Monster
Who was Robert Black and what was his cause of death?
Robert’s time as a lorry driver taught him how to hide his victim’s bodies
ROBERT Black was a serial child murderer and rapist, who is known to have killed four girls but continues to be linked to more cases.
His horrifying crime spree will be explored in the Channel 5 documentary series The Child Snatcher: Manhunt.
7
Monster in the making
Robert Black was born on April 21, 1947, in Grangemouth.
His birth mother put him up for adoption and moved to Australia, leaving him to be taken in by foster parents.
When his foster parents passed away, he moved between care homes where he suffered horrendous sexual abuse.
In 1963, when he was 16, he was charged with lewd and libidinous behaviour after luring a seven-year-old girl into an air raid shelter before sexually assaulting her.
Black never married and had only one known girlfriend called Pamela Hodgson, who broke up with him because of his “unusual sexual demands”.
Once he was allowed to live independently, Black moved to London where he became a delivery driver.
He drove across the country delivering posters and billboard adverts, a job which detectives would later say helped him to dispose of his victim's bodies.
Black was convicted of murdering four children but is suspected of killing many more.
READ MORE ON CRIME
Recordings from a 1990 counselling session revealed how he lured his victims by persuading them to get into his car.
Robert Black’s confirmed crimes
While he was alive, Black was found guilty of murdering four schoolgirls across the UK.
Andy Cardy recalls the search for murdered daughter Jennifer aged nine in The Child Snatcher: Manhunt
Detectives say, however, that number could be as high as 18 after new evidence was found which links him to more than a dozen more murders across the UK and Europe.
Genette Tate, 13
7
Black was just weeks away from being charged with Genette's murder when he died in 2016.
She had vanished on her paper round near her home in Aylesbeare, Devon, on August 19, 1978.
Genette’s body was never found and her family was reportedly devastated that Black never faced justice for her killing.
Jennifer Cardy, 9
7
Black committed his first known murder on August 12, 1981, three years after he is thought to have killed Genette.
He abducted, sexually assaulted and killed nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy in Ballinderry, County Antrim.
Six days later Jennifer’s body was found in a reservoir in Hillsborough, County Down.
Black , 30 years after the crime had been committed.
Susan Maxwell, 11
7
Susan was abducted on July 30, 1982, in Coldstream, a town in Scotland.
She was taken by Black while walking home from a game of tennis.
Her body was found on the A518 near Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, 264 miles from where she had last been seen.
An inquest concluded that her body had been in Black's van for over 24 hours as he continued with his deliveries across Scotland before driving back down to London.
Caroline Hogg, 5
7
Caroline was Black's youngest victim at just five years old.
She disappeared after playing outside her house in Portobello, Edinburgh.
Black took her to the local funfair before killing her and hiding her body 310 miles away, near the M1 motorway in Twycross.
Sarah Harper, 10
7
Sarah was abducted by Black on March 26, 1986.
She was kidnapped when she went to buy a loaf of bread from the local corner shop in Morley, Leeds.
Her body was found in the River Trent near Nottingham on April 19, 71 miles from where she had been kidnapped.
She had been sexually assaulted before she drowned.
Robert Black was finally caught
Black was finally caught in 1990 after he attempted to take another child victim.
David Herkes witnessed his neighbour, a six-year-old girl, disappear across the road from his home in Stow, Scotland.
He said he noticed her walking past a parked Transit van on the opposite side of the road before her feet disappeared and the van sped off.
Herkes wrote down the van’s number plate and contacted police who immediately launched a manhunt.
Black was caught when he drove down the same road again and an officer jumped in front of the van, forcing him to swerve.
When the officer forced open the van, he found his own daughter inside.
He managed to rescue her, bringing an end to Black’s crime spree.
No matter how horrific or distressing the evidence had been, Robert Black demonstrated not a single flicker of concern
Reporter Gordon Adair Cardy,
After a lengthy court trial, Black was found guilty of murdering Sarah, Susan and Caroline on May 19, 1994.
Black was later convicted of Jennifer’s murder.
Gordon Adair Cardy, the BBC’s Northern Ireland reporter, said that he had never seen an “outpouring of emotion” equal to the one that triggered when the foreman “uttered the single word ‘guilty’”.
Gordon said: “Jennifer's family, jurors, journalists, and even detectives wept.
“The only person who showed no emotion was Robert Black.
“He sat - as he had done throughout the trial - gazing towards the front of the court.
“No matter how horrific or distressing the evidence had been, he demonstrated not a single flicker of concern; not for Jennifer, not for her family.”
Robert Black’s possible links to other cases
Since being found guilty of murdering four schoolgirls, Black has been linked to several other murders and disappearances in the UK and abroad.
April Fabb, 13
April disappeared on April 8, 1969, when she was cycling to a relative's house.
Her body has never been found and Black was questioned over her disappearance.
Retired police officer Chris Clark, told The Sun in 2016: "I am convinced Black abducted April.
“The methods used are exactly the same as in his other attacks, and he had easy access to Roughton from his London home."
Christine Markham, 9
Christine was never found after vanishing from Scunthorpe on May 21, 1973.
She disappeared after leaving for school but tragically never arrived.
The case was linked to Black in 2004 but police do not consider him a strong suspect.
Mary Boyle, 6
Mary is Ireland's longest missing person after vanishing near her grandparents's house in Ballyshannon, County Donegal on March 18, 1977.
Black was known to make deliveries in Donegal.
He is also said to have returned to ask about girls living in the area a year after she disappeared.
Suzanne Lawrence, 14
Suzanne was originally thought to have run away when she disappeared from Harold Hill in Essex, in July 1979.
However, police later began to consider that she may have been murdered.
Her case has been linked to both Black and Glasgow-based serial killer Peter Tobin.
Patsy Morris, 14
Patsy disappeared from school in Feltham, London, on June 16, 1980.
Tragically, her body was found two days later in Hounslow Heath.
The murder was linked to Black, as he was living in London at the time.
Serial killers Levi Bellfield and Peter Tobin have also been considered suspects.
Pamela Hastie, 16
Pamela was found to have been raped and killed in Rannoch Woods after she went missing from Johnstone, Renfrewshire, on November 4, 1981.
A man confessed to her murder and was jailed a year later but his conviction was overturned in 2007 when his admission of guilt was found to be false.
Black was linked to the murder after he was identified as running out of the woods on the night of the killing by a van driver.
Tracey Waters, 11
Tracey's body was found in the back garden of a house half a mile away from her home in Johnstone on February 14, 1983.
She had been killed after disappearing on her way to a Valentine's Day event at the local youth club.
Her death has been linked to Black as it bears similarities with his previous crimes and took place in the same location as Pamela Hastie’s murder.
Lisa Hession, 14
Lisa was assaulted and strangled before being killed as she walked home from a party.
Her body was found just 500 yards from her front door in Leigh, Greater Manchester, on December 8, 1984.
However, DNA was found and has never been matched.
In 2024, cops renewed a £50,000 reward for information leading to the identification and conviction of Lisa's killer.
7
Robert Black's death
In 2016 Black died in prison at the age of 68.
He was serving 12 life terms at the time of his death.
The murderer was found to have died from a heart attack.
The Child Snatcher: Manhunt
Black’s chilling crimes will be explored in the Channel 5 documentary The Child Snatcher: Manhunt.
The first episode of the two-part series will air on January 28, 2025, at 10.05pm.
However, viewers can watch the full series on Channel 5’s streaming service My5.
Topics