by Chris Clark
Outside the court a fleet of television and newspaper journalists were waiting, hoping especially to hear what the Cardys had to say. In the midst of tape recorders and cameras, both filming and flashing, Jennifer’s parents, surrounded by their children and other family members, spoke with amazing dignity and bravery words that will undoubtedly stayed with whoever heard or read them. Andy Cardy was the first to speak.
‘When we lost Jennifer, it was awful but over the last six weeks, it was like losing Jennifer each and every day,’ he said of the trial.
‘For the last six weeks we’ve had to endure and listen to how Robert Black kidnapped, sexually abused and murdered our daughter,’ he told the press. ‘It has been absolutely horrendous. We heard things that, in all honesty, were not even in our imagination. We were confronted with the awfulness of her last few hours and what she had to suffer, it’s been truly awful. We don’t have any hate for Robert Black, I fear for him because Robert Black’s end if he doesn’t come to repentance will be an eternity with Satan in hell. That’s just the most awful thing … to think that somebody has given their life over to sexual abuse and all he was up to. Jennifer was one of God’s own, she was the apple of God’s eye. Jennifer was a child of God and I wouldn’t like to meet Jesus having harmed one of the apples of his eye.’ Andy Cardy added that he believed Black should have faced the death penalty for the crimes he committed, but as a devout Christian he stressed that it was in a righteous way rather than a vengeful way. Listening to the man speak, nobody would have doubted his sincerity.
Jennifer’s mother Pat then spoke to the press. ‘Jennifer was the most happiest of little girls that I have ever known, she was so innocent, she was just so happy and she loved her family but Jennifer had a lovely thoughtfulness beyond her nine years and Andrew and I will not only never forget her but, yes, she is ever, ever remembered and always missed …’ she said, later adding, ‘And yes, Robert Black has done this awful deed but I join with my lovely husband and say that he will not destroy us. I will say this – that murder and death and trial and trauma are no match for the grace of God … I’ll be really honest in I don’t think we’ll ever get closure because our daughter has gone but we have the relief of knowing the perpetrator of this gruesome, horrible crime has been brought to justice and that does give us a peace and relief.’
Andy Cardy then added: ‘We would not have been happy if he had been convicted without a proper defence and we believe he had the best defence that could ever have been provided for a murderer … So we leave the court so happy that justice has been done and Robert Black will never again be able to harm another wee girl. He will be in jail until he dies.’
The man who had led the investigative team that had for the previous nine years laboured to build a case to convict Robert Black of Jennifer’s murder, Detective Superintendent Raymond Murray of the PSNI said of the Cardys: ‘None of us can imagine what they have suffered over the past thirty years or more recently during the past weeks of this trial when the horrific events of August 1981 were revisited.’
Talking about the length of time involved in building a case against Black including trawling through 560,000 petrol receipts to find the vital evidence, DS Murray explained: ‘It has taken many twists and turns. At times we’ve been full of hope and on other occasions we’ve been frustrated by a lack of progress but we stuck to our principles and to our task and collected the evidence to convince a jury Robert Black is guilty. In the end it was good old-fashioned police work which brought this case to trial and secured a conviction. Today’s conviction will ensure he remains behind bars for a long time to come.’ Not for nothing was this investigation known as ‘Operation Perseverance’.
DS Murray also said that it was not a case that had a silver bullet but was a case that was woven together with many strands of different forms of evidence; those strands ultimately built a strong and compelling case.
Robert Black returned to Maghaberry prison in County Antrim, only a few miles from the Cardy family home, found guilty in a court of law of another child murder, his fourth.
Two months later at the beginning of December, Black was in Belfast Crown court to be sentenced to a minimum 25-year jail term. Toby Hedworth, QC had called for him to be sentenced with a whole life term while defence QC David Spens told the judge Mr Justice Weatherup: ‘This is one of those rare cases in which there is no mitigation and so I propose to say nothing in that regard.’
