Serial rapist strangled 'vulnerable' schoolgirl

DEPRAVED killer Robert Howard strangled schoolgirl Hannah Williams with a 12-metre rope, it was revealed yesterday.

The serial sex attacker dumped the teenager's body at a disused cement works in Northfleet, Kent.

Police found the girl's knickers close to her badly decomposed remains, cut into three pieces. The gusset was completely missing, having also been cut out using scissors.

Howard, 61, was jailed for life in October 2003 for the murder of the 14-year-old, who disappeared near her home in Deptford, south-east London, two years earlier.

It was a year after Howard, whose address was given as Lions Close, Mottingham, south-east London, strangled her that Hannah's body was found.

The Maidstone jury heard how Howard had targeted Hannah - a teenager with learning difficulties - and "exploited her vulnerability" after meeting the schoolgirl, who had been a friend of his then partner, Mary Scollan.

Video evidence revealed how Hannah had played at the couple's home in Mottingham in the months before she disappeared.

However, it is not thought that Howard abused the teenager until April 21, 2001, when she was last seen at Deptford market.

It is believed Howard called the teenager on her mobile phone before kidnapping her.

Wendy Joseph QC, who prosecuted in the Maidstone trial, told the court: "After that phone call nothing is really known about Hannah. There is nobody who can say she had been seen. From some point that morning Hannah simply vanished.

"Her mum waited and waited for any sign of Hannah and, from time to time, tried ringing her phone.

"They were unable to make any contact with her at all. In fact, after that call just before 11am, Hannah never used her phone again."

The teenager's family spent almost 12 months worrying about her whereabouts before her body was found in Northfleet in March 2002.

Ms Joseph told the court: "Nobody really knew what had happened to Hannah for a year, nearly a year.

"It wasn't until then that it became clear that she had been murdered."

Her body was found by a workman who was clearing part of a disused cement works in Northfleet to prepare ground for the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

Ms Scollan - who played no part in the crime - and Howard used to walk their dogs at the lakes when living in Northfleet, before they had moved to south-east London.

All that remained of Hannah was a skull and a heavily decomposed body wrapped in a blue tarpaulin. Around her neck was a 12-metre blue rope coiled around several times.

Also at the scene were the same clothes Hannah had worn on the morning she disappeared and close to the body police also discovered her shredded knickers.

Despite the fact that police were hampered by the heavily decomposed state of Hannah's body, the jury heard powerful circumstantial evidence linking Howard to the killing.

Similar blue tarpaulin used to cover her body was linked to Howard; he had good knowledge of the Northfleet area and there was strong evidence that he had made the last call to Hannah.

"When you have enough circumstantial evidence it can be the most powerful evidence of all. There are enough little bits to show that he did it. Enough to paint a picture so that you are sure that he killed Hannah," Ms Joseph told the jury.

However, crucial to the Crown's case was also "similar fact" evidence brought before the jury about Howard's past, including allegations that he had murdered Co Tyrone teenager Arlene Arkinson and raped a 16-year-old girl.

The girl, now in her 20s, relived her alleged ordeal when she gave evidence to the court about Howard, while the jury also heard from Arlene's friends and sister about her disappearance.

Normally, such evidence is deemed too prejudicial to put before a jury but prosecution lawyers successfully argued that it showed Hannah's death was similar to other cases which had been linked to Howard.

One chilling similarity was that Howard had allegedly tied a noose around the head of the 16-year-old - not unlike the way the rope had been found around Hannah's neck.

Detective Superintendent Colin Murray, who led the investigation into Hannah's murder, said: "We argued at the Crown Court that we should be able to use similar fact evidence because these girls were similar not just in description and age and everything but the circumstances; how he would target certain people."

He added that the case had been unusual for the way it involved two separate murder prosecutions in two different parts of Britain - Kent and Northern Ireland - which had different legal jurisdictions.

Also crucial to the prosecution case, and put before the jury, was an allegation that Howard had indecently assaulted another girl at the cement works in the months after he dumped Hannah's body.

After hearing all the evidence, the jury took just three hours to find Howard guilty of Hannah's murder despite the fact that the trial had lasted several weeks.

