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In August 1994, in the town of Castlederg, Northern Ireland,
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15-year-old Arlene Arkinson went out to a disco and never
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came home. The last person to see Arlene was 50-year-old
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Robert Howard. He was in a relationship with Arlene's friend's
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mother and a convicted sex offender.
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This was part of his pattern of going to a place,
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kind of infiltrating himself with people, often people that had
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young daughters.
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He would attract children to his flat and one neighbour
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called him the Pied Piper.
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Arlene's disappearance went unsolved. Seven years later, another teenager went
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missing in south-east London.
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Still in my mind, the last word she said to me, Mum,
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I love you and I'll never leave you.
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When Hannah Williams' body was found a year later, all
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roads led to Robert Howard.
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We put his name into the police national computer and
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were staggered to find what we would describe as a
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career sexual offender.
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Though it took decades to bring him to justice, Robert
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Howard was finally proven to be one of the world's
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most evil killers. Robert Howard was a serial sex offender
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who preyed on vulnerable women and girls for over 35 years.
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Howard was a prolific, predatory sex offender and had been
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a sex offender from a very, very young age.
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He was someone who, everywhere he went, would have an
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interest in young girls. And then eventually that would become
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difficult for him. So he would move on and he
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would just do it somewhere else.
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Though there was plenty of suspicion along the way, it
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would take years for the true horror of Howard's crimes
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to be uncovered.
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There's no doubt now that Howard murdered Arlene. Why did
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the RUC let him get away with it?
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He was in bail for assaulting another child.
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A public inquiry should examine all of this.
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This killer's story begins on the 20th of April 1944.
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Robert Howard was born into a large family in the
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tiny rural community of Wolf Hill in the Republic of Ireland.
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Howard would come to be known as Wolfman and later
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gave himself a middle name, Lezarian.
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So his name was Robert Lezarian Howard and Lezarian is
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the name of a mythical child killer.
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From early childhood, Howard rarely attended school and soon turned
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his attention to making money any way he could.
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His first acknowledged burglary came when he was 13 and
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he was sent away. Remember we're talking about Ireland in
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the 1950s and he was put into Catholic institutions and
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in recent years we've come to know that those were
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sometimes difficult and dangerous places to be. Robert Howard came
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out of the institution at the age of 16 but
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wasn't welcomed.
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Back into the bosom of his family. Howard was forced
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to live as a vagrant, staying in local barns, sheds
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and other derelict buildings in the countryside around Wolf Hill.
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That is an incredibly young and vulnerable age to suddenly
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find yourself having to look after yourself completely.
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He had a nomadic, difficult background, no question of that.
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And I think he was someone who was continually in difficulties.
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With the law.
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At one point, he's actually effectively forced to leave Ireland
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and go to the UK.
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By the age of 21, Howard was living in London,
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where in 1965, he committed his first known sexual offence.
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He broke into a house and tried to rape a
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six-year-old girl. He got away at that point, but returned
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a week later and was caught. He got nine days'
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bail for that.
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This slap on the wrist did nothing to deter Howard.
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He was deported back to the Republic of Ireland, but
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quickly returned.
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He returns to the UK, and in 1969, at the
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age of 24, he breaks into the home of a
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young married woman in Durham, in the north of England,
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and tries to rape her.
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She clearly fought with him, ran into the street seeking help,
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He attacks her and grabs her around the throat in
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the street in front of people who were coming to
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her aid. Now, that's a really serious escalation.
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Howard was sentenced to six years in HMP, Franklin, but
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served only three. On his release, he moved to the
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Republic of Ireland and began reoffending.
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From that point on, Howard went on a litany of
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sexual offending.
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He was someone who was continually prosecuted for quite a
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number of serious offences. The point here being that he's
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not somebody who was below the radar.
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In May 1973, Howard attacks a 58-year-old woman. He breaks
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into her house, rapes her, sodomises her. and leaves her
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tied to the bed and drives off in her car.
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He is arrested for that offence, and he's arrested in
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an airport, so he's probably trying to leave the country
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again to escape.
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This time he's actually exposed to a psychiatrist, and the
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psychiatrist says he's softly spoken, he's courteous. You could never
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imagine that he would do anything violent.
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But the psychiatrist knew full well that Howard had an
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interest in teenage girls and described Howard as an explosive psychopath.
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Howard was sentenced to 10 years in jail. Upon his
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release eight years later, the 38-year-old showed himself once again
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to be a wolf in sheep's clothing.
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He had a propensity to befriend people. and to befriend
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vulnerable people that find his way into their home.
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Not long after his release, Howard marries a young woman,
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and they have a relationship for three years.
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That marriage was never going to be anything but abusive.
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Probably that was simply to trap her as this ever-present victim.
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After the marriage broke down, Howard settled in Castle Derg,
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a small town in County Tyrone, near the Irish border.
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He did have a period of time where he was
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living in a caravan. There's an allegation of a case
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whereby he kept a lady captive.
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She was a vulnerable woman he'd befriended in Dublin and
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invited to stay with him. He was 47 years old,
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she was 22.
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He keeps a prisoner there for three weeks, raping her repeatedly.
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She was actually rescued by her family, not by the police.
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There's a huge reluctance in Northern Ireland for people to
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go to the police. You didn't think you'd be believed,
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thought that you might end up under suspicion yourself.
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Eventually, the police were told many years after this event,
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but they didn't press charges. They believed she was too
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vulnerable to give evidence.
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Howard moved to a flat in the centre of Castle
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Derg and started a friendship with a woman who had
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a teenage daughter.
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It's very common in cases like this where a man
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has an interest in younger people that he will often
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become a very trusted friend. friend of the family, which
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gives them access to abuse young girls.
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And this girlfriend seemed to suspect his true intentions.
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She actually commented that she was aware he was more
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interested in younger girls than in women.
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Howard began to befriend his girlfriend's daughter and her friends,
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one of whom was a 16-year-old girl.
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Robert Howard had lured this young girl to his flat
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in Main Street, Castle Derg, on the pretense of meeting
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a taxi driver who the young girl wanted to meet
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and perhaps go out with. When she got into his flat,
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she complained of a headache and he gave her tablets.
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The next thing she knew, she woke up naked in
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his bed with a ligature around her neck.
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He effectively drugged her. and kept her captive.
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And he rapes her repeatedly, very much as he'd done
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the vulnerable young woman from Dublin.
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On the third day of this nightmare, when Howard had
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fallen asleep, the girl jumped out of a second-floor window.
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She reported everything to the police.
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They did arrest Howard. And what did Howard say? Yeah,
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all of that happened, but it.
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Was with consent. Howard was charged but let out on bail.
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He was free to continue preying on teenage girls, and
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his next attack could leave no victim to testify. In 1994,
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Robert Howard was on bail, accused of rape and unlawful imprisonment,
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and living in Castle Derg, a small Northern Irish town
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close to the border with the Republic of Ireland.
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At this point, there was still a militarised border in part,
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so you'd see a lot of soldiers around. These are
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interesting places. They can be quite lawless, particularly in the
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90s when the troubles were still going on. but it
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was surprisingly easy still to just get across the border.
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A short drive from where Howard lived, 15-year-old Arlene Arkinson
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was staying with her brother near her older sister, Kathleen.
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Arlene was a beautiful child. Arlene was bubbly. Everything she wanted,
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she got it. She just was the baby of the
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house and she, like, she was spoiled. Mummy passed and
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Dad had a wild cold and Arlene said he was
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only 11.
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Her mother had died a few years before and she
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had been living with her father for a little while
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but he was a bit unstable so hadn't been able
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to take care of her and she'd kind of moved
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around living with her different siblings and their families. So
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she was a somewhat vulnerable girl but very loved and
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cared for.
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On Saturday the 13th of August 1994, Arlene was helping.
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Out her sister.
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I asked her to babysit. It was a lovely August. Summertime,
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lovely day.
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When Kathleen got home around 10.30pm, she found out one
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of Arlene's friends had invited her out.
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She said, but I don't want to go out on
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my way.
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Don't bother us.
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But then Kathleen heard a knock at the door. It
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was Arlene's friend.
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She says, we're going to go down. I want Arlene
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to go along with us.
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Kathleen was led to believe Arlene's friend's mother was going
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to be looking after them. But it was the mother's
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boyfriend who chaperoned them that night.
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Arlene goes out with her friend to a local disco.
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They're being driven there by Robert Howard.
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When Arlene didn't arrive back home at Kathleen's house, I
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think Kathleen at that time reasonably assumed that.
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Arlene had been left off at her brother's house.
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But of course, when they realized the next day that
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Arlene wasn't with either of them, when the alarm bells
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started to ring.
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Kathleen's first port of call was to visit the mother
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of Arlene's friend, who she believed was taking care of
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the girls the night before.
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Kathleen, of her own.
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Volition, went to the family to try to find out
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exactly what had happened. They all denied any knowledge of anything,
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of any harm coming to Arlene. And there was even
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allegations that Arlene wasn't even present, that she didn't go
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to Bundorn.
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The following day, Mary, Kathleen and Arlene's sister knocked at
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the door of Arlene's friend and her mother. Robert Howard answered.
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Mary says, where's our Arlene?
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And he says, I effing don't know, and he closed
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the door on her face. Mary came down here crying,
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and I said, what's wrong? She says, don't you forget
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the last time you seen Arlene? She said, I think
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it's the last.
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And of course, during the time, they went to the authorities,
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including the social services and to the police, but the
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family just lied to Kathleen's face, and so did Howard.
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The last time Arlene was seen was in Howard's car.
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When questioned, Howard, who at the time was on bail
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for the rape and imprisonment of another teenager, denied all
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knowledge of her whereabouts.
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At one stage, he was saying that he had left
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her off at a local pub, but that doesn't make
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any sense, leaving a young girl in Castlederg at that time.
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The thing to do for a man of that age
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with a child in the car is to make sure
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that she was left at the door of an appropriate adult,
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and he didn't do that because what he said, of course,
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was a complete pack of lies.
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What is difficult to come to terms with is that
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in view of.
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His background and the charges that he was actually out
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on bail upon, he had to be suspect number.
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One.
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46 days after Arlene's disappearance, Robert Howard was arrested.
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We know that when the police did arrest Howard, that
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the boot lining from his vehicle was missing and that
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the clothing that he'd worn on the night he went
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to Bundoran had disappeared.
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So anything that might have indicated some harm had come
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to Arlene was now gone.
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Howard's alibi that he returned home to his girlfriend's house
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at around 2.30am was corroborated by his girlfriend and her daughter.
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They sort of went along with what Hurd was telling
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them to say. And I got really, really complicated to
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work out what the truth was.
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I think men like Robert Howard, they know how to
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00:16:30.429 --> 00:16:31.830
target vulnerable.
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Girls as well.
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00:16:35.549 --> 00:16:39.610
Robert Howard was released without charge. The case went cold.
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Arlene did not return to Castle Derg. In 1995, Howard
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00:16:46.149 --> 00:16:49.470
agreed a plea bargain in the case of the 16-year-old
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00:16:49.529 --> 00:16:52.990
girl he'd been accused of holding captive two years earlier.
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In return for pleading guilty to unlawful carnal knowledge, the
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rape and unlawful imprisonment charges were dropped.
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Now, unlawful carnal knowledge at that point was having sex
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00:17:07.130 --> 00:17:11.380
with consent of a girl under the age of 17,
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00:17:11.380 --> 00:17:15.849
while the victim was 16. She attended court ready to
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00:17:15.890 --> 00:17:19.690
give evidence, but her evidence was never given because the
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00:17:19.750 --> 00:17:24.869
prosecuting authorities made that deal and Howard was given a
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suspended sentence.
