Robert Black (serial killer)

Robert Black was born in Grangemouth, Stirlingshire, on 21 April 1947, the illegitimate child of Jessie Hunter Black and an unknown father. His mother originally planned to have him adopted before she emigrated to Australia to escape the stigma of his birth.[1] He was not adopted,[2] and at six months old was placed with an experienced, middle-aged foster couple in Kinlochleven named Tulip. He adopted their surname.[3]

Black showed antisocial tendencies[2] and became known as an aggressive child with few friends.[4] He was prone to tantrums and vandalised school property. He was also a target for bullying among children his own age, and became a bully towards younger children. Though his foster mother insisted upon cleanliness, he cared little for his own hygiene and was called "Smelly Bobby Tulip" by classmates.[5]

At the age of five, Black and a girl the same age compared their genitalia, triggering a childhood belief within Black that he should have been born female,[6] and he developed a deep interest in his genitalia, the genitals of female children, and body orifices. From the age of eight he would regularly insert objects in his own anus, a practice he carried into adulthood.[7]

Locals later recalled seeing bruises on Black's face and limbs, suggesting he had been physically abused by his foster parents. Black stated he could not recollect their origin, and they may have resulted from childhood fights.[8] Despite being adamant he could not recall the origin of these bruises, Black was a chronic bed wetter, and freely admitted to being berated and beaten by his foster mother for each offence.[8]

By 1958, the Tulips had both died, and he was placed with another foster family in Kinlochleven. He soon committed his first known sexual assault, dragging a young girl into a public lavatory and fondling her.[9] His foster mother reported the offence and insisted he be removed from her home.[10]

Black was placed in a mixed-sex children's home on the outskirts of Falkirk. Here he regularly exposed himself to girls, and on one occasion, he forcibly removed the underwear of a girl.[11] As a result, he was sent to Red House Care Home, a high-discipline, all-male establishment in Musselburgh. At this new location Black was sexually abused by a male staff member[5] for three years; typically by being forced to perform fellatio. During this time he studied at Musselburgh Grammar School, developing an interest in football and swimming. Other students recall him as taciturn, with few friends.

In 1963, Black left the Red House Care Home. With assistance from child welfare agencies, he moved to another boys' home in Greenock and obtained a job as a butcher's delivery boy. He later said that he had fondled thirty to forty young girls while making deliveries if, upon calling at the house, he discovered young girls were alone in the premises.[12] None of these incidents seem to have been reported.[11]

Within a year, Black's landlords informed police that he had repeatedly molested their daughter. He pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault against a child. He was sentenced to a year at Polmont Borstal in Brightons, which specialised in training and rehabilitating of serious youthful offenders. Although he later spoke freely about every aspect of his youth and adolescence—including the sexual abuse he had suffered at the Red House Care Home—he refused to discuss Polmont Borstal beyond saying he had vowed to never again be imprisoned; this has led to speculation that he may have been brutalised there.[18]

To increase his scope for casual work, in the mid-1970s Black bought a white Fiat van to enable him to commit to driving for a living.[26] In 1976, Black obtained a permanent job as a van driver for Poster, Dispatch and Storage Ltd,[27] a Hoxton-based firm whose fleet delivered posters—typically depicting pop stars—and billboard advertisements to locations across the UK, Ireland and continental Europe. To his employers, Black was a conscientious employee who was willing to undertake the long-distance deliveries some of his married co-workers disliked.

While working as a driver, Black developed a thorough knowledge of much of the UK road network,[28] subsequently enabling him to snatch children across the entire country and dispose of their bodies hundreds of miles from the site of their abduction.[29] To reduce the chance of being identified by eyewitnesses, Black often adjusted his appearance by alternately growing a beard or appearing clean-shaven, and occasionally shaved his head completely bald. Black also owned over a dozen pairs of spectacles, and would wear a pair significantly different from those he regularly wore when abducting children.[30] He also covered the rear windows of his van with opaque black curtains.