Mr Justice Weatherup addressed Black. ‘On 12 August 1981 you abducted a nine-year old girl from near her home. This was an act of sexual predation. Whether you sexually assaulted Jennifer has been a matter of some debate but there can be no doubt that the abduction was intended to further a sexual purpose,’ he said. ‘Within hours of that abduction Jennifer had died by drowning as a result of your actions in placing her in water. You subjected a vulnerable child to unpardonable terror and took away her life. By the manner of that loss, you also wounded forever a family that treasured that child. It was a wicked deed …’ Referring to the victim impact statements of Andrew Cardy and Jennifer’s brother Philip, the judge continued, ‘Her father speaks poignantly about Jennifer, of the family awareness of Jennifer’s absence from all family occasions, and of the harrowing revelations in the course of the trial … a six-year-old who lost his sister [Philip] speaks of fear and dread, of a child’s nightmare of the family being targeted again, of dreams of what Jennifer’s last words were and how she would have struggled in her final hour alive. Taking a life of a family member takes away parts of the lives of many others.’
Black was then sentenced and led away back to Maghaberry to continue serving his life sentences. He would now be eighty-nine years old before he was considered for release.
The Cardy family spent some quiet time alone reflecting on Black’s sentencing before departing the court once more to face the media amongst flailing umbrellas caught in the wintery weather of wind and rain, Pat Cardy, recently injured in a car accident, in a wheelchair pushed by her husband Andy.
AFTERMATH
Black appealed to overturn his conviction for the murder of Jennifer Cardy in January 2012, one month after his sentencing, with his lawyers arguing that Mr Justice Weatherup should not have allowed the bad character evidence of Black’s previous convictions to be heard by the jury. But the court of appeal rejected his bid in June 2013, a relief for the Cardy family. The trial had cost over two million pounds but what aroused criticism from local politicians was the £5,500 spent on hiring a private plane, at taxpayers’ expense, to fly Black from England to Northern Ireland for the trial.
Following Black’s conviction in 2011 a number of things were discussed in public forums regarding the police in Northern Ireland’s investigation into Black. The now late John Stainthorpe, the senior detective on the Sarah Harper murder investigation, voiced concern that it took so long for Black to be convicted of Jennifer’s murder. He explained his views to the Huddersfield Daily Examiner on 28 October 2011: ‘When we were hunting Black we did a search of his work records as a driver and were able to track him all over the country,’ he said. ‘We had ferry records and fuel receipts to show he was in Northern Ireland when this girl went missing. It put Black in the right place for the murders so I cannot understand why it has taken more than twenty years to bring him to court for this crime.’
This observation could perhaps be viewed as an unfair criticism particularly when considering the fantastic job the RUC and PSNI did in building a case against Black for trial. A former RUC detective Sergeant Abe Stockport, speaking to the Scottish Herald on 28 October 2011, gave some insight into why it had taken so long to convict Black of the Jennifer Cardy killing.
‘There was no DNA or anything at the time but Black was a suspect because we were looking at long-distance lorry and van drivers. There was a lay-by along the Belfast–Newry road where lorry drivers would sleep for the night and he was seen there but there was just nothing we could do. We had nothing on him. At that stage
the petrol receipts were not available and there were hundreds of other suspects. We looked at all those in the area with convictions for sexual offences. We worked on it for months and cleared up a lot of other, local, crimes as a result. It was a difficult time. Each officer might have been dealing with ten to fifteen murders at a time on their own. There was a team of twelve of us. I have dealt with throat-cutting cases, terrible violence, but this is the worst case. The memory of it has never left me.’
The day after these comments were published, DS Raymond Murray offered further explanation as to why the process of charging Black took longer than expected by some to complete, revealing that the May 2005 interviews with Black in Antrim PSNI station had taken a year to prepare. There is no doubt the evidence gained from that final interview was vital in gaining a conviction against Black. DS Murray explained: ‘Black was the only prisoner. People were told if you have planned arrests please put them back slightly or bring them forward because these three days we are emptying the place, and we took over. We watched very, very carefully. We had a clinical psychologist watching too, we had Roger Orr watching as well because Roger at that stage probably knew him the best. He is a fascinating character, Mr Black, and we took their experience; redrafted our interview strategy and then we went.’
