Serial child killer Black's ashes scattered at sea

The ashes of serial child killer Robert Black have been scattered at sea.
Robert BlackRobert Black
Robert Black

The Scottish-born sex attacker, who was serving multiple sentences for the murders of four schoolgirls during the 1980s, died in Maghaberry prison last month.

In 2011, he was found guilty of the 1981 murder of nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy, from Ballinderry, Co Antrim.

The Northern Ireland Prison Service has confirmed nobody wanted his remains.

A spokesman said: “In the absence of anyone claiming the remains of Robert Black, his ashes have been scattered at sea, without ceremony, beyond these shores.

“This has been done in accordance with the legal requirements for disposal.”

Sixty-eight-year-old Black, from Falkirk, was a delivery driver who stalked the roads of the UK searching for victims.

His reign of terror was ended in 1990 when he was caught red-handed by police with a barely alive six-year-old girl hooded, bound, gagged and stuffed in a sleeping bag in the back of his van in the Scottish village of Stow. He had sexually assaulted her moments earlier.

Once in custody, the predator was linked to a series of unsolved crimes in the previous decade.

In 1994, Black was found guilty of three child murders in the 1980s - those of 11-year-old Susan Maxwell, from the Scottish Borders, five-year-old Caroline Hogg, from Edinburgh, and Sarah Harper, 10, from Morley, near Leeds.