior to his final sentencing for this fourth murder, Black's own defence lawyer, David Spens, had informed the court that no plea for mercy could be offered for his client; stating the case in question was "one of those rare cases in which there is no mitigation, and so I propose to say nothing in that regard."

At his sentencing, Black was informed that he would be at least 89 years old before he would be considered for release.

Death

Robert Black suffered a fatal heart attack while incarcerated at HMP Maghaberry on 12 January 2016. His death came just weeks before he was to be charged with the murder of Genette Tate.

Prior to his death, Black never admitted his culpability in any of the murders for which he was convicted or for which he was suspected; the closest he ever came to confessing to his crimes was in response to a question put to him shortly before his 1994 murder trial by Dr. Ray Wyre, a pioneer in the treatment of sex offenders who conducted several interviews with Black between 1990 and 1993. In this question, Wyre had asked Black why he never denied any of the charges brought against him. According to Wyre, Black had simply replied with the words, "Because I couldn't."

Black's body was cremated at Roselawn Crematorium, outside Belfast, on 29 January. No family or friends were present. In a service conducted after regular business hours which lasted barely six minutes, the Presbyterian chaplain of HMP Maghaberry, the Reverend Rodney Cameron, read a section of Psalm 90.

In February 2016, Black's ashes were discarded at sea, beyond the boundaries of Northern Ireland.

External images
Map of the United Kingdom and Europe depicting the locations of confirmed and suspected victim abduction sites
The four children murdered by Black

Suspected victims

Consensus among law enforcement personnel was that Black had committed more murders than the four for which he was convicted, with senior detectives believing the true number of victims Black had killed to be eight. Investigators did attempt to question Black in relation to numerous unsolved child murders and disappearances shortly after his 1990 arrest, although he refused to cooperate with the detectives in their investigation. Ultimately, the Crown Prosecution Service stated in 2008 that insufficient evidence existed to charge Black with any further murders.

At the time of Black's death, investigators had been just weeks away from charging him with the 1978 disappearance of 13-year-old Genette Tate. Although senior detectives believe Black had killed eight children in total, in addition to the Tate case, 12 further child murders and disappearances across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and continental Europe between 1969 and 1987 have been linked to Black.

United Kingdom

8 April 1969: April Fabb (13). Last seen cycling towards the Norfolk village of Roughton. Fabb's bicycle was found in a field upon the route she had taken, but her body was never found.

21 May 1973: Christine Markham (9). Scunthorpe schoolgirl last seen alive walking en route to school. Body never found.

19 August 1978: Genette Tate (13). Abducted while delivering newspapers in the Devonshire village of Aylesbeare. Genette's body has never been found. Black was just weeks from being charged with Genette's murder at the time of his death.

22 July 1979: Suzanne Lawrence (14). Disappeared after leaving her sister's home in Harold Hill, Essex. Body never found.

16 June 1980: Patricia Morris (14). Morris disappeared from the grounds of her comprehensive school; her fully clothed body was found in Hounslow Heath two days after her disappearance. She had been strangled with a ligature but had not been sexually assaulted.

4 November 1981: Pamela Hastie (16). Hastie's bludgeoned and strangled body was found in the Scottish town of Johnstone in November 1981. One eyewitness remains adamant he had seen a man matching Black's description running from the crime scene.

Ireland

18 March 1977: Mary Boyle (6). From Kincasslagh. Boyle disappeared while visiting her grandparents in Ballyshannon. Black is known to have been in County Donegal at the time of her disappearance. Body never found.

Germany

20 June 1985: Silke Garben (10). Disappeared on her way to a dental appointment in the town of Detmold. Later found sexually assaulted and strangled. Black is known to have made a delivery of posters to a British Army base located close to Garben's home on the date of her disappearance.

Netherlands

5 August 1986: Cheryl Morriën (7). Disappeared as she walked to her friend's home in the Netherlands city of IJmuiden. Her body has never been found. Black is known to have made regular trips to nearby Amsterdam to purchase child pornography.

France

5 May 1987: Virginie Delmas (10). Abducted from Neuilly-sur-Marne on 5 May 1987. Her body was later found in a Paris orchard on 9 October. Delmas had been strangled, although the extent of decomposition made the pathologist rule his findings indeterminable as to whether she had been raped before death.

30 May 1987 Hemma Davy-Greedharry (10). Greedharry's body was discovered in the Paris suburb of Malakoff two hours after she was last seen alive. She had been raped and strangled. Black is known to have regularly travelled upon the road where Greedharry's body was found when making deliveries in northern France.

