Child killer Black’s next of kin and GP records still to be traced ahead of inquest
AN inquest into the death of child killer Robert Black is due to take place in December this year.
At a preliminary hearing yesterday it emerged that Black’s next of kin had still not been traced to give them the opportunity to participate in the inquest, although enquiries are ongoing.
Coroner Patrick McGurgan also called it “totally unbelievable” that the paedophile and serial child killer’s GP records had not been found.
Progress on both issues will be addressed in a further preliminary hearing on June 29, with the inquest provisionally set to run for a week starting on December 3.
Black (68) died in Maghaberry Prison on January 12, 2016, after suffering from heart disease.
The lorry driver’s first known victim was nine-year-old Jennif-
er Cardy from Ballinderry, whom he abducted and murdered i n 1981.
In 1994 he was jailed for the murders of Susan Maxwell (11) from Northumberland in 1982, Caroline Hogg (5) from Edinburgh in 1982, and Sarah Harper (10) from Morley, near Leeds, in 1986.
His conviction for Jennifer’s murder followed in 2011. He was further charged with a failed abduction attempt in 1988 on Teresa Thornhill, then aged 15, in Nottingham.
After his death detectives said they had only been days away from charging him with the 1978 abduction and murder of Genette Tate in Devon. Her body has still to be found.
It’s suspected that he may have murdered up to 15 more young girls.
His killing spree finally ended in 1990 in the Scottish village of Stow when police caught him with a six-year-old girl who was close to death. She had been sexually assaulted and was stuffed into a sleeping bag in the back of Black’s van.
No family members attended his funeral service at Roselawn Crematorium and the Northern Ireland Prison Service scattered his ashes at sea after it was revealed no one had come forward to claim them.