Child killer flown to England for life term

CONVICTED murderer and serial rapist Robert Howard was last night flown out of the North to serve the remainder of a life sentence for the slaying of a teenage girl in England.

Howard, who gardaí want to interview in connection with a series of crimes committed here in the 80s and 90s, was flown out of Belfast’s City Airport under heavy security.

The 61-year-old, from Co Laois, had been serving his sentence in the North while he faced a charge of murdering 15-year-old Arlene Arkinson in 1994.

He was flown to Newcastle Airport before being transferred to the high-security Frankland Prison in Durham. Howard is serving a life term for raping and murdering 14-year-old Hannah Williams whose body was found in cement works in London in 2002.

Detectives here still want to speak to Howard after trawling files of unsolved crimes, including the disappearance of a number of young women in the 1990s. Howard has convictions here, in the North and in Britain. He served seven of 10 years for the 1973 rape of a Cork woman.