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Despite his victim's bravery, Robert Howard escaped proper punishment for
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00:17:33.529 --> 00:17:35.210
a heinous sexual crime.
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Local feeling turned against Howard and he received a visit
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from certain individuals. who threatened his life and gave him
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00:17:45.380 --> 00:17:51.319
a period of time to leave the province, and Howard did.
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00:17:51.460 --> 00:17:54.359
In 1995, Howard fled to Glasgow.
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Howard moving away, and with the police not actively pursuing him,
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they pursue another line of inquiry.
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Their suspicions seemed to fall on Arlene's family, and they
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00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:06.829
actually went round to her sister's house that she was
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00:18:06.869 --> 00:18:07.309
living with.
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00:18:09.170 --> 00:18:13.390
The police claimed that they had information from a reliable
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source that Arlene had been murdered at her sister's home
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and that Arlene was pushed down the stairs and then
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00:18:21.569 --> 00:18:23.009
that she was buried at the home.
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00:18:25.049 --> 00:18:29.950
In April 1996, police and soldiers turned up to Kathleen's
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00:18:30.009 --> 00:18:32.230
home accompanied by the press.
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They brought in diggers even to dig up the garden.
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They said they battered the door down as well.
283
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The search continued for a number of days.
284
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There was forensics everywhere.
285
00:18:46.339 --> 00:18:49.119
It was just like something like a horror movie.
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00:18:49.140 --> 00:18:53.069
They actually took out my coal out of my fire,
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00:18:53.470 --> 00:18:54.490
canalised my coal.
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00:18:54.529 --> 00:18:56.769
What was that all about?
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00:18:57.869 --> 00:18:59.269
Took the clothes out of the clothesline.
290
00:19:00.309 --> 00:19:03.069
And of course that resulted in nothing being found at all.
291
00:19:04.029 --> 00:19:10.730
But that event in 1996 completely soured the relationship between
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00:19:11.069 --> 00:19:15.670
the Arkinson family and the police investigation. And the only
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00:19:15.730 --> 00:19:18.309
person who benefited from that, of course, was Howard.
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00:19:20.609 --> 00:19:24.210
Undeterred, Kathleen found out through a friend who lived in
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00:19:24.309 --> 00:19:27.809
Scotland exactly where Howard had moved to.
296
00:19:29.089 --> 00:19:32.119
So I phoned one of the papers and I said,
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00:19:32.130 --> 00:19:33.130
Howard's in Scotland.
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00:19:33.759 --> 00:19:37.700
I think it was Drumchapel. Leave that with me. He says.
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00:19:41.539 --> 00:19:44.000
He's outed by the Sunday Mail, called The Face of Evil,
300
00:19:44.140 --> 00:19:46.869
and pointing to his crimes in the past. Howard is
301
00:19:46.910 --> 00:19:51.440
literally hounded out of Glasgow. He travels south to the
302
00:19:51.509 --> 00:20:05.960
outskirts of London. Howard moved to London in 1998. In 2001,
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00:20:05.960 --> 00:20:11.779
Hannah Williams was a 14-year-old girl living in Deadford, South
304
00:20:11.859 --> 00:20:12.500
East London.
305
00:20:13.240 --> 00:20:18.019
Hannah was my daughter, my youngest daughter. My relationship with
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00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:25.490
Hannah was just fantastic. She was very happy. She enjoyed
307
00:20:26.089 --> 00:20:30.329
being at home, loved going out to the high street,
308
00:20:30.450 --> 00:20:33.819
loved Going to the adventure playground, she was a.
309
00:20:33.809 --> 00:20:34.930
Bit like a Tom girl.
310
00:20:34.950 --> 00:20:39.869
She loved climbing things and jumping and that. Very energetic.
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00:20:41.630 --> 00:20:44.630
I brought all three of them up myself and I'd
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00:20:44.650 --> 00:20:48.200
done everything for them. It's hard bringing up three children
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00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:53.259
by yourself, but yeah, I'd done it and I loved it.
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00:20:55.099 --> 00:20:58.289
But Bernadette's world was about to be torn apart.
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00:21:00.450 --> 00:21:05.549
On April the 21st, 2001, Hannah goes shopping in Deptford Market.
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00:21:06.970 --> 00:21:10.630
It was about 11 o'clock. So she got up and
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00:21:11.380 --> 00:21:15.440
she said, mum, I'm going to the market. So I said, well,
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00:21:15.779 --> 00:21:18.079
if you hang on, I'll come with you. She said, mum,
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00:21:18.099 --> 00:21:19.940
I'm only going around the corner just to look at
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00:21:19.980 --> 00:21:21.079
the stalls and whatever.
321
00:21:24.490 --> 00:21:27.470
It was a decision that would change both of their
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00:21:27.509 --> 00:21:31.130
lives forever, an innocent shopping trip that would take a
323
00:21:31.190 --> 00:21:45.809
disastrous turn for the 14-year-old. As darkness approached in Deptford,
324
00:21:45.890 --> 00:21:50.710
southeast London, Hannah Williams still hadn't returned.
325
00:21:53.400 --> 00:21:57.839
She didn't come home. Her mum is absolutely frantic.
326
00:22:01.869 --> 00:22:04.809
I just walked and cried and walked to try and
327
00:22:04.990 --> 00:22:07.670
see if I could find her or see her anywhere
328
00:22:07.710 --> 00:22:13.150
in Deptford. I just didn't understand why she didn't answer
329
00:22:13.210 --> 00:22:16.450
her phone because she always answered her phone to me.
330
00:22:17.750 --> 00:22:20.990
But when she goes to the police, the police do
331
00:22:21.049 --> 00:22:26.289
not suspect that anything has happened to Hannah. They're convinced
332
00:22:26.329 --> 00:22:29.450
that she's run away or she's gone off with friends.
333
00:22:29.650 --> 00:22:33.210
And of course, this was a catastrophic decision by the police.
334
00:22:35.670 --> 00:22:39.849
The Metropolitan Police told me to wait for 24 hours
335
00:22:40.170 --> 00:22:43.470
before they could do anything. And I didn't hear nothing.
336
00:22:45.089 --> 00:22:46.230
I didn't hear nothing from them.
337
00:22:48.190 --> 00:22:52.359
Peter Harrison was a reporter working at a local newspaper.
338
00:22:53.480 --> 00:22:57.460
I was sitting in the offices of the Mercury in
339
00:22:57.599 --> 00:23:01.380
Deptford High Street. The doorbell went and there's this woman
340
00:23:01.420 --> 00:23:05.779
standing in front of me, Bernadette, and she said to me,
341
00:23:06.059 --> 00:23:09.250
can you help me? My daughter's been missing for the
342
00:23:09.289 --> 00:23:12.549
last two weeks and no one seems to care.
343
00:23:18.700 --> 00:23:23.549
I didn't think she was dead, but something was really
344
00:23:23.609 --> 00:23:26.150
bad that's happened to her and she can't get home.
345
00:23:31.789 --> 00:23:36.990
I remember contacting the missing people's section of Lewisham Police.
346
00:23:37.730 --> 00:23:42.009
The officer in question was absolutely convinced that this was
347
00:23:42.170 --> 00:23:47.150
a down and out family, you know, runaway daughter, troublesome child.
348
00:23:48.390 --> 00:23:53.230
Getting police attention, especially in a missing person case, comes
349
00:23:53.329 --> 00:23:57.160
back to this thing, are you the ideal victim? The
350
00:23:57.259 --> 00:24:03.980
less ideal you are, the less attention and sympathy you're
351
00:24:04.019 --> 00:24:04.880
going to get.
352
00:24:04.900 --> 00:24:14.190
The Metropolitan Police have since improved missing persons investigations. How
353
00:24:14.230 --> 00:24:18.819
we investigate missing people has evolved in the 23 years
354
00:24:19.220 --> 00:24:23.859
since Hannah went missing. We take the investigation of missing
355
00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:29.109
people incredibly seriously and have teams in every local policing
356
00:24:29.269 --> 00:24:37.180
area dedicated to this work. In 2001, a number of
357
00:24:37.259 --> 00:24:42.539
high-profile missing children's cases meant that Hannah's story also struggled
358
00:24:42.579 --> 00:24:44.859
to capture the attention of the media.
359
00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:47.880
It seemed at the time there was quite a few
360
00:24:48.299 --> 00:24:51.339
missing children. Hannah was one of many, but you had
361
00:24:51.440 --> 00:24:53.279
Daniel Jones, Millie Dowler.
362
00:24:54.799 --> 00:25:01.640
I feel like because they were living in more suitable
363
00:25:02.049 --> 00:25:07.619
places and Me, I was in Deptford and a single mum,
364
00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:10.640
so I felt like they got more coverage.
365
00:25:12.259 --> 00:25:18.000
But Bernadette made sure that her daughter had a good, warm,
366
00:25:18.119 --> 00:25:24.200
clean home. So it seemed preposterous that Hannah was written
367
00:25:24.279 --> 00:25:26.779
off just because of her background.
368
00:25:27.799 --> 00:25:31.420
I just didn't hear anything for a whole year, not
369
00:25:31.440 --> 00:25:35.369
knowing anything. hoping that she'd walk through the door and say, Hi, Mum,
370
00:25:35.430 --> 00:25:35.930
I'm home.
371
00:25:37.369 --> 00:25:41.150
Not once was Bernadette told, Look, there's a very good
372
00:25:41.210 --> 00:25:43.769
chance that your daughter's not going to be found alive.
373
00:25:44.410 --> 00:25:47.349
And so she was constantly filled with this hope.
374
00:25:48.750 --> 00:25:52.509
Still in my mind, the last word she said to me, Mum,
375
00:25:52.529 --> 00:25:53.309
I love you and.
376
00:25:55.049 --> 00:25:55.890
I'll never leave you.
377
00:26:01.289 --> 00:26:07.059
In March 2002, nearly 11 months after Hannah's disappearance, Bernadette's
378
00:26:07.099 --> 00:26:08.660
worst fears came true.
379
00:26:09.519 --> 00:26:12.319
At the time that Hannah Williams went missing, I was
380
00:26:12.380 --> 00:26:16.140
a senior investigating officer in major crime at Kent Police.
381
00:26:17.690 --> 00:26:21.509
On Friday the 15th of March 2002, a digger driver
382
00:26:21.569 --> 00:26:25.470
was carrying out excavation work in a very woody area
383
00:26:25.769 --> 00:26:30.019
in preparation for the International Rail Link at Ebb's Feet
384
00:26:30.079 --> 00:26:34.339
Rail Terminal. He saw a blue tarpaulin wrapped in rope
385
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:38.170
and he looked inside and could see what was clearly
386
00:26:38.190 --> 00:26:40.009
the skeletal remains of a body.
387
00:26:41.650 --> 00:26:45.089
The call came straight in to DCI Murray and he
388
00:26:45.150 --> 00:26:47.029
attended the scene immediately.
389
00:26:48.269 --> 00:26:51.799
It was torrential rain at the time. The excavation work
390
00:26:51.950 --> 00:26:54.579
meant it was thick with mud. So straight away I'm
391
00:26:55.279 --> 00:26:58.220
beginning to doubt whether we're going to get much forensic evidence.
392
00:26:59.329 --> 00:27:02.210
The body was found with a ligature around the neck.