The first murder Black is proven to have committed was that of nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy, who was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered on 12 August 1981.[31] Cardy was last seen by her mother at 1:40 p.m. as she cycled to a friend's house in Ballinderry, County Antrim; she never arrived.

Hours later, Cardy's bicycle was discovered less than a mile from her home, covered with branches and leaves. The stand of the bicycle was down, suggesting that she had stopped her bicycle to converse with her abductor.[31] A search aided by 200 volunteers found nothing further.[32][n 1]

Six days later, two anglers discovered Cardy's body in a reservoir near a lay-by in Hillsborough, 16 miles (26 km) from her home.[34] A pathologist noted signs of sexual abuse on Cardy's body and underwear;[35] the autopsy concluded she had died of drowning—most likely accompanied by ligature strangulation.[35] The watch she had been wearing had stopped at 5:40 pm.[36]

The location of the body near a major arterial road between Belfast and Dublin led police to suspect her murderer had been familiar with the area. The reservoir in which her body was found was near a route frequented by long-distance delivery drivers,[37] and visible only yards away from the lay-by, suggesting that her killer may have travelled extensively upon this route.[37]

The A697 towards Cornhill-on-Tweed. Black is believed to have abducted Susan Maxwell as she walked along this road on 30 July 1982

Black's second confirmed victim was 11-year-old Susan Claire Maxwell, who lived in Cornhill-on-Tweed on the English side of the Anglo-Scottish border. Maxwell was abducted on 30 July 1982 as she walked home from playing tennis in Coldstream. She was last seen alive at 4:30 pm,[38] crossing the bridge over the River Tweed, and was likely abducted by Black shortly after.[26]

The following day a search was mounted. Search dogs were used, and at peak 300 officers were assigned full-time; a thorough search was made of every property in both Cornhill and Coldstream and over 80 square miles of terrain. Several people reported having seen a white van in the locality; one said a van had been parked in a field gateway off the A697.[39]

On 12 August, Maxwell's body was found by a lorry driver;[40] her body was covered with undergrowth, and was clothed save for her shoes and underwear.[41] The precise date and cause of her death could not be determined due to decomposition. Maxwell had been bound, and gagged with sticking plaster, and her underwear had been removed and folded beneath her head, suggesting that she had been sexually assaulted.[38]

A coroner's inquest concluded Maxwell had died shortly after being abducted.[42] Evidently, Maxwell remained in Black's van—alive or dead—for over 24 hours,[43] as his delivery schedule encompassed Edinburgh, Dundee, and finally Glasgow, where he made his final delivery close to midnight on 30 July. The following day, Black returned from Glasgow to London, discarding the body in a copse beside the A518 road near Uttoxeter, 264 miles (425 km) from where Maxwell had been abducted.[n 2]

Five-year-old Caroline Hogg, Black's youngest known victim, disappeared while playing outside her Beach Lane home in the Edinburgh suburb of Portobello in the early evening of 8 July 1983.[45] When she failed to return home by 7:15 pm, her family searched the surrounding streets. A boy told them he had seen Caroline with a man on the nearby promenade, which they searched before calling the Lothian and Borders Police.[46]

The ensuing search was the largest in Scottish history at the time,[47] with 2,000 local volunteers and 50 members of the Royal Scots Fusiliers[48] searching first Portobello, then expanding their scope to all of Edinburgh. By 10 July, Hogg's disappearance was headline news across the UK. Nine known paedophiles were identified as having been in Portobello on 8 July; all were eliminated from the inquiry.[49]

Numerous eyewitnesses had seen an unkempt, balding, "furtive-looking" man wearing horn-rimmed glasses, watching Hogg as she played; then following her to a nearby fairground. En route, a 14-year-old girl named Jennifer Booth had seen Hogg sitting with this man on a bench. Booth overheard Hogg reply "Yes please" to some question posed to her by the man before the two walked to the fairground holding hands.[50] There, the man paid 15 pence for Caroline to ride a carousel as he watched.[51] A witness stated to police that as they left, Caroline seemed frightened.[52]

Hogg remained in Black's van for at least 24 hours. Black delivered posters to Glasgow several hours after the abduction, and refuelled his van in Carlisle early the following morning.

