ARMAGH, Northern Ireland, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- The jury in the trial of a truck driver accused of killing a girl in Northern Ireland in 1981 was told Friday he has been convicted of three murders.
Prosecutor Toby Hedworth warned jurors that Robert Black's criminal record does not automatically mean he is guilty of the murder of 9-year-old Jennifer Cardy, the Belfast Telegraph reported. But he said they can consider the similarities between the abduction and killing in County Antrim and other crimes in England and Scotland.
"What you certainly must not do is say: 'Well, he's done those other ones, he's a thoroughly bad man, so we'll find him guilty in this case as well,'" Hedworth said.
Black, 64, is on trial in Crown Court in Armagh, charged with killing Jennifer while he was making a delivery in Northern Ireland. Jennifer's body was found at McKee's Dam, 10 miles from her home in Ballinderry, six days after she disappeared.
A native of Grangemouth, Scotland, Black was brought up by foster parents. Investigators say he may have killed many more girls in Britain and other European countries, the newspaper reported.
Black pleaded guilty to kidnapping a 6-year-old girl who was found tied up in the back of his van in Scotland in 1990. He was later convicted in Newcastle Crown Court of killing three girls in the 1980s in Scotland and northern England and attempting to kidnap a fourth, and was sentenced to life with a minimum of 35 years before release.