393
00:27:02.730 --> 00:27:07.150
It was clear this was no accidental death. Kent police
394
00:27:07.230 --> 00:27:09.970
immediately launched a murder investigation.
395
00:27:11.480 --> 00:27:15.259
We went public with details of her clothing and immediately
396
00:27:15.279 --> 00:27:18.380
I had a phone call from a local reporter to say,
397
00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:19.700
I know who this girl is.
398
00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:21.920
And he said, it's Hannah Williams.
399
00:27:23.180 --> 00:27:28.970
Kent police took DNA and she was my daughter. And
400
00:27:28.990 --> 00:27:31.509
the guy, I sent him a thank you letter for
401
00:27:31.630 --> 00:27:35.309
finding her. He must have been so shocked to come
402
00:27:35.369 --> 00:27:39.700
across a body. And I was so happy that he
403
00:27:40.079 --> 00:27:46.319
found her. Because if he didn't, then I still wouldn't
404
00:27:46.400 --> 00:27:47.980
know what's happened to her.
405
00:27:49.539 --> 00:27:52.509
And I went actually up to that site. And I
406
00:27:52.890 --> 00:27:54.089
can't even tell you how I.
407
00:27:54.049 --> 00:27:54.829
Felt, to be honest.
408
00:27:56.019 --> 00:28:00.839
I mean, to see where your daughter's been lying for
409
00:28:00.859 --> 00:28:01.299
a year.
410
00:28:05.779 --> 00:28:09.599
DCI Murray's first line of inquiry was to look into
411
00:28:09.779 --> 00:28:12.519
every detail of Hannah's final movements.
412
00:28:13.859 --> 00:28:17.509
On the day she went missing, just after 11am, she
413
00:28:17.549 --> 00:28:21.990
had a 14-second phone call from a mobile phone that
414
00:28:22.029 --> 00:28:27.170
was listed as belonging to... to a woman who lived
415
00:28:27.309 --> 00:28:29.430
very close to the deposition site.
416
00:28:31.089 --> 00:28:34.759
Detectives went to her home. She told them she hadn't
417
00:28:34.839 --> 00:28:37.700
made the phone call and it must have been her partner,
418
00:28:39.839 --> 00:28:40.559
Robert Howard.
419
00:28:41.859 --> 00:28:44.920
When Robert Howard's name was given to us and we
420
00:28:44.940 --> 00:28:50.160
looked at his record and his photographs, it was just
421
00:28:50.720 --> 00:28:57.859
mind-blowing because this man... became our instant suspect for that murder.
422
00:28:59.450 --> 00:29:04.190
Police quickly discovered the link between Howard and Hannah. Howard's
423
00:29:04.259 --> 00:29:10.519
girlfriend was previously in a relationship with Hannah's father. DCI
424
00:29:10.599 --> 00:29:14.500
Murray also found out that Howard had previously been arrested
425
00:29:14.579 --> 00:29:19.369
in relation to Arlene Arkinson's disappearance and about the 16-year-old
426
00:29:19.650 --> 00:29:21.789
he'd held captive in Castle Derg.
427
00:29:22.369 --> 00:29:25.630
We had Robert Howard as our number one suspect, but
428
00:29:25.670 --> 00:29:29.349
we had no evidence at all apart from a possible
429
00:29:29.369 --> 00:29:34.710
14-second phone call that he made, which in reality proved little,
430
00:29:34.769 --> 00:29:38.210
if anything. And the biggest fear that I had at
431
00:29:38.269 --> 00:29:42.359
that time was this man. may go on a spree of.
432
00:29:42.359 --> 00:29:47.140
Killing Ken police knew they didn't have enough evidence to
433
00:29:47.240 --> 00:29:51.960
charge Howard but they wanted him off the streets immediately.
434
00:29:52.119 --> 00:29:56.740
So we took the decision to arrest him because in
435
00:29:56.819 --> 00:29:58.910
my view to do nothing was not.
436
00:29:58.740 --> 00:29:59.410
An option.
437
00:30:00.740 --> 00:30:05.140
DCI Murray and his team searched Howard's girlfriend's home and
438
00:30:05.220 --> 00:30:09.900
also his allotment, which housed a derelict caravan. But they
439
00:30:09.960 --> 00:30:14.900
found no forensic evidence. In the meantime, Howard was taken
440
00:30:14.960 --> 00:30:18.549
in for questioning, but only responded, no comment.
441
00:30:20.029 --> 00:30:24.509
We certainly never had any evidence to charge Howard with
442
00:30:24.549 --> 00:30:27.390
Hannah's murder, and he was released from custody.
443
00:30:28.730 --> 00:30:32.960
Detectives needed to find out more about Robert Howard's pattern
444
00:30:33.079 --> 00:30:33.779
of offending.
445
00:30:34.680 --> 00:30:38.859
We've got a man, ostensibly, who's moved from Scotland down
446
00:30:38.920 --> 00:30:42.079
to London and during that period of time has not
447
00:30:42.119 --> 00:30:46.880
come to the notice of the police. Had Howard been
448
00:30:46.960 --> 00:30:51.329
targeting other children? And the answer was almost undoubtedly yes.
449
00:30:52.480 --> 00:30:57.150
Kent Police worked with social services to identify and interview
450
00:30:57.170 --> 00:31:00.890
any at-risk children living close to Howard's home.
451
00:31:01.509 --> 00:31:05.380
And we identified one particularly young girl who would absolutely
452
00:31:05.519 --> 00:31:08.579
prove to be vital to our investigation.
453
00:31:09.460 --> 00:31:11.599
She was just six years old.
454
00:31:12.680 --> 00:31:16.900
Robert Howard had invited her into his flat. He indecently
455
00:31:16.960 --> 00:31:21.240
assaulted her and she called him a pervert. and ran
456
00:31:21.579 --> 00:31:22.359
out of the flat.
457
00:31:23.339 --> 00:31:27.720
DCI Murray liaised with the Metropolitan Police, who agreed to
458
00:31:27.759 --> 00:31:32.779
arrest Howard on suspicion of indecent assault. The six-year-old girl
459
00:31:32.839 --> 00:31:36.220
then told the police that Howard had also taken her
460
00:31:36.559 --> 00:31:39.480
on a swimming trip to the lake right next to
461
00:31:39.519 --> 00:31:41.500
where Hannah's body was found.
462
00:31:42.720 --> 00:31:47.789
Now we've got, obviously, the background of Arlene, The young
463
00:31:47.849 --> 00:31:50.789
girl who'd had a ligature tied around her neck whilst
464
00:31:50.849 --> 00:31:55.329
Howard raped her. And now we have this young girl,
465
00:31:56.150 --> 00:32:00.430
similar profile, taken down to very close to where Hannah lay.
466
00:32:01.049 --> 00:32:05.619
With strong circumstantial evidence showing a clear pattern of behavior,
467
00:32:06.039 --> 00:32:09.559
Kent police were able to arrest Robert Howard. But did
468
00:32:09.619 --> 00:32:21.650
they have enough to convict him for murder? In May 2002,
469
00:32:21.650 --> 00:32:27.309
Kent police charged 57-year-old Robert Howard with the murder of
470
00:32:27.329 --> 00:32:33.410
14-year-old Hannah Williams. While in custody, Northern Irish police arrested
471
00:32:33.450 --> 00:32:39.799
him for the 1994 murder of 15-year-old Arlene Arkinson. But
472
00:32:39.880 --> 00:32:44.900
then an anonymous tip-off accusing Arlene's sister Kathleen put both
473
00:32:44.980 --> 00:32:47.059
investigations into jeopardy.
474
00:32:50.390 --> 00:32:54.349
We're going ahead with the trial of Robert Howard. The
475
00:32:54.390 --> 00:32:59.480
week before, I get a phone call from an SIO
476
00:32:59.839 --> 00:33:04.380
in Northern Ireland to say that they've had recent intelligence
477
00:33:04.980 --> 00:33:10.109
to say that Arlene's body was buried under a floor
478
00:33:10.569 --> 00:33:11.750
in Kathleen's house.
479
00:33:13.500 --> 00:33:17.119
DCI Murray was told if the case against Howard in
480
00:33:17.200 --> 00:33:20.980
Northern Ireland collapsed, it could throw serious doubts on the
481
00:33:21.039 --> 00:33:27.680
prosecution case against him for Hannah Williams' murder. But no
482
00:33:27.759 --> 00:33:31.519
body was found at Kathleen's home and she willingly came
483
00:33:31.619 --> 00:33:34.660
forward to help Kent Police prove their case.
484
00:33:35.859 --> 00:33:38.920
In our dealings with the Arkinsons, they wanted to do
485
00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:40.490
everything they could to help us.
486
00:33:41.440 --> 00:33:43.500
In the prosecution.
487
00:33:43.059 --> 00:33:46.319
Of Robert Howard and were happy to come to England
488
00:33:46.380 --> 00:33:48.660
and give evidence at his trial.
489
00:33:51.759 --> 00:33:56.650
I'd done everything by myself and to have the Arkansans
490
00:33:56.670 --> 00:34:00.369
actually come over and come to the courtroom to support me,
491
00:34:01.430 --> 00:34:04.289
even though they're going through the grief of their sister,
492
00:34:06.190 --> 00:34:07.819
I mean, I thought that was so nice of them.
493
00:34:09.150 --> 00:34:14.110
Kent police successfully persuaded the judge to allow Howard's previous
494
00:34:14.170 --> 00:34:17.780
arrests and convictions to be presented to the jury.
495
00:34:18.780 --> 00:34:21.780
The court in England were able to introduce similar fact
496
00:34:21.860 --> 00:34:23.719
evidence of what happened in Arlene's case.
497
00:34:26.179 --> 00:34:29.800
Robert Howard's trial for the murder of Hannah Williams began
498
00:34:29.860 --> 00:34:35.199
at Maidstone Crown Court in October 2003. The prosecution called
499
00:34:35.280 --> 00:34:42.070
upon evidence from Kathleen Arkinson, the 16-year-old Howard abducted in 1993,
500
00:34:42.070 --> 00:34:47.409
and also the six-year-old girl from South London. Details of
501
00:34:47.469 --> 00:34:51.670
how Hannah's body was found were also presented to the jury.
502
00:34:52.510 --> 00:34:56.840
Bernadette sat through the entire trial. She felt it was
503
00:34:56.920 --> 00:34:59.239
the least she could do to honour her daughter.
504
00:35:01.239 --> 00:35:05.400
To hear how he put blue rope around her neck.
505
00:35:06.900 --> 00:35:09.199
She must have struggled to try and get away, but
506
00:35:09.900 --> 00:35:13.159
she wasn't obviously strong enough, and probably the more she struggled,
507
00:35:13.219 --> 00:35:19.260
the rope was tightening. So he strangled her. But then laughing,
508
00:35:19.280 --> 00:35:20.300
he raped her as well.
509
00:35:21.980 --> 00:35:26.119
She sat through the court hearing about how the gusset
510
00:35:26.219 --> 00:35:30.280
of her teenage daughter's underwear had been cut out, probably
511
00:35:30.320 --> 00:35:32.320
to hide DNA evidence.
512
00:35:33.630 --> 00:35:36.449
Howard continued to proclaim his innocence.
513
00:35:37.750 --> 00:35:41.570
He stood on the stand and was telling lies after lies.
514
00:35:42.489 --> 00:35:43.869
He never looked up at me.
515
00:35:43.889 --> 00:35:49.110
I think Robert Howard phoned Hannah Williams on the day
516
00:35:49.150 --> 00:35:54.260
she went missing, used some pretext to meet her, and
517
00:35:54.820 --> 00:35:57.900
the cause of death was the ligature.
