Child killer convicted of 1981 murder of girl in Northern Ireland
Police say Robert Black may be responsible for six other murders after he was found guilty of killing Jennifer Cardy
The convicted child sex killer Robert Black has been found guilty of murdering a nine-year-old girl in Northern Ireland three decades ago.
Jennifer Cardy was abducted from a road near her home in Ballinderry in County Antrim on 12 August 1981. Since his conviction for murdering three other children, Black has been a prime suspect in the Cardy case.
Addressing Armagh crown court, the judge told Black: "There is only one sentence that can be imposed and that is a life sentence. Take him down."
Following his conviction, detectives said they believed Black could be responsible for six other child killings in the UK that remain unsolved. Outside the court in Armagh the detectives described him as an "aggressive predatory paedophile" and someone the like of whom they hoped they would never encounter again. They compared him to the Moors murderer Ian Brady in terms of his callousness.
One of those who spoke about the 30-year long case involving six police forces was retired detective Roger Orr, who interviewed Black and said there was a coldness in the killer's "somewhat empty eyes".
During the five-week trial, the jury heard that Jennifer had left her home to cycle a short distance to meet a friend.
Her red bicycle, which had been a birthday present two weeks earlier, was later found thrown over a hedge close to her home.
After a huge search operation, her body was found at McKee's Dam near Hillsborough, six days after she disappeared. At the time Black was working as a delivery driver for a London-based poster company and was travelling all over the UK.
The prosecution said his job had brought him to the Lisburn area on 12 August, the day Jennifer went missing.
The jury heard that he stopped Jennifer before she reached her friend's house, abducted her, sexually assaulted her and killed her before dumping her body.
H! e had al ways denied killing her.
During his trial it was revealed that he was a predatory paedophile who fantasised about abducting, raping and killing young girls.
In 1982, he abducted and murdered 11-year-old Susan Maxwell from the village of Cornhill-on-Tweed, close to the border between England and Scotland.
A year later, Caroline Hogg, five, disappeared from outside her home in the seaside resort of Portobello, just outside Edinburgh.
Ten days later, the child's body was found in a ditch in Leicestershire.
A third girl, 10-year-old Sarah Harper, was abducted as she walked from a corner shop near her home in Morley, Leeds.
She was murdered by Black and her body discovered in the river Trent in Nottingham.
Black, who is originally from Scotland, was caught after abducting a six-year-old girl in Stow in the Scottish Borders in 1990, nine years after Jennifer's murder.
He had been spotted and was caught a short time later with the abducted girl trussed up in a sleeping bag in the back of his van.
Black was given a life sentence for abduction and in 1994 was convicted for the murders of Susan, Caroline and Sarah.
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