The PSNI, acting on advice from retired detective Roger Orr, avoided using terms like ‘murder’ and ‘killer’ as Black would clam up when such words were put to him. DS Murray explained, speaking to The Express on 29 October 2011: ‘I don’t know whether people noticed but whenever they said “murder” in court he took his earphones off. He can’t cope with that word “murder” so the earphones came off and were set down. The irony was we never expected to get a confession. We did get a confession at the end of the day, it just took us a while to recognise it.’
Part of the thanks for getting that confession falls to the detective who interviewed Black in May 2005, Detective Constable Pamela Simpson, who managed to gain Black’s confidence, as a result of which he responded better to her than he did to her colleague Detective Sergeant Pat McAnespie. This led to Black saying and revealing more than perhaps he intended. A further example of this was revealed in the BBC Northern Ireland Spotlight programme released after Black’s death in 2016, when one particular tape-recorded interview between Black and Detective Constable Simpson revealed Black depicting a rural location in a fantasy that seemed identical in its detail to the exact location in Ballinderry where Jennifer Cardy was abducted. Once again Black was describing a real-life event but trying to protect himself by claiming it to be a fantasy’:
DC Simpson: ‘And, well, can you describe to me in your fantasy what the country situation would be like?’
Black: ‘Well, it was just a narrow road, it was going downhill and way at the bottom of the hill where the road curved away. There was a house set back from the road a bit. And it was the only house in sight.’
Ultimately it would be used as evidence in his prosecution.
* * *
Following Black’s conviction for killing little Jennifer came a renewal of those questions that followed his 1994 convictions: how many more victims had he claimed? How many more little girls had fallen victim to his predatory and murderous ways? Investigations into a number of cold cases concerning the disappearance and/or murder of young girls in the UK and in Europe were given fresh impetus. Following Black’s conviction for the murder of Jennifer Cardy, Devon and Cornwall Police investigators renewed their efforts to solve the case of Genette Tate, who disappeared in 1978 in circumstances similar to Jennifer’s abduction.
Roger Orr believed that Genette Tate’s was the only realistic case left to pursue, whilst on the other hand DS Murray said that he believed the Robert Black story did not end with Jennifer Cardy and that there was probably more work to be done in relation to him and other unsolved crimes. In 2008, thirty years to the day after Genette’s disappearance, the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to charge Black with her abduction and murder, as they felt a file submitted by Devon and Cornwall Police did not present a strong enough case to convict Black in a court of law. Many thought the Cardy conviction and the similar evidence between Jennifer’s case and Genette’s would bring renewed hope of a prosecution.
But how many more children did Robert Black kill? There is a long list of little girls who disappeared, most found murdered, others believed to have been murdered. Not all these cases could be laid at Black’s door, although his name was mentioned from time to time, particularly in some press reports.
Between the two trials, in 1994 and 2011, two cases that were on the original list had been solved, and Black was eliminated from a third. These were:
Marion Crofts (fourteen) was cycling to music practice at school on 6 June 1981 when she was waylaid, raped and strangled. Every possible bit of evidence was kept by the police, and as forensic science advanced, much painstaking checking of DNA samples eventually led to a match being found: in 2002 Tony Jasinskyj was given a life sentence for her rape and murder.
Colette Aram (sixteen) was abducted, raped and strangled in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, as she walked to a friend’s house on 30 October 1983. Once again, it was thanks to advances in forensic technology that, years later, in April 2009, Paul Stewart Hutchinson was charged, and was sentenced to life imprisonment in January 2010 for her rape and murder.
Lisa Hession (fourteen) was attacked, sexually assaulted and strangled on 8 December 1984 as she walked home alone from a party. Nobody has been charged with her murder, but from 2011, with the advances made in forensic science, police have been able to eliminate a number of suspects whose DNA they’ve checked on the National DNA Database, including Black.