On 18 July, Hogg's naked body was found in a ditch close to the M1 motorway in Twycross,[45] 310 miles (500 km) from where she had been abducted and just 24 miles (39 km) from where Maxwell's body had been found the previous year. The precise cause of death could not be determined due to the extent of decomposition. Insect activity suggested the body had been placed where it was found on or after 12 July; Black had made a delivery to Bedworth on that date. The absence of clothing again suggested a sexual motive.[53]

The following March, a televised reconstruction of the abduction was broadcast nationally. Appealing for witnesses to come forward, Hogg's father said: "You think it can never happen to you, but it has proven time and time again that it can, and it could again if this man isn't caught in the near future."[54]

All information relating to both child murders was initially logged within a card filing system, which contained 500,000 index cards relating to the Maxwell case alone.[61] Mindful of the criticisms of the recent investigation into the Yorkshire Ripper, which had become overwhelmed due to the volume of information filed in a card filing system,[62] one of Clark's first decisions upon taking overall charge of the murder investigation was to introduce computer technology into the investigation;[63] he and other senior officers agreed that the most efficient way to cooperate in an investigation of this scope was to collate their information on the Hogg murder into a computerised database, which all forces involved in the manhunt could access. Information relating to Maxwell's murder was also later entered onto this database.[64]

By January 1987, all information relating to the murders initially linked to Black was entered into the newly established HOLMES information technology system, with the £250,000 cost to implement it provided by the Home Office.[65] Information continued to be entered into the database, and police forces nationwide could cross-check all data fed into this system.[66] This database—based at the Child Murder Bureau in Bradford[67]—expanded to hold information upon over 189,000 people, 220,000 vehicles, and details of interviews held with over 60,000 people. Much of the information came through three confidential hotlines established in 1984. As a result of the investigation into the killings, several unrelated crimes, including offences relating to child abuse, were solved.[68]

Brunswick Place, Morley. Sarah Harper is believed to have been abducted from one of the alleyways leading to this street on 26 March 1986

At about 7:50 p.m. on 26 March 1986, 10-year-old Sarah Jayne Harper disappeared from the Leeds suburb of Morley, having left her home to buy a loaf of bread from a corner shop 100 yards (metres) from her home. The owner of the shop confirmed that Harper had bought a loaf of bread and two packets of crisps from her at 7:55 pm, and that a balding man had briefly entered the shop moments later, then left as Harper made her purchases.[69]

Sarah Harper was last seen alive by two girls walking into an alley leading towards her Brunswick Place home; when she had not returned by 8:20 pm, her mother, Jackie, and younger sister, Claire, briefly searched the surrounding streets, before Jackie Harper reported her daughter missing to West Yorkshire Police.[70] Immediately, an extensive search was launched to find the child. Over 100 police officers were assigned full-time to the search, which saw house-to-house inquiries across Morley, over 3,000 properties searched, more than 10,000 leaflets distributed, and 1,400 witness statements obtained. A police search of the surrounding land was bolstered by 200 local volunteers, and a reservoir in nearby Tingley was searched by underwater units.[71]

Extensive inquiries by West Yorkshire Police established that a white Ford Transit van had been in the area where Harper had been abducted. Two suspicious men had been seen loitering near the route Harper would have taken to the corner shop, and one of them was stocky and balding. Mindful of the possibility Harper had been abducted and murdered, West Yorkshire Police dispatched a telex to all forces nationwide, requesting that they search all locations where they had previously discovered child murder victims.[72]

At a press conference on 3 April, Sarah's mother, Jackie, informed journalists that she feared her daughter was dead, and that the worst torment she and her family endured was the uncertainty. She made a direct appeal to her daughter's abductor to reveal the whereabouts of her daughter's body, stating: "I just want her back, even if she's dead. If someone would just pick up the phone and tell us where the body is."[73]