They then sobbed as details of his other convictions dating back to the 1960s were read out to the court.

Sentencing Howard, Mr Justice McKinnon told the court: "It is plain to me that there are no mitigating circumstances whatsoever.

"It is clear that you are a danger to teenage girls and other women and have been for a long time."

Diary of a serial killer

Compiled by Alan Erwin and Paul O'Hare

* 1944: Howard is born at Slatt Wolf, Co Laois.

* 1964: Commits his first sexual offence, attempting to rape a six-year-old girl in London. He broke into her bedroom pretending to be a doctor and ordered her to undress. He failed to have sex with her but performed a vile sex act, injuring the girl. Captured after returning to the house a week later. Sentenced just before his 21st birthday, he served just nine days in borstal for the crime.

* March 1969: Breaks into a house in north east England and tries to rape a young woman. She escaped and ran into the back garden, but was chased and knocked to the ground by Howard who then tried to strangle her. He fled when neighbours were alerted by her screams. He was sentenced to six years in jail for attempted rape and aggravated burglary.

* March 1974: Jailed for 10 years after being convicted in Cork of raping a 58-year-old woman. She was asleep when Howard broke in, gagged and bound her with a sheet and then subjected her to a five-hour ordeal of sexual assaults as well as being forced hand over money.

* 1983: Marries, but the relationship lasts only three years.

* 1988: Sentenced to 15 months in prison for larceny offences in Dublin.

* 1990: Moves to Northern Ireland after being released from Mountjoy Prison. Spends time at an alcoholism rehabilitation unit in Newry, Co Down, before going on to Derry.

* 1991: Moves into a flat on Main Street, Castlederg, Co Tyrone.

* 1993: Lures a 16-year-old girl to the flat. She alleged that during a two-day nightmare Howard drugged, stripped and repeatedly raped her while a noose was tied round her neck. Every time she refused, he tightened the rope and threatened to kill her unless she followed his orders, she claimed. His victim escaped by breaking through an upstairs bathroom window. He said the teen consented and was later convicted of the lesser charge of having unlawful sex with a girl under 17. In February 1995, he was given a three-year sentence, suspended for five years.

* August 13, 1994: While still charged with rape, Howard drives Arlene Arkinson to the seaside town of Bundoran, Co Donegal, for drinks with his girlfriend's daughter and her boyfriend.

* August 14, 1994: Drops the couple at the boyfriend's house, outside Castlederg, at around 2.30am. He drove off with Arlene and was the last person to see her alive. The 15-year-old's body has never been found.

* September 1994: Howard is arrested and questioned about Arlene's disappearance, but never charged. He was hounded out of Castlederg, moving to Co Donegal where he lived rough, sleeping in a van. He then spent some time in Cookstown, Co Tyrone.

* At an undisclosed time Howard holds a woman in her 20s captive for several weeks. His attacks resulted in her becoming pregnant and she gave birth to his only known child.

* March 1995: Relocates to Scotland and given a council home just yards from two schools, after reportedly convincing officials he was a terrorist target. Hounded out of the Drumchapel area of Glasgow after his past was exposed by a newspaper.

* 1996/97: Moves to London and then begins living with a woman in Kent, who unwittingly introduces him to 14-year-old Hannah Williams.

* April 21, 2001: Hannah Williams goes missing.

* March 11, 2002: Detective Chief Superintendent Norman Baxter re-opens the Arlene Arkinson murder case, with Howard his chief suspect.

* March 15, 2002: Hannah's body is found at a disused cement works in Northfleet, Kent.

* May 17, 2002: Howard is arrested for Hannah's murder.

* May 19, 2002: Appears before Medway magistrates in Kent charged with Hannah's murder.

* May 22, 2002: Howard is arrested for Arlene's murder.

* May 24, 2002: Appears before Enniskillen Magistrates' Court charged with the murder of Arlene Arkinson.

* October 2003: Jailed for life at Maidstone Crown Court for the murder of Hannah Williams.

* June 27, 2005: Howard is found not guilty at Belfast Crown Court of the murder of Arlene Arkinson.

* September 20, 2005: Outstanding sex charges against Howard are dropped at Belfast Crown Court.