Robert Black (21 April 1947 – 12 January 2016) was a Scottish serial killer and paedophile who was convicted of the kidnap, rape and murder of four girls aged between 5 and 11 in a series of crimes committed between 1981 and 1986 in the United Kingdom.
Black was convicted of the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Susan Maxwell, Caroline Hogg and Sarah Harper on 19 May 1994. He was also convicted of the attempted kidnapping of a fourth girl and had earlier been convicted of the kidnapping and sexual assault of a fifth. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 35 years.
In 2011, Black was further convicted of the 1981 sexual assault and murder of nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy. At the time of his death in 2016, he was regarded as the prime suspect in the 1978 disappearance and murder of 13-year-old Genette Tate. Black may also have been responsible for several other unsolved child murders in Britain, Ireland, and continental Europe between 1969 and 1987.
The nationwide manhunt for Black was one of the most exhaustive murder investigations in British history. He died of a heart attack at HMP Maghaberry in 2016 aged 68.
Early life
Childhood Robert Black was born in Grangemouth, Stirlingshire, on 21 April 1947, the illegitimate child of Jessie Hunter Black and an unknown father. His mother originally planned to have him adopted before she emigrated to Australia to escape the stigma of his birth. He was not adopted, and at six months old was placed with an experienced, middle-aged foster couple in Kinlochleven named Jack and Margaret Tulip. He adopted their surname until his foster mother's death.
Black showed antisocial tendencies and became known as an aggressive child with few friends. He was prone to tantrums and vandalised school property. He was also a target for bullying among children his own age, and became a bully towards younger children. Though his foster mother insisted upon cleanliness, he cared little for his own hygiene and was called "Smelly Bobby Tulip" by classmates.
At the age of five, Black and a girl the same age compared their genitals, triggering a childhood belief within Black that he should have been born female, and he developed a deep interest in his genitalia, the genitals of female children, and body orifices. From the age of eight he would regularly insert objects in his own anus, a practice he carried into adulthood.
Locals later recalled seeing bruises on Black's face and limbs, suggesting he had been physically abused by his foster parents. Black stated he could not recollect their origin, and they may have resulted from childhood fights. Despite being adamant he could not recall the origin of these bruises, Black was a chronic bed wetter, and freely admitted to being berated and beaten by his foster mother for each offence.
By 1958, the Tulips had both died, and Black was placed with another foster family in Kinlochleven. He soon committed his first known sexual assault, dragging a young girl into a public lavatory and fondling her. His foster mother reported the offence and insisted he be removed from her home.
Adolescence Black was placed in a mixed-sex children's home on the outskirts of Falkirk. Here he regularly exposed himself to girls, and on one occasion, he forcibly removed the underwear of a girl. As a result, he was sent to Red House Care Home, a high-discipline, all-male establishment in Musselburgh where he was listed as Boy Number 28. Black was sexually abused by a male staff member there for three years; typically by being forced to perform fellatio. During this time, he attended Musselburgh Grammar School, developing an interest in football and swimming. Other students recalled him as taciturn, with few friends.
In 1963, Black left the Red House Care Home. With assistance from child welfare agencies, he moved to another boys' home in Greenock and obtained a job as a butcher's delivery boy. He later said that he had fondled thirty to forty young girls while making deliveries if, upon calling at the house, he discovered young girls who were alone. None of these incidents seem to have been reported.
First convictions On a summer evening in 1963, Black encountered a seven-year-old girl playing alone in a Greenock park; he lured the child to a deserted air-raid shelter on the pretext of showing her some kittens. There he held the girl by the throat until she lost consciousness, then masturbated over her body. The following day, Black was arrested and charged with lewd and libidinous behaviour. A psychiatric examination suggested the incident was an isolated one, and that Black was not in need of treatment; as a result he was admonished for the offence.
Shortly after, Black moved to Grangemouth, where he lodged with an elderly couple and worked for a builders' supply company. He began dating a young woman he met at a local youth club. This was his only known girlfriend, and they dated for several months. According to Black, he had asked this woman to marry him, and was devastated when she abruptly ended their relationship, in part due to his unusual sexual demands.
In 1966, Black's landlords discovered he had molested their nine-year-old granddaughter whenever she visited their household. They evicted him but did not inform police, wanting to spare their granddaughter further trauma. Black lost his job soon after, and he returned to Kinlochleven, where he lodged with a married couple who had a six-year-old daughter.
Borstal sentence Within a year, Black's landlords informed police that he had repeatedly molested their daughter. He pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault against a child and was sentenced to a year at Polmont Borstal in Brightons, an institution which specialised in the training and rehabilitation of serious youthful offenders. Although he later spoke freely about every aspect of his youth and adolescence—including the sexual abuse he had suffered at the Red House Care Home—he refused to discuss Polmont Borstal beyond saying he had vowed to never again be imprisoned; this has led to speculation that he may have been brutalised there.