On 19 April, a man discovered Sarah's partially dressed, gagged and bound body floating in the River Trent near Nottingham, 71 miles (114 km) from the site of her abduction.[74] An autopsy showed she had died between five and eight hours after she was last seen alive,[75] and that the cause of her death was drowning; injuries she had received to her face, forehead, head and neck had most likely rendered her unconscious prior to being thrown into the water.[76][36] Harper had also been the victim of a violent and sustained sexual assault prior to being thrown into the river, causing pre-mortem internal injuries which were described by the pathologist as "simply terrible".[77]

Days after Harper's body had been found, a further witness contacted West Yorkshire Police to say that at approximately 9:15 p.m. on 26 March, he had seen a white van with a stocky, balding man standing by the passenger door, parked close to the River Soar. As the Soar is a tributary to the Trent, and the description of the vehicle and driver matched those obtained from Morley residents, investigators took this eyewitness account seriously.[78] Black refuelled his van in Newport Pagnell the following afternoon, and it is likely that he had driven Harper to Ratcliffe on Soar, and discarded her body in the Soar in the late evening of the date of her abduction, or the early hours of the following day.[79]

Realising the likelihood that Harper's murderer had travelled on the M1 motorway prior to disposing of her body in the river,[80] and that he would have had to refuel his vehicle as he made this journey, officers from both West Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire Police questioned staff and motorists at all service stations on the M1 motorway between Woolley, West Yorkshire and Trowell, Nottinghamshire, asking whether they had noted anything unusual on 26 or 27 March. Staff at one station had noted a white Transit van which had seemed out of place on the evening of 26 March, but could not give a clear description of the driver.[77]

Following the murder of Sarah Harper, with six police forces now involved in the hunt for the offender, the police forces involved in the manhunt agreed that Hector Clark (by this time Deputy Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders Police)[87] should maintain overall command of the investigation. Clark created a new headquarters in Wakefield to act as a liaison between the six forces.[88]

On 21 April 1986, the head of Scotland Yard's Criminal Intelligence Branch, Phillip Corbett, hosted a summit meeting at Scotland Yard, to discuss how best to share information between the forces involved in the manhunt, and to investigate potential links with 19 other unsolved child murders.[89] Senior officers attended from 16 UK police forces. At this stage, the inquiry had cost in excess of a million pounds.

One of the outcomes of this meeting was that investigators contacted the FBI to request that they compose a psychological profile of the murderer for UK investigators. The FBI completed this profile in early 1988.[90]

For the HOLMES database, investigators concluded only those with convictions for serious sexual offences against children would warrant further investigation. Those to be checked were to have been convicted of child murder, child abduction or attempted child abduction, or the indecent assault of a child. Every police force in the UK was asked to check their databases for people who had received convictions for any of these offences within 10 years of the 1982 murder of Susan Maxwell.[89] This narrowed the number of people to be checked to 40,000 men, and Black's name was not on the list, as his sole conviction had been in 1967.[91]

In January 1988, the UK investigators received the psychological profile of the killer from the FBI. This profile described the killer as a white male aged between 30 and 40 (likely closer to 40), who was a classic loner. This offender would be unkempt in appearance,[92] and had received less than 12 years of formal education. He likely lived alone, in rented accommodation, in a lower-middle class neighbourhood. This profile also deduced that the motive for the child killings was sexual, that the offender held a fixation with child pornography, that he retained souvenirs from his victims, and he most likely engaged in necrophilia with his victims' bodies shortly after their death, before disposing of them.[93]

On 23 April 1988, an attempted abduction of a teenage girl occurred in the Nottingham district of Radford which was not initially deemed by Nottinghamshire Police to be linked to the three child killings,[94] and thus remained unreported to Clark or senior investigators in the national manhunt, despite the fact that all chief constables across the UK had been requested to report incidents of this nature to the inquiry team. The victim of this attempted abduction was Teresa Thornhill, a 15-year-old who was 4 ft 11 in (150 cm) tall, which may have led Black to think she was younger than she was.[95]