3 June 1987 Perrine Vigneron (7). Disappeared on her way to purchase a Mother's Day card in the village of Bouleurs on 3 June; her body was discovered alongside in a rapeseed field on 27 June. A white van had been seen in Bouleurs on the day of Vigneron's disappearance.

27 June 1987 Sabine Dumont (9). Paris schoolgirl last seen alive in Bièvres on 27 June. Her strangled and sexually assaulted body was found the following day in the commune of Vauhallan.

Media

Books

Four books have been written about the case of Robert Black:

• Church, Robert (1996). Well Done, Boys: the Life and Crimes of Robert Black. Constable. ISBN 978-0-094-74150-8.
• Fear the Stranger: the Story of Britain's Biggest Child-Murder Hunt. Mainstream Publishing. 1994. ISBN 978-1-851-58646-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
• Swinney, Chris (2015). Robert Black: the True Story of a Child Rapist and Serial Killer. R. J. Parker Publishing. ISBN 978-1-517-62415-6.
• The Murder of Childhood: Inside the Mind of One of Britain's Most Notorious Child Murderers. Penguin Books Ltd. 1995. ISBN 978-0-140-24715-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)

Television

• Scottish Television have broadcast a 25-minute documentary relating to the crimes of Robert Black. This documentary was first broadcast on the date of Black's 1994 murder convictions, and contains interviews with Hector Clark, David Herkes and Ray Wyre in addition archive footage dating from the manhunt for Black.
• A 40-minute documentary, The Death of Childhood: Unspeakable Truths, was first broadcast in May 1997. This documentary was commissioned by Channel 4 and focuses solely upon the life and crimes of Robert Black. The Death of Childhood: Unspeakable Truths also includes interviews with various participants involved in his manhunt.
• Child killer: The Truth was an episode commissioned by ITV as part of their true crime series, Manhunt. This 45-minute documentary was first broadcast in December 2001, and largely focuses upon the challenges faced by investigators throughout the manhunt. Hector Clark, Jackie Harper and the father of the Stow schoolgirl Black had abducted in 1990 are among those interviewed in this documentary.
• A 45-minute Crime & Investigation documentary focusing on the crimes of Robert Black was released in 2010. This episode features interviews with forensic psychiatrist Dr. Julian Boon.
• Channel 5 has broadcast an episode relating to Black's crimes within the true crime documentary series Killers Behind Bars: The Untold Story. This 40-minute episode is narrated by criminologist David Wilson.
• The BBC current affairs series Spotlight has broadcast a 45-minute documentary on Robert Black. This episode, entitled Robert Black: Caught on Tape, was broadcast on 23 February, 2016 and includes audio recordings of interviews with Black.

See also

• Child sexual abuse
• HMP Maghaberry
• List of prisoners with whole-life tariffs

• List of serial killers by number of victims
• Physical abuse

Cited works and further reading

• Church, Robert (1996). Well Done, Boys: the Life and Crimes of Robert Black. Constable. ISBN 978-0-094-74150-8
• Clark, Hector; Johnston, David (1994). Fear the Stranger: the Story of Britain's Biggest Child-Murder Hunt. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 978-1-851-58646-2
• Morris, Jim (2015). The Who's Who of British Crime in the Twentieth Century. ISBN 978-1-445-63924-6
• Sanders, John (2008). Inside the Mind of the Sex Killer. Forum Press. ISBN 978-1-874-35840-4
• Swinney, Chris (2015). Robert Black: the True Story of a Child Rapist and Serial Killer. R. J. Parker Publishing. ISBN 978-1-517-62415-6
• Wier, Nigel (2011). British Serial Killers. AuthorHouse Publishing. ISBN 978-1-467-88139-5
• Wilson, David (2007). Serial Killers: Hunting Britons and Their Victims, 1960 to 2006. Waterside Press. ISBN 978-1-904-38033-7
• Wyre, Ray; Tate, Timothy (1995). The Murder of Childhood. Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN 978-0-140-24715-2

External links

• 1994 Independent news article detailing Black's original murder convictions
• Contemporary BBC news article detailing Black's death at HMP Maghaberry
• Genette Tate at The Doe Network
• Scottish Television documentary upon Robert Black, screened on the date of his 1994 murder conviction
• Lisburn.com daily accounts of Black's 2011 trial for the murder of Jennifer Cardy
• Robert Black: Caught on Tape as broadcast 23 February 2016