The terrible truth after 38 years... Black DID kill Genette
SERIAL child killer Robert Black was unquestionably responsible for the murder of newspaper girl Genette Tate, police have informed her family.
Detectives have visited her parents with a damning 500-page dossier which names Scots-born Black as the man who carried out the 13-yearold’s kidnap and murder in Devon nearly four decades ago.
The youngster was abducted in August 1978 while delivering newspapers in the small Devon village of Aylesbeare where she lived. Her bike was found abandoned in the road and her body has never been recovered.
Officers who investigated Genette’s disappearance were weeks from charging Black before he died suddenly in prison earlier this year, aged 68.
Devon and Cornwall Police informed the youngster’s father, John Tate, that they had presented a file to the Crown Prosecution Service in April identifying Black as the killer.
But, following the death of its ‘only suspect’, the force has effectively ended its inquiry into one of Britain’s longestrunning unsolved murders.
Mr Tate, now 74, said the briefing contained significant new information gathered by experienced former officers – some of whom came out of retirement – to try to nail his daughter’s killer.
It includes a ‘jail confession’ by Black to a member of staff, in which he admitted having visited Aylesbeare, and a sighting of him at Exeter airport – just 12 miles from Aylesbeare – on the day she went missing.
Detectives used a scoring system linked to key criteria associated with Black’s other crimes in order to rule out more than 300 other suspects and build up compelling proof of the Grangemouth-born delivery’s guilt.
After reading the police report, Mr Tate, who is battling cancer, said: ‘I am now convinced that Robert Black was the culprit.
‘The police told me the reason they could not charge Black earlier was that they had to rule out more than 300 other suspects That took a great deal of time.
‘Black had committed the same sort of offences against young girls.
‘They also knew he was in the immediate area driving a red van. The police believe they know the way he came in and out of Aylesbeare that day.’
Police opened their files to the Tate family after Black died of heart failure in a Northern Ireland prison where he was serving a life term for the murder of Jennifer Cardy – another girl killed while out on her bike.
The similarities between the Cardy and Tate crimes were striking – and Black was already serving life terms for murdering three other young girls including five-year-old Caroline Hogg, from Portobello, Edinburgh.
Mr Tate, who lives in Manchester, said: ‘Black was seen at Exeter airport on the day Genette was taken. He was watching some children there at the time. Their mother was there and thought it was odd and creepy.
‘The police did a trail of his petrol receipts when he was working as a delivery driver.
‘Those receipts showed he was buying petrol to come and in and out of Devon.’
He said police measured suspects against a list of 15 elements linked to Black’s other crimes: ‘Eight of those surrounded the offence – young girls, riding bikes, the location, even down to victims wearing white ankle socks.
‘Seven of the criteria cannot be analysed because they were to do with the victims’ bodies and Genette’s body has never been found. There was also this admission about knowing Aylesbeare. Black always did weekend runs as a delivery driver because he had no family.’
Mr Tate said: ‘The police have told me they cannot take the inquiry any further. I would like to find her body after 38 years of searching for answers and put it to rest. But I am now confident Robert Black was the culprit.
‘But what do I do now? I have spent all these years looking all over the place for her. I am broke and still don’t have any definitive answers. I am lost now. This has dominated my life and I end up crying about it.’
Police believe her body lies buried many miles away from the lane where she was snatched. Black’s habit was to drive his victims to an area dubbed the ‘Midlands triangle’, miles from where he also snatched and killed girls in the north of England and the Scottish Borders.
Devon and Cornwall Police declined to comment on the report, but a police source said: ‘We were so close to playing our part in getting Britain’s worst serial killer into court over one of the country’s biggest mysteries.
‘There is nothing more we can do now the only suspect is dead. A lot of our people have been left devastated that we weren’t able to get justice for the Tate family.
‘We still don’t know where Genette is. It would be nice to find her one day so her family can get some sort of closure after nearly 40 years.’
‘Body has never been found’