That evening, Thornhill had been at a social gathering in a local park with her boyfriend, Andrew Beeston, and other teenagers, before walking home with Beeston. The pair had parted company at the end of Norton Street when Thornhill noted a blue Transit van slowing to a stop ahead of her; the driver of this van then got out, raised the van's bonnet and asked Thornhill, "Can you fix engines?"[96] When Thornhill replied that she could not and began walking at a much brisker pace, Black clasped his arms across her mouth and navel and attempted to drag her into his vehicle.[97]

Thornhill resisted him: writhing and kicking as she attempted to free herself from what she later described as his "bear hug" grasping of her body. As her would-be abductor wrestled her to his van, Thornhill squeezed his testicles, causing him to loosen his grasp sufficiently enough for her to bite into his right forearm. Black shouted, "Oh! You... bitch!", as Thornhill began to scream for her mother, wedging her feet on each side of the door frame as she struggled to resist being forced into the van.[45] At the same time, Beeston ran towards the van shouting, "Let go of her, you fat bastard!" Upon hearing this, Black loosened his grip on Thornhill, who fell into the road, sobbing. Black himself ran towards the driver's seat of his van and rapidly drove away from the scene.[98]

Both Thornhill and Beeston ran to Thornhill's home and informed her parents what had occurred; they immediately reported the attempted abduction to Nottinghamshire Police, who questioned both youngsters. Both Thornhill and Beeston described her would-be abductor as an unkempt,[99] overweight, balding and heavily built man aged between 40 and 50, and about 5 ft 7 in (175 cm) in height.[100]

Galashiels Road, Stow. Black was arrested close to this location on 14 July 1990

At Selkirk police station, Black admitted to sexually assaulting the girl, saying he had not done more to her because he "didn't have much time".[109] He was charged with abduction and remanded in custody. As Black awaited a scheduled 16 July Selkirk Sheriff court appearance, the detective superintendent—noting the similarities between the Stow abduction and the three child killings—notified Hector Clark of Black's arrest. On 16 July, Clark travelled from Wakefield to interview Black at Edinburgh's St Leonards police station. Although Black's answers in this brief interview were largely monosyllabic, Clark left feeling that Black was the man he had sought since 1982.[110] At Black's initial remand hearing he was ordered to stand trial at Edinburgh High Court for the abduction of the Stow girl; he was then transferred to Saughton Prison.[111]

A search of Black's van found restraining devices including assorted ropes, sticking plaster, and hoods; a Polaroid camera; numerous articles of girls' clothing; a mattress; and a selection of sexual aids.[112] Black claimed that on his long-distance deliveries he would pull into a lay-by and dress in the children's clothing before masturbating; he gave no plausible explanation for the sexual aids.[n 3]

At the request of Scottish detectives, Black's Stamford Hill lodgings were searched by the Metropolitan Police.[114] This search yielded a large collection of child pornography in magazine, book, photographic and video format,[115] including 58 videos and films depicting graphic child sexual abuse which Black later claimed to have bought in continental Europe.[116] Also found were several items of children's clothing, a semen-stained copy of a Nottingham newspaper detailing the 1988 attempted abduction of Teresa Thornhill, and a variety of sex aids.[117]

Black's appointed defence lawyer, Herbert Kerrigan QC, and the Edinburgh procurator fiscal both ordered psychiatric evaluations of Black, which were undertaken by prominent psychiatrists. Both reports were uncompromising regarding Black's deviancy and proclivities towards children.[118] Black told Kerrigan he intended to plead guilty to the abduction charges.[114]

Prior to imposing sentence, Ross paid tribute to Herkes, whose vigilance had led to Black's arrest. Sentencing Black to life imprisonment for what he described as "a horrific, appalling case", Ross said he was greatly influenced by the opinion of the psychiatrists, who had concluded that Black was, and would remain, an extreme danger to children.[123]

In September 1990, Black announced his intention to appeal against his life sentence, but he later abandoned this. In November 1990, he was transferred to Peterhead Prison.