The other cases in question include the following, although my co-author and former Norfolk Constabulary Intelligence Officer Chris Clark and I dispute the likelihood of Black being the offender in some of them:
8 April 1969, Norfolk, England: April Fabb (thirteen) disappeared when cycling towards her sister’s home in the village of Roughton. Her bicycle was found in a field along the road she had taken but her body has never been found.
21 May 1973, Lincolnshire, England: Christine Markham (nine) vanished while walking to school in Scunthorpe. Her body has never been found.
18 March 1977, County Donegal, Ireland: Mary Boyle (six) disappeared while on a family visit to her grandparents’ home in Ballyshannon. Black is known to have been just over the border in Northern Ireland at the time of her disappearance. Her body has never been found.
19 August 1978, Devon, England: Genette Tate (thirteen) was abducted while she was on her bicycle delivering newspapers in the village of Aylesbeare. Her body has never been found. Black is known to have made numerous deliveries of posters to the south-west of England in 1978.
22 July 1979, Essex, England: Suzanne Lawrence (fourteen) disappeared after leaving her home in Harold Hill. Her body has never been found.
16 June 1980, Greater London, England: Patricia Morris (fourteen) went missing from the grounds of the school she attended in Feltham, West London; her fully clothed body was found on Hounslow Heath two days after her disappearance. She had been strangled with a ligature but had not been sexually assaulted. The circumstances of Patsy’s murder do not fit with Black’s MO, and there is no evidence of him having been in the area.
4 November 1981, Renfrewshire, Scotland: Pamela Hastie (sixteen) was raped and murdered. Her body was found in Rannoch Woods near her home in the Renfrewshire town of Johnstone; she had been strangled with a piece of string and had been attacked with a knife or similar weapon. A young man was charged with her murder and sentenced to life; this was ruled a miscarriage of justice and he was released in 2007. There was an eyewitness and he remains adamant that a man he saw running from the crime scene matched Black’s description. However, the circumstances of this case – rape and the use of a knife – do not fit Robert Black’s known modus operandi, and there is no evidence that Black was in the vicinity of at th
e relevant time, so the police have not taken him seriously as a possible culprit.
20 June 1985, Germany: Silke Garben (ten) vanished on her way to a dental appointment in the town of Detmold in north-eastern Germany. Her body was found in a stream the following day; she had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Black is known to have made a delivery of posters to a British Army base located close to Garben’s home on the date of her disappearance.
5 August 1986, The Netherlands: Cheryl Morriën (seven) disappeared as she walked to her friend’s home in the port city of IJmuiden. Her body has never been found. Black is known to have made regular trips to nearby Amsterdam to purchase child pornography – but these trips were during the early 1970s before he started to work for PDS, and there is no evidence to place him in the Netherlands in 1986, so he is not considered a likely culprit.
5 May 1987, Île-de-France, France: Virginie Delmas (ten) was abducted from Neuilly-sur-Marne, in an eastern Paris suburb, on 5 May 1987. Her body was found on 9 October in an orchard in Mareuil-lès-Meaux about 22 miles away. She had been strangled, but owing to the extent of decomposition, it could not be determined whether or not she had been raped. Black is known to have made several deliveries in and around Paris on the date of the girl’s disappearance.
30 May 1987, Île-de-France, France: Hemma Davy-Greedharry (ten) disappeared when she went to buy a set square just down the street from where she lived in the Paris suburb of Malakoff. Less than two hours after she was last seen alive, her naked body was found not 900 yards away in Châtillon. She had been raped and strangled. Black is known to have regularly travelled upon the road where Hemma’s body was found when making deliveries in northern France.
3 June 1987, Île-de-France, France: Perrine Vigneron (seven) vanished on her way to her pottery class in the village of Bouleurs; her strangled and decomposed body was discovered in a rapeseed field in the commune of Chelles, about 20 miles away, on 27 June. A white van had been seen in Bouleurs on the day of her disappearance.