Who was Robert Black and what was his cause of death?
ROBERT Black is known for being a serial killer who died in Prison in 2016.
He was charged for a number of young girls’ murders after he was arrested in 1990 but is believed to have killed more.
Who was Robert Black?
Robert Black was born in Grangemouth on 21 April, 1947 and was one of the UK‘s most notorious serial killers.
His birth mother put him up for adoption when he was young and moved to Australia, leaving Robert to be taken in by foster parents.
After they passed away, Robert moved between foster families and care homes, where he was sexually abused and molested other children.
In 1963, when he was around 16-years-old, he was charged with lewd and libidinous behaviour after luring a seven-year-old girl to an air raid shelter, choking her until she was unconscious then masturbating over her body.
A psychiatric reports suggested it was a one-off incident and he was admonished.
Black never married, and had only one known girlfriend called Pamela Hodgson.
He proposed to her but she allegedly declined and split with him because of his “unusual sexual demands”.
Once he was allowed to live independently, Black moved to London where he worked lots of different jobs before becoming 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.
How many people did Robert Black kill?
While he was alive, Black was found guilty of slaughtering four schoolgirls across the UK.
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
Black was just weeks away from being charged with Genette’s murder when he died in 2016.
The teen had vanished on her paper round near her home in Aylesbeare, Devon on August 19, 1978.
No body has ever been found and Genette’s family were devastated that Black never faced justice for her killing.
Jennifer Cardy, 9
Black committed his first known murder on August 12, 1981, abducting, sexually assaulting and killing nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy in Ballinderry, County Antrim.
Six days later the schoolgirl’s body was found in a reservoir in Hillsborough, County Down.
She had been sexually assaulted and strangled before her body was dumped in the water.
Black , 30 years after the crime had been committed.
Susan Maxwell, 11
Susan was abducted on July 30, 1982, in Coldstream, a town in Scotland.
The little girl, from Cornhill-on-Tweed, was taken by Black whilst walking home from a game of tennis.
Her body was found on the A518 near Uttoxer, 264 miles from where she had last been seen.
She had been bound, gagged and sexually assaulted before her body was dumped in undergrowth.
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 and discarding the body on the way.
Caroline Hogg, 5
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 dumping the body 310 miles away near the M1 motorway in Twycross.
Sarah Harper, 10
Sarah was abducted by Black on March 26, 1986.
She was taken 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 taken.
She was violently sexually assaulted, with internal injuries and injuries to her face, forehead, head and neck before she was thrown in the water partially dressed. Sarah had been gagged and bound before drowning.
On May 19, 1994, Black was found guilty of murdering Sarah, Susan and Caroline
How was Robert Black 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 number plate and contacted police who immediately started the hunt.
Black was caught when he drove down the same road again and an officer jumped in front of the van, forcing him to swerve.
Inside, officers found the petrified six-year-old stuffed head first into a sleeping bag wedged behind the driver’s seat.
He had taken her to a lay-by near a disused quarry where he seriously assaulted her before leaving her bound, gagged, hooded and tied up, just minutes from death.
Who else is Robert Black also suspected of killing?
Since he was 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 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 in 1977.
Black was known to make deliveries in Donegal and is said to have returned to ask to about girls living in the area a year after she disappeared.
Suzanne Lawrence, 14
Suzanne was originally thought to have run away but she is now feared murdered after disappearing from Harold Hill in Essex in July 1979.
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.
Her strangled body was found two days later in Hounslow Heath and was linked to Black, who was living in London at the time.
Pamela Hastie, 16
Pamela was found raped and strangled 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 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 battered 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 strangled 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 was murdered.
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.
What was Robert Black’s cause of death?
In 2016 Black died in prison at the age of 68 as he served 12 life terms.
His cause of death was found to be a heart attack.