518
00:35:57.500 --> 00:35:58.239
Around her neck.
519
00:35:59.800 --> 00:36:03.650
And I think at that point, he then took Hannah
520
00:36:03.670 --> 00:36:10.849
by vehicle over to the Blue Lake. And but for
521
00:36:10.889 --> 00:36:15.570
the construction of the Ebbs Fleet Rail Terminal, she would
522
00:36:15.610 --> 00:36:17.659
have laid there for years, bless her.
523
00:36:19.780 --> 00:36:21.880
The only time he looked up is when the jury
524
00:36:21.940 --> 00:36:24.440
left the courtroom to make their decision.
525
00:36:26.059 --> 00:36:28.619
It took the jury just three hours to convict him.
526
00:36:32.130 --> 00:36:37.070
In October 2003, Howard was found guilty of murder and
527
00:36:37.130 --> 00:36:42.190
was sentenced to life imprisonment. Kathleen approached the police van
528
00:36:42.510 --> 00:36:43.900
as he was being driven away.
529
00:36:43.920 --> 00:36:46.139
I looked at the van.
530
00:36:46.159 --> 00:36:49.760
I says, Rabbi, I says, you're going to jail.
531
00:36:51.360 --> 00:36:52.500
You're not getting out this time.
532
00:36:54.940 --> 00:36:57.909
He kicked and he banged and he kicked and he
533
00:36:58.010 --> 00:37:02.150
banged at that deer. I felt big relief, such as
534
00:37:02.210 --> 00:37:07.409
I'd done the best I could and I did get justice,
535
00:37:07.429 --> 00:37:08.659
that's why I'm happy.
536
00:37:29.659 --> 00:37:34.250
In 2005, Robert Howard, now incarcerated for life, is brought
537
00:37:34.269 --> 00:37:37.090
to trial for Arlene Arkinson.
538
00:37:39.150 --> 00:37:41.530
The jury weren't allowed to be told that he had
539
00:37:41.630 --> 00:37:43.849
murdered another teenage girl and that, in fact, he was
540
00:37:43.989 --> 00:37:46.730
in prison for that murder and had been brought from
541
00:37:46.750 --> 00:37:47.690
prison to be on trial.
542
00:37:49.130 --> 00:37:51.869
And they don't convict him of Arlene's killing.
543
00:37:53.469 --> 00:37:55.349
Never, ever, I ever blamed the jury.
544
00:37:55.369 --> 00:37:56.170
It wasn't their fault.
545
00:37:56.909 --> 00:37:59.820
They didn't know nothing. I remember my father just sitting
546
00:37:59.840 --> 00:38:02.760
looking at him in the box. Imagine looking at the
547
00:38:02.800 --> 00:38:04.210
person who murdered your child.
548
00:38:05.989 --> 00:38:11.130
Despite Howard's acquittal, Kathleen continued her tireless fight to find
549
00:38:11.250 --> 00:38:12.690
justice for Arlene.
550
00:38:15.989 --> 00:38:19.889
So the next legal possibility, now that the trial has collapsed,
551
00:38:20.849 --> 00:38:21.570
is an inquest.
552
00:38:22.690 --> 00:38:25.389
Howard was going to be called once again to give
553
00:38:25.550 --> 00:38:27.530
evidence in the inquest hearing.
554
00:38:28.750 --> 00:38:31.389
But then in October 2015, Howard dies.
555
00:38:32.869 --> 00:38:38.989
Howard never once admitted killing Arlene. Like many murderers, he
556
00:38:39.030 --> 00:38:42.570
wanted to keep those secrets to himself, his last bit
557
00:38:42.610 --> 00:38:45.590
of control over the family and over the world.
558
00:38:47.059 --> 00:38:51.119
He took Arlene's location to his grave and it's so,
559
00:38:51.219 --> 00:38:54.840
so sad that Arlene's never been recovered.
560
00:38:56.820 --> 00:38:58.539
At least I'm glad he died in prison, so.
561
00:39:00.329 --> 00:39:02.650
He couldn't go out and hurt any other child or
562
00:39:03.050 --> 00:39:04.969
infant or a woman again.
563
00:39:06.230 --> 00:39:09.949
After a number of legal challenges, the inquest was due
564
00:39:09.980 --> 00:39:13.539
to start in 2016.
565
00:39:13.539 --> 00:39:16.099
And then on the eve of the inquest starting, the
566
00:39:16.179 --> 00:39:20.219
Secretary of State issues what is known as a PII certificate,
567
00:39:20.639 --> 00:39:25.469
a Public Interest Immunity Certificate. So it's effectively the government
568
00:39:25.670 --> 00:39:29.210
saying on the grounds of the national security of our country,
569
00:39:29.429 --> 00:39:29.969
we cannot respond.
570
00:39:30.340 --> 00:39:31.099
This information.
571
00:39:33.599 --> 00:39:36.099
What on earth are they trying to keep from the
572
00:39:36.139 --> 00:39:39.420
inquest involving the death of a 15-year-old child?
573
00:39:40.860 --> 00:39:43.380
There had been a lot of rumours that Robert Howard
574
00:39:43.400 --> 00:39:45.199
had been a police informer.
575
00:39:47.269 --> 00:39:50.530
When asked if Howard was an informer, the police have
576
00:39:50.570 --> 00:39:53.829
said they will neither confirm nor deny, and that no
577
00:39:53.969 --> 00:39:59.489
inference should be drawn from this. The PII certificate limited
578
00:39:59.590 --> 00:40:03.170
what evidence could be shared, but the inquest went ahead
579
00:40:03.250 --> 00:40:08.920
as planned at Belfast Coroner's Court. Arlene's friend and her mother,
580
00:40:09.380 --> 00:40:13.320
Howard's girlfriend at the time of Arlene's disappearance, were called
581
00:40:13.360 --> 00:40:16.820
to give evidence. Their stories kept changing.
582
00:40:19.260 --> 00:40:22.380
His partner initially was saying that he did come back
583
00:40:22.440 --> 00:40:24.420
in the early hours of the morning, but then that
584
00:40:24.519 --> 00:40:28.820
changed to him coming back later in the morning and
585
00:40:28.840 --> 00:40:31.769
that he was still wearing the same clothes that he
586
00:40:31.809 --> 00:40:34.789
wore the evening before. So there's no doubt he had
587
00:40:34.849 --> 00:40:38.010
more than adequate time to murder Arlene and dispose of
588
00:40:38.030 --> 00:40:38.409
her body.
589
00:40:40.030 --> 00:40:44.469
Detectives dropped a bombshell that they had some inside information,
590
00:40:45.269 --> 00:40:48.550
a confession Robert Howard had made to a cellmate.
591
00:40:49.559 --> 00:40:52.449
The chief investigating officer was able to relay to the
592
00:40:52.530 --> 00:40:56.429
court what Howard had said about how Howard had held
593
00:40:56.630 --> 00:40:59.650
Arlene over a sink, how there was a lot of blood,
594
00:41:00.409 --> 00:41:02.840
and how she had put up a good fight. And
595
00:41:03.000 --> 00:41:06.360
so that was very upsetting for Kathleen to hear.
596
00:41:10.730 --> 00:41:14.170
Due to huge delays in the court system, it wasn't
597
00:41:14.269 --> 00:41:18.840
until July 2021 that the conclusions of the inquest were
598
00:41:18.880 --> 00:41:24.139
shared at Omar Courthouse, 27 years after Arlene disappeared.
599
00:41:25.659 --> 00:41:28.619
The inquest into Arlene's death did conclude that Robert Howard
600
00:41:28.800 --> 00:41:31.739
had killed her. They ruled that they were confident her
601
00:41:31.780 --> 00:41:35.960
remains were still near the town where she disappeared. I
602
00:41:35.980 --> 00:41:39.050
think this case is just so shocking, really. We have
603
00:41:39.070 --> 00:41:41.889
this man with a long history of violence and convictions
604
00:41:41.969 --> 00:41:45.230
who's literally on bail for assaulting another teenage girl. And
605
00:41:45.269 --> 00:41:47.469
he's the last person to see a teenage girl alive.
606
00:41:48.139 --> 00:41:50.420
And yet he still completely gets away with it and
607
00:41:50.460 --> 00:41:52.320
is able a few years later to kill another girl.
608
00:41:53.880 --> 00:41:58.599
I've always maintained that if Howard had been properly sentenced
609
00:41:59.199 --> 00:42:03.880
for rape, unlawful imprisonment, Arlene Arkinson and Hannah Williams would
610
00:42:03.920 --> 00:42:04.840
be alive today.
611
00:42:06.929 --> 00:42:07.989
She never got to her prom.
612
00:42:09.449 --> 00:42:24.639
Arlene's body has never been found. What exactly happened on
613
00:42:24.659 --> 00:42:28.019
the night of her disappearance remains a mystery.
614
00:42:30.199 --> 00:42:31.380
I just wished.
615
00:42:32.679 --> 00:42:35.090
I had said, no, I need to go, please to go.
616
00:42:35.989 --> 00:42:39.409
But I don't know. That's a real mess, my sister.
617
00:42:43.010 --> 00:42:46.860
I just hope she doesn't suffer. But I know she
618
00:42:46.880 --> 00:42:53.119
doesn't suffer. But they know I'm never going to give up.
619
00:42:53.519 --> 00:42:56.880
I'm never going to ever, ever. The last breath I take,
620
00:42:56.940 --> 00:43:01.760
I'm only finer. You're a decent girl.
621
00:43:06.190 --> 00:43:06.659
I hate him.
622
00:43:07.190 --> 00:43:10.110
And just taking my 14-year-old daughter and killing her and
623
00:43:10.150 --> 00:43:10.630
raping her.
624
00:43:11.429 --> 00:43:12.030
I hate it.
625
00:43:13.340 --> 00:43:16.179
I always think about what she would be doing now.
626
00:43:17.519 --> 00:43:20.940
And I just wish Hannah was still here.
627
00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:24.760
But that evil person just killed her.
628
00:43:26.570 --> 00:43:27.719
She's always in my heart.
629
00:43:28.289 --> 00:43:31.510
I know she's saying, Mum, be strong. She's looking down
630
00:43:31.610 --> 00:43:33.510
on me right this minute.
631
00:43:34.349 --> 00:43:40.909
Bless her. Robert Howard was a violent sex offender known
632
00:43:40.989 --> 00:43:44.909
to the authorities. He managed to brutally attack women and
633
00:43:45.030 --> 00:43:48.869
children for over 30 years. We may never truly know
634
00:43:48.949 --> 00:43:53.219
the extent of this master manipulator's crimes, but after the
635
00:43:53.300 --> 00:43:56.880
deaths of Arlene and Hannah were finally proven, there is
636
00:43:57.019 --> 00:43:59.760
no doubt that he is one of the world's most
637
00:44:00.199 --> 00:44:00.960
evil killers.
1
00:00:07.549 --> 00:00:12.589
In August 1994, in the town of Castlederg, Northern Ireland,
2
00:00:12.609 --> 00:00:17.699
15-year-old Arlene Arkinson went out to a disco and never
3
00:00:17.800 --> 00:00:29.179
came home. The last person to see Arlene was 50-year-old
4
00:00:29.460 --> 00:00:33.000
Robert Howard. He was in a relationship with Arlene's friend's
5
00:00:33.060 --> 00:00:35.649
mother and a convicted sex offender.
