54 - The Serial Child Murders of Robert Black

Mens Rea: A true crime podcast

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True Crime, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 10 November 2019

⏱️ 68 minutes

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Summary

A stranger snatching a child off the street is thankfully a rare thing. But throughout the 70s and 80s, in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, a number of young girls disappeared as if into thin air while walking alone. Most went missing in broad daylight. Some were found - their bodies dumped hundreds of miles from home. Some remain missing, presumed murdered. In 1990, police in Scotland realised that many of these cases were linked. A delivery driver living in London was responsible for them all. Despite getting into trouble throughout his youth for sexually motivated attacks on younger children, Robert Black had been free to roam the country and target girls for decades. *Episode Image: Jennifer Cardy (via The Irish Times Archive) *************** Find us on Facebook or Twitter! With thanks to our supporters on Patreon! Donate today to get access to bonus and ad-free episodes! The featured podcast this week is a new one. Don't forget to check out Another Shade of Crime! Theme Music: Quinn’s Song: The Dance Begins Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Additional Music: Allemande (Sting) by Wahneta Meixsell. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ *************** Sources: C.L Swinney, Robert Black: The true story of a child killer from the United Kingdom (Toronto: RJ Parker, 2015) Purchase here Robert Church, Well Done Boys: The life and crimes of Robert Black (London: Constable, 1997) Purchase here Ray Wyre and Tim Tate, The Death of Childhood (London: Penguin, 1995) Purchase here “The Disappearance of Genette Tate” by DevonLive.com http://genettetate.devonlive.com/?_ga=2.216723730.521717693.1573263562-772761478.1572713433#group-police-hunt-SdsU2ZvdDN (August 2018) Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-disappearance-of-genette-tate/id1425038532 Alan McEwen, “Caroline Hogg murder: City scarred 30 years on” in The Scotsman https://www.scotsman.com/news-2-15012/caroline-hogg-murder-city-scarred-30-years-on-1-2992923 (8 July 2013) Laura Burns, “Remains of serial child killer Robert Black lie unclaimed in mortuary as family members fail to come forward” in The Daily Record https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/remains-serial-child-killer-robert-7193277 (17 January 2016) Claire Hayhurst, “Police were set to charge serial child killer Robert Black with murder of Genette Tate within weeks” in The Daily Record https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/police-were-set-charge-serial-7174544 (13 January 2016) “Jennifer Cardy accused Robert Black is multiple killer” from BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-15215541 (7 October 2011) “Archive of Robert Black's trial for the murder of Jennifer Cardy” from Lisburn.com http://lisburn.com/archives/info/news-2011/jennnifer-cardy.html#2 (2011) “Child killer Robert Black to serve 25 years for murdering Jennifer Cardy” in The Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8943177/Child-killer-Robert-Black-to-serve-25-years-for-murdering-Jennifer-Cardy.html (8 December 2011) “Jennifer Cardy: A 30 year wait for justice” from BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-15434091 (27 October 2011) “Susan Maxwell ' seen alone before disappearance': Triple murder trial told of surprise at sighting” in The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/susan-maxwell-seen-alone-before-disappearance-triple-murder-trial-told-of-surprise-at-sighting-1370277.html (16 April 1994) Michael McHugh, “Serial child killer Robert Black who murdered Jennifer Cardy died from a heart attack, inquest finds” from IrishNews.com https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2018/12/07/news/serial-child-killer-robert-black-who-murdered-jennifer-cardy-died-from-a-heart-attack-inquest-finds-1504044/ (7 December 2018) Robert Black wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Black_(serial_killer)#Susan_Maxwell

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the mens rea podcast and this is the story of child killer Robert Black. The Oh, losing sight of your child is a heart-stopping moment.
0:44.0	It's a universal fear that we've all experienced at some point.
0:49.0	Those situations in busy shops where you lose sight of the top of their head or when they duck behind some equipment at the playground or even when you give them permission to play on the street and they don't immediately run home when you call.
1:04.0	Most of these situations only last for that moment though,
1:08.0	a few seconds of terror before your child returns to your sight line or emerges from behind a slide.
1:15.6	Thank God the relief.
1:18.0	But sometimes the moment of relief doesn't come. your child doesn't turn the corner and come up the drive.
1:27.2	In the UK today one in 200 children go missing, that's higher than the amount of missing adults reported.
1:34.0	Of course, most of these kids are found within 24 hours,
1:38.0	either by parents or police, or they simply come home themselves.
1:42.0	A tiny percentage do not though. And if you're
1:46.7	part of that tiny percentage the rarity of it means nothing to you. This aberration of likelihood has destroyed your world.
1:57.4	And although more kids are reported missing today than ever before,
2:01.9	it's a possibility we have all lived with for generations.
2:06.0	We all fear the strange man in the van. These crimes, simply because they are so rare, all present in much the same way.
2:15.8	A child snatched off the street, gone in the blink of an eye.
2:20.5	What's perhaps more frightening is the fact that it can be hard to tell if any one disappearance is a singular event,
2:28.0	or if there's perhaps an unknown connection between abductions, a single perpetrator.
2:35.8	In April of 1969, 13-year-old April Fab cycled her way to her sister's house in the picturesque country town of Rauton in Norfolk.
2:46.2	But April never made it.
2:48.9	Neighbors saw her on her journey, but she disappeared without a trace. She'd left her own house at 2 PM to cycle the two
2:56.6	miles to deliver a birthday present to her brother-in-law, a packet of cigarettes.
	...

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