Girls' murderer accused of killing fourth victim
A predatory paedophile who killed three young girls is on trial for the murder of a fourth, it was revealed today.
Robert Black, 64, who lived in London, is accused of kidnapping and murdering nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy in Northern Ireland 30 years ago.
He has already been convicted of mur-dering three girls aged five, 10, and 11. Today an Armagh court was told for the first time of his previous convictions.
Schoolgirl Jennifer was abducted as she cycled to a friend's house in the Co Antrim village of Ballinderry in 1981. Her body was found six days later floating near a dam 10 miles away.
Her parents Andy and Patricia watched from the public gallery as the jury heard of Black's dark past. Crown lawyer Toby Hedworth, QC, told the jury legal reasons had prevented Black's record from being disclosed in the trial. "But now the stage in trial proceedings has been reached when I can tell you," he said.
He told them the defendant was found guilty in 1994 of murdering three young girls in the 1980s, an abduction and an attempted abduction.
Black sat impassively in the dock. He had been convicted at Newcastle crown court of murdering Susan Maxwell, 11, of Cornhill-on-Tweed, Northumberland, in 1982; Caroline Hogg, five, of Edinburgh, in 1983; and Sarah Harper, 10, of Morley, near Leeds, in 1986.
At the time of his trial, prosecutors described the paedophile as "every parent's worst nightmare".