Relocation to London In September 1968, six months after his release from Polmont Borstal, Black moved to London, where he initially found lodgings in a bedsit close to King's Cross station. Between 1968 and 1970, he supported himself through various—often casual—jobs. One of these was as a lifeguard at a Hornsey swimming pool, where he was soon fired for fondling a young girl; no charges were brought.
Via a contact he had met at a King's Cross bookshop, Black began to collect child pornography. Initially, much of this material was in magazine and photograph format, although he later expanded this material to include videos depicting graphic child sexual abuse. As Black was a keen amateur photographer, he sometimes also secretly photographed children (mostly girls between eight and twelve) at public places such as swimming pools; he stored these images alongside his pornographic material in locked suitcases.
Black frequented the Three Crowns, a Stoke Newington pub, where he became known as a proficient darts player. There he also met a Scottish couple, Edward and Kathy Rayson. In 1972, he moved into their attic on nearby West Bank road in Stamford Hill. The Raysons considered Black a responsible if somewhat reclusive tenant who gave them no cause for complaint beyond his poor hygiene. They suspected Black of viewing pornographic material, but had no idea it might be paedophilic. Black remained their lodger until he was arrested in July 1990.
Long-distance driving employment To increase his scope for casual work, in the mid-1970s Black bought a white Fiat van to enable him to commit to driving for a living. In 1976, Black obtained a permanent job as a van driver for Poster, Dispatch and Storage Ltd, a Hoxton-based firm whose fleet delivered posters—typically depicting pop stars—and billboard advertisements in the UK and Europe. To his employers, Black was a conscientious employee who was willing to undertake the long-distance deliveries some of his married co-workers disliked.
While working as a driver, Black developed a thorough knowledge of much of the British road network, subsequently enabling him to snatch children across the country and dispose of their bodies hundreds of miles from the site of their abduction. To reduce the chance of being identified by eyewitnesses, Black often adjusted his appearance by alternately growing a beard or appearing clean-shaven, and occasionally shaved his head completely bald. Black also owned over a dozen pairs of spectacles, and would wear a pair significantly different from those he regularly wore when abducting children. He also covered the rear windows of his van with opaque black curtains.
First murders
Jennifer Cardy The first murder Black is proven to have committed was that of nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy, who was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered on 12 August 1981. Cardy was last seen by her mother at 1:40 p.m. as she cycled to a friend's house in Ballinderry, County Antrim; she never arrived.
Hours later, Cardy's bicycle was discovered less than a mile from her home, covered with branches and leaves. The stand of the bicycle was down, suggesting that she had stopped her bicycle to converse with her abductor. A search aided by 200 volunteers found nothing further.
Six days later, two anglers discovered Cardy's body in a reservoir near a lay-by in Hillsborough, from her home. A pathologist noted signs of sexual abuse on Cardy's body and underwear; the autopsy concluded she had died of drowning—most likely accompanied by ligature strangulation. The watch she had been wearing had stopped at 5:40 p.m.
The location of the body near a major arterial road between Belfast and Dublin led police to suspect her murderer had been familiar with the area. The reservoir in which her body was found was near a route frequented by long-distance delivery drivers, and visible only yards away from the lay-by, suggesting that her killer may have travelled extensively upon this route.
Susan Maxwell Black's second confirmed victim was 11-year-old Susan Claire Maxwell, who lived in Cornhill-on-Tweed on the English side of the Anglo-Scottish border. Maxwell was abducted on 30 July 1982 as she walked home from playing tennis in Coldstream. She was last seen alive at 4:30 p.m., crossing the bridge over the River Tweed, and is believed to have been abducted by Black minutes later.
The following day a search was mounted. Search dogs were used, and at peak 300 officers were assigned full-time; a thorough search was made of every property in both Cornhill and Coldstream and over 80 square miles of terrain. Several people reported having seen a white van in the locality; one said a van had been parked in a field gateway off the A697.
On 12 August, Maxwell's body was found by a lorry driver; her body was covered with undergrowth, and was clothed save for her shoes and underwear. The precise date and cause of her death could not be determined due to decomposition. Maxwell had been bound, and gagged with sticking plaster, and her underwear had been removed and folded beneath her head, suggesting that she had been sexually assaulted.
A coroner's inquest concluded that Maxwell died shortly after being abducted. Evidently, Maxwell remained in Black's van—alive or dead—for over 24 hours, as his delivery schedule encompassed Edinburgh, Dundee, and finally Glasgow, where he made his final delivery close to midnight on 30 July. The following day, Black returned from Glasgow to London, discarding Maxwell's body in a copse beside the A518 road near Uttoxeter, from where she had been abducted. One of Black's colleagues suspected Black might have been involved in the abduction and murder; when he asked Black about it, Black lied. The colleague did not pass on his concerns to the police.