6
00:00:36.310 --> 00:00:38.149
This was part of his pattern of going to a place,
7
00:00:38.170 --> 00:00:41.689
kind of infiltrating himself with people, often people that had
8
00:00:41.850 --> 00:00:42.590
young daughters.
9
00:00:44.189 --> 00:00:47.560
He would attract children to his flat and one neighbour
10
00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:48.859
called him the Pied Piper.
11
00:00:49.659 --> 00:00:55.780
Arlene's disappearance went unsolved. Seven years later, another teenager went
12
00:00:55.840 --> 00:00:57.740
missing in south-east London.
13
00:00:58.759 --> 00:01:02.509
Still in my mind, the last word she said to me, Mum,
14
00:01:02.570 --> 00:01:04.790
I love you and I'll never leave you.
15
00:01:05.939 --> 00:01:09.849
When Hannah Williams' body was found a year later, all
16
00:01:09.930 --> 00:01:11.629
roads led to Robert Howard.
17
00:01:12.290 --> 00:01:15.950
We put his name into the police national computer and
18
00:01:16.310 --> 00:01:20.239
were staggered to find what we would describe as a
19
00:01:20.340 --> 00:01:22.519
career sexual offender.
20
00:01:23.420 --> 00:01:26.959
Though it took decades to bring him to justice, Robert
21
00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:30.549
Howard was finally proven to be one of the world's
22
00:01:30.620 --> 00:01:59.219
most evil killers. Robert Howard was a serial sex offender
23
00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:03.500
who preyed on vulnerable women and girls for over 35 years.
24
00:02:06.519 --> 00:02:11.960
Howard was a prolific, predatory sex offender and had been
25
00:02:11.979 --> 00:02:16.280
a sex offender from a very, very young age.
26
00:02:17.610 --> 00:02:20.550
He was someone who, everywhere he went, would have an
27
00:02:20.669 --> 00:02:23.569
interest in young girls. And then eventually that would become
28
00:02:23.610 --> 00:02:25.270
difficult for him. So he would move on and he
29
00:02:25.310 --> 00:02:26.310
would just do it somewhere else.
30
00:02:27.949 --> 00:02:31.099
Though there was plenty of suspicion along the way, it
31
00:02:31.139 --> 00:02:34.400
would take years for the true horror of Howard's crimes
32
00:02:34.639 --> 00:02:35.580
to be uncovered.
33
00:02:39.289 --> 00:02:43.389
There's no doubt now that Howard murdered Arlene. Why did
34
00:02:43.409 --> 00:02:46.000
the RUC let him get away with it?
35
00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:49.180
He was in bail for assaulting another child.
36
00:02:49.659 --> 00:02:52.599
A public inquiry should examine all of this.
37
00:02:59.069 --> 00:03:04.250
This killer's story begins on the 20th of April 1944.
38
00:03:04.849 --> 00:03:08.009
Robert Howard was born into a large family in the
39
00:03:08.069 --> 00:03:12.650
tiny rural community of Wolf Hill in the Republic of Ireland.
40
00:03:15.009 --> 00:03:18.930
Howard would come to be known as Wolfman and later
41
00:03:18.969 --> 00:03:21.530
gave himself a middle name, Lezarian.
42
00:03:22.219 --> 00:03:25.800
So his name was Robert Lezarian Howard and Lezarian is
43
00:03:25.819 --> 00:03:27.379
the name of a mythical child killer.
44
00:03:28.449 --> 00:03:33.449
From early childhood, Howard rarely attended school and soon turned
45
00:03:33.490 --> 00:03:36.719
his attention to making money any way he could.
46
00:03:37.340 --> 00:03:41.379
His first acknowledged burglary came when he was 13 and
47
00:03:41.400 --> 00:03:45.159
he was sent away. Remember we're talking about Ireland in
48
00:03:45.180 --> 00:03:49.669
the 1950s and he was put into Catholic institutions and
49
00:03:49.710 --> 00:03:52.210
in recent years we've come to know that those were
50
00:03:52.289 --> 00:03:57.530
sometimes difficult and dangerous places to be. Robert Howard came
51
00:03:57.629 --> 00:03:59.650
out of the institution at the age of 16 but
52
00:03:59.789 --> 00:04:00.750
wasn't welcomed.
53
00:04:00.449 --> 00:04:04.830
Back into the bosom of his family. Howard was forced
54
00:04:04.870 --> 00:04:08.629
to live as a vagrant, staying in local barns, sheds
55
00:04:08.710 --> 00:04:12.740
and other derelict buildings in the countryside around Wolf Hill.
56
00:04:14.199 --> 00:04:18.160
That is an incredibly young and vulnerable age to suddenly
57
00:04:18.259 --> 00:04:24.079
find yourself having to look after yourself completely.
58
00:04:24.740 --> 00:04:29.379
He had a nomadic, difficult background, no question of that.
59
00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:36.920
And I think he was someone who was continually in difficulties.
60
00:04:36.379 --> 00:04:37.019
With the law.
61
00:04:41.810 --> 00:04:45.949
At one point, he's actually effectively forced to leave Ireland
62
00:04:46.449 --> 00:04:47.189
and go to the UK.
63
00:04:57.660 --> 00:05:01.240
By the age of 21, Howard was living in London,
64
00:05:01.560 --> 00:05:06.730
where in 1965, he committed his first known sexual offence.
65
00:05:08.490 --> 00:05:11.449
He broke into a house and tried to rape a
66
00:05:11.490 --> 00:05:15.370
six-year-old girl. He got away at that point, but returned
67
00:05:15.389 --> 00:05:19.439
a week later and was caught. He got nine days'
68
00:05:19.519 --> 00:05:20.899
bail for that.
69
00:05:21.889 --> 00:05:24.709
This slap on the wrist did nothing to deter Howard.
70
00:05:25.029 --> 00:05:27.970
He was deported back to the Republic of Ireland, but
71
00:05:28.050 --> 00:05:29.069
quickly returned.
72
00:05:29.089 --> 00:05:32.850
He returns to the UK, and in 1969, at the
73
00:05:32.910 --> 00:05:36.569
age of 24, he breaks into the home of a
74
00:05:37.009 --> 00:05:40.889
young married woman in Durham, in the north of England,
75
00:05:42.149 --> 00:05:43.149
and tries to rape her.
76
00:05:44.629 --> 00:05:50.189
She clearly fought with him, ran into the street seeking help,
77
00:05:52.370 --> 00:05:54.730
He attacks her and grabs her around the throat in
78
00:05:54.790 --> 00:05:57.899
the street in front of people who were coming to
79
00:05:58.480 --> 00:06:01.819
her aid. Now, that's a really serious escalation.
80
00:06:03.160 --> 00:06:07.480
Howard was sentenced to six years in HMP, Franklin, but
81
00:06:07.540 --> 00:06:12.689
served only three. On his release, he moved to the
82
00:06:12.730 --> 00:06:15.689
Republic of Ireland and began reoffending.
83
00:06:18.230 --> 00:06:21.610
From that point on, Howard went on a litany of
84
00:06:21.709 --> 00:06:22.610
sexual offending.
85
00:06:23.649 --> 00:06:29.600
He was someone who was continually prosecuted for quite a
86
00:06:29.639 --> 00:06:33.579
number of serious offences. The point here being that he's
87
00:06:33.660 --> 00:06:35.240
not somebody who was below the radar.
88
00:06:35.259 --> 00:06:41.029
In May 1973, Howard attacks a 58-year-old woman. He breaks
89
00:06:41.089 --> 00:06:45.149
into her house, rapes her, sodomises her. and leaves her
90
00:06:45.689 --> 00:06:48.620
tied to the bed and drives off in her car.
91
00:06:50.139 --> 00:06:53.500
He is arrested for that offence, and he's arrested in
92
00:06:53.540 --> 00:06:55.860
an airport, so he's probably trying to leave the country
93
00:06:55.920 --> 00:06:57.540
again to escape.
94
00:06:58.759 --> 00:07:02.680
This time he's actually exposed to a psychiatrist, and the
95
00:07:02.699 --> 00:07:08.339
psychiatrist says he's softly spoken, he's courteous. You could never
96
00:07:08.439 --> 00:07:11.899
imagine that he would do anything violent.
97
00:07:13.079 --> 00:07:17.850
But the psychiatrist knew full well that Howard had an
98
00:07:17.930 --> 00:07:23.170
interest in teenage girls and described Howard as an explosive psychopath.
99
00:07:26.230 --> 00:07:30.290
Howard was sentenced to 10 years in jail. Upon his
100
00:07:30.350 --> 00:07:35.149
release eight years later, the 38-year-old showed himself once again
101
00:07:35.180 --> 00:07:37.699
to be a wolf in sheep's clothing.
102
00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:42.759
He had a propensity to befriend people. and to befriend
103
00:07:42.779 --> 00:07:45.480
vulnerable people that find his way into their home.
104
00:07:46.620 --> 00:07:49.800
Not long after his release, Howard marries a young woman,
105
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and they have a relationship for three years.
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That marriage was never going to be anything but abusive.
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Probably that was simply to trap her as this ever-present victim.
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After the marriage broke down, Howard settled in Castle Derg,
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a small town in County Tyrone, near the Irish border.
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He did have a period of time where he was
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living in a caravan. There's an allegation of a case
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whereby he kept a lady captive.
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She was a vulnerable woman he'd befriended in Dublin and
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invited to stay with him. He was 47 years old,
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she was 22.
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He keeps a prisoner there for three weeks, raping her repeatedly.
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She was actually rescued by her family, not by the police.
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There's a huge reluctance in Northern Ireland for people to
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go to the police. You didn't think you'd be believed,
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thought that you might end up under suspicion yourself.
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Eventually, the police were told many years after this event,
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but they didn't press charges. They believed she was too
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vulnerable to give evidence.
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Howard moved to a flat in the centre of Castle
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Derg and started a friendship with a woman who had
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a teenage daughter.
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It's very common in cases like this where a man
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has an interest in younger people that he will often
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become a very trusted friend. friend of the family, which
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gives them access to abuse young girls.
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And this girlfriend seemed to suspect his true intentions.
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She actually commented that she was aware he was more
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interested in younger girls than in women.
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Howard began to befriend his girlfriend's daughter and her friends,
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one of whom was a 16-year-old girl.
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Robert Howard had lured this young girl to his flat
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in Main Street, Castle Derg, on the pretense of meeting
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a taxi driver who the young girl wanted to meet
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and perhaps go out with. When she got into his flat,
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she complained of a headache and he gave her tablets.
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The next thing she knew, she woke up naked in
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his bed with a ligature around her neck.
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He effectively drugged her. and kept her captive.
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And he rapes her repeatedly, very much as he'd done
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the vulnerable young woman from Dublin.
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On the third day of this nightmare, when Howard had
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fallen asleep, the girl jumped out of a second-floor window.
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She reported everything to the police.
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They did arrest Howard. And what did Howard say? Yeah,
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all of that happened, but it.
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Was with consent. Howard was charged but let out on bail.
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He was free to continue preying on teenage girls, and
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his next attack could leave no victim to testify. In 1994,
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Robert Howard was on bail, accused of rape and unlawful imprisonment,
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and living in Castle Derg, a small Northern Irish town
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close to the border with the Republic of Ireland.
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At this point, there was still a militarised border in part,
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so you'd see a lot of soldiers around. These are
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interesting places. They can be quite lawless, particularly in the
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90s when the troubles were still going on. but it
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was surprisingly easy still to just get across the border.
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A short drive from where Howard lived, 15-year-old Arlene Arkinson
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was staying with her brother near her older sister, Kathleen.