Detectives from all forces in the UK linked to the joint manhunt then began an intense and painstaking endeavour to gather sufficient evidence to convince the Crown Prosecution Service to instigate legal proceedings against Black, with a reasonable chance of securing convictions. As was his legal right, Black refused to cooperate with the detectives in their investigation.[129]

Investigators contacted Poster, Dispatch and Storage Ltd to establish whether travel records could confirm his whereabouts on crucial dates linked to the investigation. Staff at this firm were able to confirm that Black had always bought petrol using credit cards, the receipts of which he would then submit to his firm to claim expenses. These files, plus several historical delivery schedules, were still in the company's archives. Investigators discovered that Black had made scheduled delivery runs to the areas where the abductions had occurred on the relevant dates, and although the precise times he had been in the area were difficult to adduce, petrol receipts confirmed he had bought fuel close to where each girl had been abducted on the date of her disappearance. For example, on the date of Sarah Harper's disappearance, Black had been scheduled to make a series of deliveries across the Midlands and Northern England. The two final deliveries on this schedule had been in West Yorkshire: in Brighouse, then a final delivery in Morley at a firm 150 yards from Harper's home.[45] Black had refuelled his van between these two destinations shortly before Harper had last been seen alive.

Investigators discovered that upon his return to London from his long-distance deliveries to Northern England or Scotland, Black had regularly slept overnight in a house in Donisthorpe which belonged to his landlord's son.[130] This was close to where all three bodies had been discovered. Leeds detectives also discovered that, on his regular deliveries to Morley, Black often slept in his van overnight in the premises to which he delivered, which was close to Sarah Harper's home.[29]

Investigators learned that Poster, Dispatch and Storage Ltd had accounts with several oil companies, which allowed their drivers to buy fuel. With the cooperation of the companies, investigators obtained seven million credit card slips archived on microfiche detailing fuel purchases paid via this method at every one of their nationwide premises between 1982 and 1986. These were sent to the reopened incident room in Newcastle upon Tyne, where a team of officers searched them for Black's distinctive signature in an effort to pinpoint precisely when and where he had bought his fuel.[131] This laborious task bore fruit: beginning in October 1990, investigators began to discover evidence proving the precise times Black had bought fuel at petrol stations close to each abduction site. In each instance, the time of purchase had been shortly before or after each child had been abducted.[132]

By December 1990, the inquiry team decided they had sufficient circumstantial evidence to convince the Crown that there was a reasonable prospect of securing convictions against Black, although Clark was worried that the inquiry had not uncovered any forensic evidence to tie Black to the murders.[133] All the evidence was submitted to the Crown in May 1991.[134] In March 1992, Crown lawyers decided that the evidence was sufficient to try Black for the three murders and the attempted abduction of Teresa Thornhill. At a news conference held on 11 March, Hector Clark informed the press that "criminal proceedings have been issued on the authority of the Crown Prosecution Service against Robert Black".[135]

Several pretrial hearings were held between July 1992 and March 1994; these hearings saw Black's defence counsel submit contentions that their client be tried on each count separately, and that the prosecution not be allowed to demonstrate any similarity between the modus operandi of each offence at the upcoming trial. In the penultimate pretrial hearing, in January 1994, Judge William Macpherson ruled against defence motions to try Black on each charge separately, and also ruled to allow the prosecution to submit similar fact evidence between the cases. This ruling allowed the prosecution to make these similarities between the cases known, and to introduce into evidence Black's recent conviction for the abduction and sexual assault of the Stow schoolgirl. The prosecution was prohibited from introducing into evidence the transcript of the August 1990 interview between Black and detectives Watt and Orr.[136]

Moot Hall. Black was brought to trial at this location on 13 April 1994

On 12 May, both counsel delivered their closing arguments to the jury. Prosecutor John Milford argued first; opening his final address to the jury by describing the circumstances of Black's 1990 arrest and recounting the extensive circumstantial evidence presented throughout the trial, and emphasising the fact no physical evidence existed due to the interval between the offences and Black's arrest. In reference to the defence argument that Black's close proximity to each of the abduction and body disposal sites of the dates in question was mere coincidence,[149] Milford stated that if this defence contention were true, it would be "the coincidence to end all coincidences". Milford then requested that the jury reach a guilty verdict.

