Black link to Tate murder

Evidence has been handed to prosecutors which links serial child killer Robert Black, who died in prison in Northern Ireland in January, to the murder of a 13-year-old Devon girl in 1978.

Black, a delivery driver originally from Scotland, murdered a string of young girls across the UK in the 1980s – including nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy from Ballinderry.

He has long been the main suspect in the abduction and murder of 13-year-old Genette Tate, whose body was never found after she vanished from a rural lane in Devon 37 years ago.

With her family longing for some kind of closure, a reinvestigation into the killing began in 2014.

Devon and Cornwall Police are understood to have identified new potential witnesses in the case.

“The major part of a file concerning this matter has now been sent to the CPS for a charging decision,” a police spokesman said.

“This has been a complex enquiry and we have kept the Tate family informed. We await direction from the CPS on how this may progress in the coming weeks.”