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Arlene was a beautiful child. Arlene was bubbly. Everything she wanted,
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she got it. She just was the baby of the
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house and she, like, she was spoiled. Mummy passed and
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Dad had a wild cold and Arlene said he was
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only 11.
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Her mother had died a few years before and she
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had been living with her father for a little while
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but he was a bit unstable so hadn't been able
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to take care of her and she'd kind of moved
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around living with her different siblings and their families. So
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she was a somewhat vulnerable girl but very loved and
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cared for.
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On Saturday the 13th of August 1994, Arlene was helping.
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Out her sister.
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I asked her to babysit. It was a lovely August. Summertime,
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lovely day.
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When Kathleen got home around 10.30pm, she found out one
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of Arlene's friends had invited her out.
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She said, but I don't want to go out on
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my way.
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Don't bother us.
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But then Kathleen heard a knock at the door. It
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was Arlene's friend.
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She says, we're going to go down. I want Arlene
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to go along with us.
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Kathleen was led to believe Arlene's friend's mother was going
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to be looking after them. But it was the mother's
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boyfriend who chaperoned them that night.
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Arlene goes out with her friend to a local disco.
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They're being driven there by Robert Howard.
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When Arlene didn't arrive back home at Kathleen's house, I
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think Kathleen at that time reasonably assumed that.
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Arlene had been left off at her brother's house.
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But of course, when they realized the next day that
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Arlene wasn't with either of them, when the alarm bells
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started to ring.
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Kathleen's first port of call was to visit the mother
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of Arlene's friend, who she believed was taking care of
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the girls the night before.
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Kathleen, of her own.
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Volition, went to the family to try to find out
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exactly what had happened. They all denied any knowledge of anything,
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of any harm coming to Arlene. And there was even
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allegations that Arlene wasn't even present, that she didn't go
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to Bundorn.
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The following day, Mary, Kathleen and Arlene's sister knocked at
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the door of Arlene's friend and her mother. Robert Howard answered.
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Mary says, where's our Arlene?
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And he says, I effing don't know, and he closed
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the door on her face. Mary came down here crying,
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and I said, what's wrong? She says, don't you forget
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the last time you seen Arlene? She said, I think
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it's the last.
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And of course, during the time, they went to the authorities,
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including the social services and to the police, but the
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family just lied to Kathleen's face, and so did Howard.
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The last time Arlene was seen was in Howard's car.
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When questioned, Howard, who at the time was on bail
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for the rape and imprisonment of another teenager, denied all
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knowledge of her whereabouts.
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At one stage, he was saying that he had left
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her off at a local pub, but that doesn't make
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any sense, leaving a young girl in Castlederg at that time.
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The thing to do for a man of that age
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with a child in the car is to make sure
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that she was left at the door of an appropriate adult,
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and he didn't do that because what he said, of course,
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was a complete pack of lies.
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What is difficult to come to terms with is that
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in view of.
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His background and the charges that he was actually out
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on bail upon, he had to be suspect number.
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One.
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46 days after Arlene's disappearance, Robert Howard was arrested.
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We know that when the police did arrest Howard, that
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the boot lining from his vehicle was missing and that
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the clothing that he'd worn on the night he went
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to Bundoran had disappeared.
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So anything that might have indicated some harm had come
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to Arlene was now gone.
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Howard's alibi that he returned home to his girlfriend's house
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at around 2.30am was corroborated by his girlfriend and her daughter.
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They sort of went along with what Hurd was telling
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them to say. And I got really, really complicated to
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work out what the truth was.
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I think men like Robert Howard, they know how to
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target vulnerable.
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Girls as well.
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Robert Howard was released without charge. The case went cold.
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Arlene did not return to Castle Derg. In 1995, Howard
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agreed a plea bargain in the case of the 16-year-old
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girl he'd been accused of holding captive two years earlier.
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In return for pleading guilty to unlawful carnal knowledge, the
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rape and unlawful imprisonment charges were dropped.
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Now, unlawful carnal knowledge at that point was having sex
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with consent of a girl under the age of 17,
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while the victim was 16. She attended court ready to
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give evidence, but her evidence was never given because the
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prosecuting authorities made that deal and Howard was given a
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suspended sentence.
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Despite his victim's bravery, Robert Howard escaped proper punishment for
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a heinous sexual crime.
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Local feeling turned against Howard and he received a visit
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from certain individuals. who threatened his life and gave him
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a period of time to leave the province, and Howard did.
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In 1995, Howard fled to Glasgow.
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Howard moving away, and with the police not actively pursuing him,
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they pursue another line of inquiry.
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Their suspicions seemed to fall on Arlene's family, and they
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actually went round to her sister's house that she was
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living with.
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The police claimed that they had information from a reliable
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source that Arlene had been murdered at her sister's home
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and that Arlene was pushed down the stairs and then
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that she was buried at the home.
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In April 1996, police and soldiers turned up to Kathleen's
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home accompanied by the press.
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They brought in diggers even to dig up the garden.
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They said they battered the door down as well.
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The search continued for a number of days.
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There was forensics everywhere.
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It was just like something like a horror movie.
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They actually took out my coal out of my fire,
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canalised my coal.
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What was that all about?
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Took the clothes out of the clothesline.
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And of course that resulted in nothing being found at all.
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00:19:04.029 --> 00:19:10.730
But that event in 1996 completely soured the relationship between
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the Arkinson family and the police investigation. And the only
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person who benefited from that, of course, was Howard.
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Undeterred, Kathleen found out through a friend who lived in
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Scotland exactly where Howard had moved to.
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So I phoned one of the papers and I said,
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Howard's in Scotland.
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I think it was Drumchapel. Leave that with me. He says.
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He's outed by the Sunday Mail, called The Face of Evil,
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and pointing to his crimes in the past. Howard is
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literally hounded out of Glasgow. He travels south to the
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outskirts of London. Howard moved to London in 1998. In 2001,
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Hannah Williams was a 14-year-old girl living in Deadford, South
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East London.
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Hannah was my daughter, my youngest daughter. My relationship with
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Hannah was just fantastic. She was very happy. She enjoyed
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being at home, loved going out to the high street,
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loved Going to the adventure playground, she was a.
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Bit like a Tom girl.
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She loved climbing things and jumping and that. Very energetic.
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I brought all three of them up myself and I'd
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done everything for them. It's hard bringing up three children
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by yourself, but yeah, I'd done it and I loved it.
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But Bernadette's world was about to be torn apart.
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On April the 21st, 2001, Hannah goes shopping in Deptford Market.
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It was about 11 o'clock. So she got up and
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she said, mum, I'm going to the market. So I said, well,
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if you hang on, I'll come with you. She said, mum,
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I'm only going around the corner just to look at
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the stalls and whatever.
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It was a decision that would change both of their
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lives forever, an innocent shopping trip that would take a
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00:21:31.190 --> 00:21:45.809
disastrous turn for the 14-year-old. As darkness approached in Deptford,
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southeast London, Hannah Williams still hadn't returned.
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She didn't come home. Her mum is absolutely frantic.
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I just walked and cried and walked to try and
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see if I could find her or see her anywhere
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in Deptford. I just didn't understand why she didn't answer
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her phone because she always answered her phone to me.
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But when she goes to the police, the police do
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not suspect that anything has happened to Hannah. They're convinced
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that she's run away or she's gone off with friends.
333
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And of course, this was a catastrophic decision by the police.
334
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The Metropolitan Police told me to wait for 24 hours
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before they could do anything. And I didn't hear nothing.
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I didn't hear nothing from them.
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Peter Harrison was a reporter working at a local newspaper.
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I was sitting in the offices of the Mercury in
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Deptford High Street. The doorbell went and there's this woman
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standing in front of me, Bernadette, and she said to me,
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can you help me? My daughter's been missing for the
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last two weeks and no one seems to care.
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I didn't think she was dead, but something was really
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bad that's happened to her and she can't get home.
345
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I remember contacting the missing people's section of Lewisham Police.
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The officer in question was absolutely convinced that this was
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a down and out family, you know, runaway daughter, troublesome child.
348
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Getting police attention, especially in a missing person case, comes
349
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back to this thing, are you the ideal victim? The
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less ideal you are, the less attention and sympathy you're
351
00:24:04.019 --> 00:24:04.880
going to get.
352
00:24:04.900 --> 00:24:14.190
The Metropolitan Police have since improved missing persons investigations. How
353
00:24:14.230 --> 00:24:18.819
we investigate missing people has evolved in the 23 years
354
00:24:19.220 --> 00:24:23.859
since Hannah went missing. We take the investigation of missing
355
00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:29.109
people incredibly seriously and have teams in every local policing
356
00:24:29.269 --> 00:24:37.180
area dedicated to this work. In 2001, a number of
357
00:24:37.259 --> 00:24:42.539
high-profile missing children's cases meant that Hannah's story also struggled
358
00:24:42.579 --> 00:24:44.859
to capture the attention of the media.
359
00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:47.880
It seemed at the time there was quite a few
360
00:24:48.299 --> 00:24:51.339
missing children. Hannah was one of many, but you had
361
00:24:51.440 --> 00:24:53.279
Daniel Jones, Millie Dowler.
362
00:24:54.799 --> 00:25:01.640
I feel like because they were living in more suitable
363
00:25:02.049 --> 00:25:07.619
places and Me, I was in Deptford and a single mum,
364
00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:10.640
so I felt like they got more coverage.
365
00:25:12.259 --> 00:25:18.000
But Bernadette made sure that her daughter had a good, warm,
366
00:25:18.119 --> 00:25:24.200
clean home. So it seemed preposterous that Hannah was written
367
00:25:24.279 --> 00:25:26.779
off just because of her background.
368
00:25:27.799 --> 00:25:31.420
I just didn't hear anything for a whole year, not
369
00:25:31.440 --> 00:25:35.369
knowing anything. hoping that she'd walk through the door and say, Hi, Mum,
370
00:25:35.430 --> 00:25:35.930
I'm home.
371
00:25:37.369 --> 00:25:41.150
Not once was Bernadette told, Look, there's a very good
372
00:25:41.210 --> 00:25:43.769
chance that your daughter's not going to be found alive.
373
00:25:44.410 --> 00:25:47.349
And so she was constantly filled with this hope.
374
00:25:48.750 --> 00:25:52.509
Still in my mind, the last word she said to me, Mum,
375
00:25:52.529 --> 00:25:53.309
I love you and.
376
00:25:55.049 --> 00:25:55.890
I'll never leave you.
377
00:26:01.289 --> 00:26:07.059
In March 2002, nearly 11 months after Hannah's disappearance, Bernadette's
378
00:26:07.099 --> 00:26:08.660
worst fears came true.
379
00:26:09.519 --> 00:26:12.319
At the time that Hannah Williams went missing, I was
380
00:26:12.380 --> 00:26:16.140
a senior investigating officer in major crime at Kent Police.
381
00:26:17.690 --> 00:26:21.509
On Friday the 15th of March 2002, a digger driver
382
00:26:21.569 --> 00:26:25.470
was carrying out excavation work in a very woody area
383
00:26:25.769 --> 00:26:30.019
in preparation for the International Rail Link at Ebb's Feet
384
00:26:30.079 --> 00:26:34.339
Rail Terminal. He saw a blue tarpaulin wrapped in rope
385
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:38.170
and he looked inside and could see what was clearly
386
00:26:38.190 --> 00:26:40.009
the skeletal remains of a body.
