Howard ‘may have been police informer’

SERIAL sex attacker Robert Howard, who was cleared of murdering schoolgirl Arlene Arkinson, may have been working for the police special branch at the time she disappeared, it was claimed last night.

With a major new search being planned in a bid to find her body, the west Tyrone Sinn Féin MP Pat Doherty told the Northern Ireland Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan there was widespread local belief Robert Howard was a police agent.

“This was why he was not jailed long before the murder,” he said.