Report warned of further crimes

WARNINGS that serial sex offender Robert Howard would commit even more serious crimes were given eight years before he abducted, raped and murdered a 14-year-old schoolgirl.

A psychologist’s report compiled for the Northern courts in 1995 said Howard had admitted experiencing strong, recurrent sexual urges directed towards teenage girls and that he had a “strong desire to dominate teenage girls both sexually and physically.”

It was the psychologist’s opinion that Howard had a “propensity not only to commit further offences... but also to escalate his offending behaviour.”