387
00:26:41.650 --> 00:26:45.089
The call came straight in to DCI Murray and he
388
00:26:45.150 --> 00:26:47.029
attended the scene immediately.
389
00:26:48.269 --> 00:26:51.799
It was torrential rain at the time. The excavation work
390
00:26:51.950 --> 00:26:54.579
meant it was thick with mud. So straight away I'm
391
00:26:55.279 --> 00:26:58.220
beginning to doubt whether we're going to get much forensic evidence.
392
00:26:59.329 --> 00:27:02.210
The body was found with a ligature around the neck.
393
00:27:02.730 --> 00:27:07.150
It was clear this was no accidental death. Kent police
394
00:27:07.230 --> 00:27:09.970
immediately launched a murder investigation.
395
00:27:11.480 --> 00:27:15.259
We went public with details of her clothing and immediately
396
00:27:15.279 --> 00:27:18.380
I had a phone call from a local reporter to say,
397
00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:19.700
I know who this girl is.
398
00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:21.920
And he said, it's Hannah Williams.
399
00:27:23.180 --> 00:27:28.970
Kent police took DNA and she was my daughter. And
400
00:27:28.990 --> 00:27:31.509
the guy, I sent him a thank you letter for
401
00:27:31.630 --> 00:27:35.309
finding her. He must have been so shocked to come
402
00:27:35.369 --> 00:27:39.700
across a body. And I was so happy that he
403
00:27:40.079 --> 00:27:46.319
found her. Because if he didn't, then I still wouldn't
404
00:27:46.400 --> 00:27:47.980
know what's happened to her.
405
00:27:49.539 --> 00:27:52.509
And I went actually up to that site. And I
406
00:27:52.890 --> 00:27:54.089
can't even tell you how I.
407
00:27:54.049 --> 00:27:54.829
Felt, to be honest.
408
00:27:56.019 --> 00:28:00.839
I mean, to see where your daughter's been lying for
409
00:28:00.859 --> 00:28:01.299
a year.
410
00:28:05.779 --> 00:28:09.599
DCI Murray's first line of inquiry was to look into
411
00:28:09.779 --> 00:28:12.519
every detail of Hannah's final movements.
412
00:28:13.859 --> 00:28:17.509
On the day she went missing, just after 11am, she
413
00:28:17.549 --> 00:28:21.990
had a 14-second phone call from a mobile phone that
414
00:28:22.029 --> 00:28:27.170
was listed as belonging to... to a woman who lived
415
00:28:27.309 --> 00:28:29.430
very close to the deposition site.
416
00:28:31.089 --> 00:28:34.759
Detectives went to her home. She told them she hadn't
417
00:28:34.839 --> 00:28:37.700
made the phone call and it must have been her partner,
418
00:28:39.839 --> 00:28:40.559
Robert Howard.
419
00:28:41.859 --> 00:28:44.920
When Robert Howard's name was given to us and we
420
00:28:44.940 --> 00:28:50.160
looked at his record and his photographs, it was just
421
00:28:50.720 --> 00:28:57.859
mind-blowing because this man... became our instant suspect for that murder.
422
00:28:59.450 --> 00:29:04.190
Police quickly discovered the link between Howard and Hannah. Howard's
423
00:29:04.259 --> 00:29:10.519
girlfriend was previously in a relationship with Hannah's father. DCI
424
00:29:10.599 --> 00:29:14.500
Murray also found out that Howard had previously been arrested
425
00:29:14.579 --> 00:29:19.369
in relation to Arlene Arkinson's disappearance and about the 16-year-old
426
00:29:19.650 --> 00:29:21.789
he'd held captive in Castle Derg.
427
00:29:22.369 --> 00:29:25.630
We had Robert Howard as our number one suspect, but
428
00:29:25.670 --> 00:29:29.349
we had no evidence at all apart from a possible
429
00:29:29.369 --> 00:29:34.710
14-second phone call that he made, which in reality proved little,
430
00:29:34.769 --> 00:29:38.210
if anything. And the biggest fear that I had at
431
00:29:38.269 --> 00:29:42.359
that time was this man. may go on a spree of.
432
00:29:42.359 --> 00:29:47.140
Killing Ken police knew they didn't have enough evidence to
433
00:29:47.240 --> 00:29:51.960
charge Howard but they wanted him off the streets immediately.
434
00:29:52.119 --> 00:29:56.740
So we took the decision to arrest him because in
435
00:29:56.819 --> 00:29:58.910
my view to do nothing was not.
436
00:29:58.740 --> 00:29:59.410
An option.
437
00:30:00.740 --> 00:30:05.140
DCI Murray and his team searched Howard's girlfriend's home and
438
00:30:05.220 --> 00:30:09.900
also his allotment, which housed a derelict caravan. But they
439
00:30:09.960 --> 00:30:14.900
found no forensic evidence. In the meantime, Howard was taken
440
00:30:14.960 --> 00:30:18.549
in for questioning, but only responded, no comment.
441
00:30:20.029 --> 00:30:24.509
We certainly never had any evidence to charge Howard with
442
00:30:24.549 --> 00:30:27.390
Hannah's murder, and he was released from custody.
443
00:30:28.730 --> 00:30:32.960
Detectives needed to find out more about Robert Howard's pattern
444
00:30:33.079 --> 00:30:33.779
of offending.
445
00:30:34.680 --> 00:30:38.859
We've got a man, ostensibly, who's moved from Scotland down
446
00:30:38.920 --> 00:30:42.079
to London and during that period of time has not
447
00:30:42.119 --> 00:30:46.880
come to the notice of the police. Had Howard been
448
00:30:46.960 --> 00:30:51.329
targeting other children? And the answer was almost undoubtedly yes.
449
00:30:52.480 --> 00:30:57.150
Kent Police worked with social services to identify and interview
450
00:30:57.170 --> 00:31:00.890
any at-risk children living close to Howard's home.
451
00:31:01.509 --> 00:31:05.380
And we identified one particularly young girl who would absolutely
452
00:31:05.519 --> 00:31:08.579
prove to be vital to our investigation.
453
00:31:09.460 --> 00:31:11.599
She was just six years old.
454
00:31:12.680 --> 00:31:16.900
Robert Howard had invited her into his flat. He indecently
455
00:31:16.960 --> 00:31:21.240
assaulted her and she called him a pervert. and ran
456
00:31:21.579 --> 00:31:22.359
out of the flat.
457
00:31:23.339 --> 00:31:27.720
DCI Murray liaised with the Metropolitan Police, who agreed to
458
00:31:27.759 --> 00:31:32.779
arrest Howard on suspicion of indecent assault. The six-year-old girl
459
00:31:32.839 --> 00:31:36.220
then told the police that Howard had also taken her
460
00:31:36.559 --> 00:31:39.480
on a swimming trip to the lake right next to
461
00:31:39.519 --> 00:31:41.500
where Hannah's body was found.
462
00:31:42.720 --> 00:31:47.789
Now we've got, obviously, the background of Arlene, The young
463
00:31:47.849 --> 00:31:50.789
girl who'd had a ligature tied around her neck whilst
464
00:31:50.849 --> 00:31:55.329
Howard raped her. And now we have this young girl,
465
00:31:56.150 --> 00:32:00.430
similar profile, taken down to very close to where Hannah lay.
466
00:32:01.049 --> 00:32:05.619
With strong circumstantial evidence showing a clear pattern of behavior,
467
00:32:06.039 --> 00:32:09.559
Kent police were able to arrest Robert Howard. But did
468
00:32:09.619 --> 00:32:21.650
they have enough to convict him for murder? In May 2002,
469
00:32:21.650 --> 00:32:27.309
Kent police charged 57-year-old Robert Howard with the murder of
470
00:32:27.329 --> 00:32:33.410
14-year-old Hannah Williams. While in custody, Northern Irish police arrested
471
00:32:33.450 --> 00:32:39.799
him for the 1994 murder of 15-year-old Arlene Arkinson. But
472
00:32:39.880 --> 00:32:44.900
then an anonymous tip-off accusing Arlene's sister Kathleen put both
473
00:32:44.980 --> 00:32:47.059
investigations into jeopardy.
474
00:32:50.390 --> 00:32:54.349
We're going ahead with the trial of Robert Howard. The
475
00:32:54.390 --> 00:32:59.480
week before, I get a phone call from an SIO
476
00:32:59.839 --> 00:33:04.380
in Northern Ireland to say that they've had recent intelligence
477
00:33:04.980 --> 00:33:10.109
to say that Arlene's body was buried under a floor
478
00:33:10.569 --> 00:33:11.750
in Kathleen's house.
479
00:33:13.500 --> 00:33:17.119
DCI Murray was told if the case against Howard in
480
00:33:17.200 --> 00:33:20.980
Northern Ireland collapsed, it could throw serious doubts on the
481
00:33:21.039 --> 00:33:27.680
prosecution case against him for Hannah Williams' murder. But no
482
00:33:27.759 --> 00:33:31.519
body was found at Kathleen's home and she willingly came
483
00:33:31.619 --> 00:33:34.660
forward to help Kent Police prove their case.
484
00:33:35.859 --> 00:33:38.920
In our dealings with the Arkinsons, they wanted to do
485
00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:40.490
everything they could to help us.
486
00:33:41.440 --> 00:33:43.500
In the prosecution.
487
00:33:43.059 --> 00:33:46.319
Of Robert Howard and were happy to come to England
488
00:33:46.380 --> 00:33:48.660
and give evidence at his trial.
489
00:33:51.759 --> 00:33:56.650
I'd done everything by myself and to have the Arkansans
490
00:33:56.670 --> 00:34:00.369
actually come over and come to the courtroom to support me,
491
00:34:01.430 --> 00:34:04.289
even though they're going through the grief of their sister,
492
00:34:06.190 --> 00:34:07.819
I mean, I thought that was so nice of them.
493
00:34:09.150 --> 00:34:14.110
Kent police successfully persuaded the judge to allow Howard's previous
494
00:34:14.170 --> 00:34:17.780
arrests and convictions to be presented to the jury.
495
00:34:18.780 --> 00:34:21.780
The court in England were able to introduce similar fact
496
00:34:21.860 --> 00:34:23.719
evidence of what happened in Arlene's case.
497
00:34:26.179 --> 00:34:29.800
Robert Howard's trial for the murder of Hannah Williams began
498
00:34:29.860 --> 00:34:35.199
at Maidstone Crown Court in October 2003. The prosecution called
499
00:34:35.280 --> 00:34:42.070
upon evidence from Kathleen Arkinson, the 16-year-old Howard abducted in 1993,
500
00:34:42.070 --> 00:34:47.409
and also the six-year-old girl from South London. Details of
501
00:34:47.469 --> 00:34:51.670
how Hannah's body was found were also presented to the jury.
502
00:34:52.510 --> 00:34:56.840
Bernadette sat through the entire trial. She felt it was
503
00:34:56.920 --> 00:34:59.239
the least she could do to honour her daughter.
504
00:35:01.239 --> 00:35:05.400
To hear how he put blue rope around her neck.
505
00:35:06.900 --> 00:35:09.199
She must have struggled to try and get away, but
506
00:35:09.900 --> 00:35:13.159
she wasn't obviously strong enough, and probably the more she struggled,
507
00:35:13.219 --> 00:35:19.260
the rope was tightening. So he strangled her. But then laughing,
508
00:35:19.280 --> 00:35:20.300
he raped her as well.
509
00:35:21.980 --> 00:35:26.119
She sat through the court hearing about how the gusset
510
00:35:26.219 --> 00:35:30.280
of her teenage daughter's underwear had been cut out, probably
511
00:35:30.320 --> 00:35:32.320
to hide DNA evidence.
