No family members claim killer for inquest

No family members of serial killer Robert Black have come forward to claim him, despite the Coroner Service searching for more than six months.

A coroner in Belfast is seeking to trace Black’s relatives to establish whether they want to participate in his inquest.

In January, Coroner Patrick Mcgurgan said “all efforts need to be made to trace the next of kin”.

He said that they should be offered the opportunity to give evidence.

On Friday, a preliminary hearing heard that none have yet been found.

Scottish-born Black, who was convicted of four child murders but suspected of many more, died of heart disease in a Northern Ireland prison in 2016 aged 68.

The paedophile from Grangemouth near Falkirk was a delivery driver who stalked the roads of the UK searching for victims.

Black was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea after prison authorities in Northern Ireland revealed no-one wanted his remains.

The killer’s reign of terror ended in 1990 when he was caught by police with a barely alive six-year-old girl hooded, bound, and gagged in the back of his van in the Borders village of Stow.