Unsolved murders of children across EU linked to Black
IT is believed that Robert Black has been responsible for the deaths of many more schoolgirls, with his name linked to 12 unsolved child killings in the UK, Ireland and the Continent.
In the 1990s as many as 40 cases were examined by police in connection with Black, with a dozen remaining potentially connected to the Scottish serial killer.
In 2011, after Black was found guilty of murdering a fourth girl, Chief Superintendent Raymond Murray, who led the Police Service of Northern Ireland investigation, backed the possibility that further murders would be looked at.
He said: ‘I certainly think that the story of Robert Black does not end with this verdict today. Is there more to do around Robert Black? I think there probably is.’
Black’s job driving a van for the Poster Despatch and Storage Company in 1976 gave him the opportunity to target children. It meant regularly criss-crossing Britain and travelling to France and the Netherlands.
Among the murders linked to him is that of Genette Tate, who went missing in Devon in 1978 at the age of 13 and whose body has never been found, as well as Suzanne Lawrence, 14, who vanished after leaving her sister’s home in Harold Hill, Essex, in 1979.
His name has also been linked to the murder of Pamela Hastie, 16, whose body was found in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, on Guy Fawkes’ Night in 1981, as well as that of Mary Boyle, who was six when she vanished from her grandparents’ farm in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, in March 1977.
Speaking in 2014, Mary’s mother Ann said: ‘I don’t know now if I will get an answer or not, but I’d like to know what happened to Mary.’
Also on the list of murdered girls thought to be connected to Black is April Fabb, 13, who went missing in Norfolk in 1969, and Christine Markham.
She was nine when she vanished without a trace in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, in 1973, sparking one of the area’s biggest missing person inquiries.
Another possible victim is Patsy Morris, 14, who disappeared from school in Feltham, West London, during a lunch break in 1980.
Police in Paris were also keen to examine possible links between Black and the killings of Perrine Vigneron, seven, Virginie Delmas, ten, and Hemma Greedharry, 11.
All three were abducted near their homes on the outskirts of Paris. Their corpses were found near motorways Black used.
In 2011, a senior Paris detective said: ‘It would be natural to look at his movements in relation to what happened.’
The abduction and murder of seven-year-old Cheryl Morrien near Amsterdam in 1986 and nine-yearold Sabine Dumont close to Paris have also been linked to Black.