512
00:35:33.630 --> 00:35:36.449
Howard continued to proclaim his innocence.
513
00:35:37.750 --> 00:35:41.570
He stood on the stand and was telling lies after lies.
514
00:35:42.489 --> 00:35:43.869
He never looked up at me.
515
00:35:43.889 --> 00:35:49.110
I think Robert Howard phoned Hannah Williams on the day
516
00:35:49.150 --> 00:35:54.260
she went missing, used some pretext to meet her, and
517
00:35:54.820 --> 00:35:57.900
the cause of death was the ligature.
518
00:35:57.500 --> 00:35:58.239
Around her neck.
519
00:35:59.800 --> 00:36:03.650
And I think at that point, he then took Hannah
520
00:36:03.670 --> 00:36:10.849
by vehicle over to the Blue Lake. And but for
521
00:36:10.889 --> 00:36:15.570
the construction of the Ebbs Fleet Rail Terminal, she would
522
00:36:15.610 --> 00:36:17.659
have laid there for years, bless her.
523
00:36:19.780 --> 00:36:21.880
The only time he looked up is when the jury
524
00:36:21.940 --> 00:36:24.440
left the courtroom to make their decision.
525
00:36:26.059 --> 00:36:28.619
It took the jury just three hours to convict him.
526
00:36:32.130 --> 00:36:37.070
In October 2003, Howard was found guilty of murder and
527
00:36:37.130 --> 00:36:42.190
was sentenced to life imprisonment. Kathleen approached the police van
528
00:36:42.510 --> 00:36:43.900
as he was being driven away.
529
00:36:43.920 --> 00:36:46.139
I looked at the van.
530
00:36:46.159 --> 00:36:49.760
I says, Rabbi, I says, you're going to jail.
531
00:36:51.360 --> 00:36:52.500
You're not getting out this time.
532
00:36:54.940 --> 00:36:57.909
He kicked and he banged and he kicked and he
533
00:36:58.010 --> 00:37:02.150
banged at that deer. I felt big relief, such as
534
00:37:02.210 --> 00:37:07.409
I'd done the best I could and I did get justice,
535
00:37:07.429 --> 00:37:08.659
that's why I'm happy.
536
00:37:29.659 --> 00:37:34.250
In 2005, Robert Howard, now incarcerated for life, is brought
537
00:37:34.269 --> 00:37:37.090
to trial for Arlene Arkinson.
538
00:37:39.150 --> 00:37:41.530
The jury weren't allowed to be told that he had
539
00:37:41.630 --> 00:37:43.849
murdered another teenage girl and that, in fact, he was
540
00:37:43.989 --> 00:37:46.730
in prison for that murder and had been brought from
541
00:37:46.750 --> 00:37:47.690
prison to be on trial.
542
00:37:49.130 --> 00:37:51.869
And they don't convict him of Arlene's killing.
543
00:37:53.469 --> 00:37:55.349
Never, ever, I ever blamed the jury.
544
00:37:55.369 --> 00:37:56.170
It wasn't their fault.
545
00:37:56.909 --> 00:37:59.820
They didn't know nothing. I remember my father just sitting
546
00:37:59.840 --> 00:38:02.760
looking at him in the box. Imagine looking at the
547
00:38:02.800 --> 00:38:04.210
person who murdered your child.
548
00:38:05.989 --> 00:38:11.130
Despite Howard's acquittal, Kathleen continued her tireless fight to find
549
00:38:11.250 --> 00:38:12.690
justice for Arlene.
550
00:38:15.989 --> 00:38:19.889
So the next legal possibility, now that the trial has collapsed,
551
00:38:20.849 --> 00:38:21.570
is an inquest.
552
00:38:22.690 --> 00:38:25.389
Howard was going to be called once again to give
553
00:38:25.550 --> 00:38:27.530
evidence in the inquest hearing.
554
00:38:28.750 --> 00:38:31.389
But then in October 2015, Howard dies.
555
00:38:32.869 --> 00:38:38.989
Howard never once admitted killing Arlene. Like many murderers, he
556
00:38:39.030 --> 00:38:42.570
wanted to keep those secrets to himself, his last bit
557
00:38:42.610 --> 00:38:45.590
of control over the family and over the world.
558
00:38:47.059 --> 00:38:51.119
He took Arlene's location to his grave and it's so,
559
00:38:51.219 --> 00:38:54.840
so sad that Arlene's never been recovered.
560
00:38:56.820 --> 00:38:58.539
At least I'm glad he died in prison, so.
561
00:39:00.329 --> 00:39:02.650
He couldn't go out and hurt any other child or
562
00:39:03.050 --> 00:39:04.969
infant or a woman again.
563
00:39:06.230 --> 00:39:09.949
After a number of legal challenges, the inquest was due
564
00:39:09.980 --> 00:39:13.539
to start in 2016.
565
00:39:13.539 --> 00:39:16.099
And then on the eve of the inquest starting, the
566
00:39:16.179 --> 00:39:20.219
Secretary of State issues what is known as a PII certificate,
567
00:39:20.639 --> 00:39:25.469
a Public Interest Immunity Certificate. So it's effectively the government
568
00:39:25.670 --> 00:39:29.210
saying on the grounds of the national security of our country,
569
00:39:29.429 --> 00:39:29.969
we cannot respond.
570
00:39:30.340 --> 00:39:31.099
This information.
571
00:39:33.599 --> 00:39:36.099
What on earth are they trying to keep from the
572
00:39:36.139 --> 00:39:39.420
inquest involving the death of a 15-year-old child?
573
00:39:40.860 --> 00:39:43.380
There had been a lot of rumours that Robert Howard
574
00:39:43.400 --> 00:39:45.199
had been a police informer.
575
00:39:47.269 --> 00:39:50.530
When asked if Howard was an informer, the police have
576
00:39:50.570 --> 00:39:53.829
said they will neither confirm nor deny, and that no
577
00:39:53.969 --> 00:39:59.489
inference should be drawn from this. The PII certificate limited
578
00:39:59.590 --> 00:40:03.170
what evidence could be shared, but the inquest went ahead
579
00:40:03.250 --> 00:40:08.920
as planned at Belfast Coroner's Court. Arlene's friend and her mother,
580
00:40:09.380 --> 00:40:13.320
Howard's girlfriend at the time of Arlene's disappearance, were called
581
00:40:13.360 --> 00:40:16.820
to give evidence. Their stories kept changing.
582
00:40:19.260 --> 00:40:22.380
His partner initially was saying that he did come back
583
00:40:22.440 --> 00:40:24.420
in the early hours of the morning, but then that
584
00:40:24.519 --> 00:40:28.820
changed to him coming back later in the morning and
585
00:40:28.840 --> 00:40:31.769
that he was still wearing the same clothes that he
586
00:40:31.809 --> 00:40:34.789
wore the evening before. So there's no doubt he had
587
00:40:34.849 --> 00:40:38.010
more than adequate time to murder Arlene and dispose of
588
00:40:38.030 --> 00:40:38.409
her body.
589
00:40:40.030 --> 00:40:44.469
Detectives dropped a bombshell that they had some inside information,
590
00:40:45.269 --> 00:40:48.550
a confession Robert Howard had made to a cellmate.
591
00:40:49.559 --> 00:40:52.449
The chief investigating officer was able to relay to the
592
00:40:52.530 --> 00:40:56.429
court what Howard had said about how Howard had held
593
00:40:56.630 --> 00:40:59.650
Arlene over a sink, how there was a lot of blood,
594
00:41:00.409 --> 00:41:02.840
and how she had put up a good fight. And
595
00:41:03.000 --> 00:41:06.360
so that was very upsetting for Kathleen to hear.
596
00:41:10.730 --> 00:41:14.170
Due to huge delays in the court system, it wasn't
597
00:41:14.269 --> 00:41:18.840
until July 2021 that the conclusions of the inquest were
598
00:41:18.880 --> 00:41:24.139
shared at Omar Courthouse, 27 years after Arlene disappeared.
599
00:41:25.659 --> 00:41:28.619
The inquest into Arlene's death did conclude that Robert Howard
600
00:41:28.800 --> 00:41:31.739
had killed her. They ruled that they were confident her
601
00:41:31.780 --> 00:41:35.960
remains were still near the town where she disappeared. I
602
00:41:35.980 --> 00:41:39.050
think this case is just so shocking, really. We have
603
00:41:39.070 --> 00:41:41.889
this man with a long history of violence and convictions
604
00:41:41.969 --> 00:41:45.230
who's literally on bail for assaulting another teenage girl. And
605
00:41:45.269 --> 00:41:47.469
he's the last person to see a teenage girl alive.
606
00:41:48.139 --> 00:41:50.420
And yet he still completely gets away with it and
607
00:41:50.460 --> 00:41:52.320
is able a few years later to kill another girl.
608
00:41:53.880 --> 00:41:58.599
I've always maintained that if Howard had been properly sentenced
609
00:41:59.199 --> 00:42:03.880
for rape, unlawful imprisonment, Arlene Arkinson and Hannah Williams would
610
00:42:03.920 --> 00:42:04.840
be alive today.
611
00:42:06.929 --> 00:42:07.989
She never got to her prom.
612
00:42:09.449 --> 00:42:24.639
Arlene's body has never been found. What exactly happened on
613
00:42:24.659 --> 00:42:28.019
the night of her disappearance remains a mystery.
614
00:42:30.199 --> 00:42:31.380
I just wished.
615
00:42:32.679 --> 00:42:35.090
I had said, no, I need to go, please to go.
616
00:42:35.989 --> 00:42:39.409
But I don't know. That's a real mess, my sister.
617
00:42:43.010 --> 00:42:46.860
I just hope she doesn't suffer. But I know she
618
00:42:46.880 --> 00:42:53.119
doesn't suffer. But they know I'm never going to give up.
619
00:42:53.519 --> 00:42:56.880
I'm never going to ever, ever. The last breath I take,
620
00:42:56.940 --> 00:43:01.760
I'm only finer. You're a decent girl.
621
00:43:06.190 --> 00:43:06.659
I hate him.
622
00:43:07.190 --> 00:43:10.110
And just taking my 14-year-old daughter and killing her and
623
00:43:10.150 --> 00:43:10.630
raping her.
624
00:43:11.429 --> 00:43:12.030
I hate it.
625
00:43:13.340 --> 00:43:16.179
I always think about what she would be doing now.
626
00:43:17.519 --> 00:43:20.940
And I just wish Hannah was still here.
627
00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:24.760
But that evil person just killed her.
628
00:43:26.570 --> 00:43:27.719
She's always in my heart.
629
00:43:28.289 --> 00:43:31.510
I know she's saying, Mum, be strong. She's looking down
630
00:43:31.610 --> 00:43:33.510
on me right this minute.
631
00:43:34.349 --> 00:43:40.909
Bless her. Robert Howard was a violent sex offender known
632
00:43:40.989 --> 00:43:44.909
to the authorities. He managed to brutally attack women and
633
00:43:45.030 --> 00:43:48.869
children for over 30 years. We may never truly know
634
00:43:48.949 --> 00:43:53.219
the extent of this master manipulator's crimes, but after the
635
00:43:53.300 --> 00:43:56.880
deaths of Arlene and Hannah were finally proven, there is
636
00:43:57.019 --> 00:43:59.760
no doubt that he is one of the world's most
637
00:44:00.199 --> 00:44:00.960
evil killers.