Thwaites delivered his closing arguments on behalf of the defence. He began by asking the jury: "Where is the jury that will acquit a pervert of multiple murder?" before describing his client as someone against whom ample prejudice existed, but no hard evidence.[150] Thwaites pressed upon the jury the necessity to differentiate between a child sex pervert and an alleged child killer, before attacking the credibility of several prosecution witnesses, and pouring particular scorn upon the nationwide manhunt, stating: "The police have become exhausted in not finding anyone; the public are clamouring for a result. What good are you if you can't catch a child killer? Is he [Black] their salvation, or a convenient, expendable scapegoat?" Thwaites then referred to defence witness testimony which indicated someone else had committed the three murders, before resting his case.

Judge Macpherson delivered his final instructions to the jury on 16 May and the following morning. In his final address, Judge Macpherson implored the jury to discard any emotion or personal distaste for Black's extensive history of sexual offences against children when considering their verdict, and not to prejudge his guilt because of his 1990 conviction for the abduction and sexual assault of the Stow schoolgirl. Judge Macpherson further directed the jury to instead focus on the evidence presented at the trial and decide whether the "interlocking similarities" between the cases presented were sufficient to convince them of Black's guilt,[151] before reminding them that any conclusions of guilt on one charge must not determine guilt on the remaining nine charges they were to debate. The jury then received strict instructions against reading newspapers, watching television or making any telephone calls, before retiring to consider their verdict. These deliberations continued for two days.[151]

On 19 May, the jury found Black guilty of three counts of kidnapping, three counts of murder, three counts of preventing the lawful burial of a body[152] and—in relation to Teresa Thornhill—one count of attempted abduction.[153] He was sentenced to a term of life imprisonment for each of these counts, with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 35 years on each of the three murder charges. These life sentences were to be served concurrently. Passing sentence, Judge Macpherson described Black as being the perpetrator of "offences which are unlikely ever to be forgotten and which represent a man at his most vile".[154]

Black remained unmoved upon receipt of this sentence, but as he prepared to leave the dock, he turned to the detectives from the various forces present at his sentencing who, since 1982, had been involved in his manhunt and proclaimed, "Tremendous. Well done, boys."[155] This statement caused several of the detectives to weep.[156] Black was then taken to Wakefield prison, to begin his sentence in the segregation unit, as a Category A prisoner.[157]

Immediately following these convictions, the more than 20 detectives involved in the manhunt who had been present at his sentencing addressed the press assembled outside Moot Hall, with Hector Clark stating: "The tragedy is these three beautiful children who should never have died. Black is the most evil of characters and I hope there is not now or ever another one like him."[158] When asked his personal feelings towards Robert Black, Clark stated: "Black is a man of the most evil kind, but no longer important to me. I care not about him."[92]

Black's second murder trial lasted six weeks, and the jury deliberated for four hours before delivering their verdict. On 27 October, he was found guilty of Cardy's abduction, sexual assault, and murder. Black was given a further life sentence,[34] with hearings deferred on the minimum term to be served.

On 8 December, Judge Weatherup imposed a minimum term of 25 years.[163] Weatherup informed Black: "Your crime was particularly serious; you subjected a vulnerable child to unpardonable terror and took away her life." Prior to his final sentencing for this fourth murder, Black's defence lawyer, David Spens, informed the court that no plea for mercy could be offered for his client, stating that the case in question was "one of those rare cases in which there is no mitigation, and so I propose to say nothing in that regard."[164][165]

At his sentencing for his fourth murder, Black was informed that he would be at least 89 before he would be considered for release.[166]

8 April 1969: April Fabb (13). Fabb was last seen cycling from Metton, Norfolk towards her sister's home in Roughton, Norfolk. Her bicycle was found in a field on the route she had taken, but her body has never been found.[184]

21 May 1973: Christine Markham (9). A Scunthorpe schoolgirl last seen walking to school. Her body has never been found. Black was questioned about potential involvement in her abduction in 2004.[185][186]

Genette Tate. Black was facing formal charges pertaining to Tate's abduction and murder at the time of his death[187]

19 August 1978: Genette Tate (13). Abducted while delivering newspapers in Aylesbeare, Devon. Her bicycle was found in a country lane by two girls she had spoken to minutes before,[188] but her body has never been found. Black made numerous deliveries of posters to the south-west of England in 1978.[188] At the time of Black's death, the Devon and Cornwall Police were due to submit a fresh file to the Crown Prosecution Service, seeking formal abduction and murder charges[189] in relation to this case.[190][191]

28 July 1979: Suzanne Lawrence (14). Lawrence was last seen leaving her sister's home in Harold Hill, northeast London. Although her body has never been found, Lawrence's name was added to a list of Black's possible victims in July 1994. Her case has also been linked to Peter Tobin.[192][193]

16 June 1980: Patricia Morris (14). Disappeared from the grounds of her comprehensive school; her fully clothed body was found in Hounslow Heath two days after her disappearance. She had been strangled with a ligature, but had not been raped.[194] Although Levi Bellfield has claimed to have murdered Morris, he was barely 12 years old at the time of her death, and police doubt he is the perpetrator.[195]

4 November 1981: Pamela Hastie (16). Her bludgeoned and strangled body was found in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, in November 1981. One eyewitness was adamant he had seen a man matching Black's description running from the crime scene,[196] but police do not believe Black was near Renfrewshire at the time of Hastie's murder.[197]

18 March 1977: Mary Boyle (6). A Kincasslagh schoolgirl[198] who disappeared while visiting her grandparents in Ballyshannon. Black is known to have been in County Donegal at the time of Boyle's disappearance, being charged with after-hours drinking in Annagry.[199] One eyewitness report states she heard whimpering sounds emanating from his van, parked outiside a Dungloe pub, on this date. Boyle's body has never been found.[200]

20 June 1985: Silke Garben (10).[201] Garben was a Detmold schoolgirl who disappeared on her way to a dental appointment. Her body was found in a stream close to a British Army base near to her home the day after her disappearance. Garben had been violently sexually assaulted and strangled, although she died of drowning.[202] Black is known to have made a delivery of posters to this British Army base on the date of Garben's disappearance.[203]

11 May 1989. Ramona Herling (11). Last seen walking to a swimming complex just 500 yards from her home in the town of Bad Driburg. Her body has never been found.[204]

5 August 1986: Cheryl Morriën (7). Morriën disappeared as she walked to her friend's home in the Dutch city of IJmuiden. Her body has never been found. Black made regular trips to nearby Amsterdam to buy child pornography. He is considered a strong suspect in this case.[205]

5 May 1987: Virginie Delmas (10). Abducted from Neuilly-sur-Marne on 5 May 1987. Her nude body was found in a Paris orchard on 9 October. Delmas had been strangled; the extent of decomposition prevented the pathologist determining whether she had been raped before death. Black made several deliveries in and around Paris on the date of Delmas' disappearance.

30 May 1987: Hemma Greedharry (10). Discovered in the Paris suburb of Malakoff two hours after she was last seen alive. She had been raped and strangled. Black is known to have regularly travelled upon the road where Greedharry's body was found when making deliveries in northern France.[205]

3 June 1987: Perrine Vigneron (7). Vigneron disappeared on her way to buy a Mother's Day card in Bouleurs en route to attending a pottery course; her strangled body was discovered in a rapeseed field in Chelles on 27 June. A white van had been seen in Bouleurs on the day of Vigneron's disappearance.[205]

27 June 1987: Sabine Dumont (9). A Paris schoolgirl last seen alive in Bièvres on 27 June. Her strangled and sexually assaulted body was found the following day in the commune of Vauhallan.[205] Black was named as a prime suspect in Dumont's murder in 2011.[206]

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