A family grateful for guilty verdict as child-killer returns to life behind bars

BACKGROUND:The child-murderer probably considered the trial in Armagh as a welcome break from jail

WHATEVER GOES on in the bleak and sinister mind of paedophile child serial killer Robert Black we never truly learned during the harrowing murder trial at Armagh Crown Court these past five weeks.

He didn’t give evidence, preferring to quietly, sometimes almost indifferently, observe from the dock the unfolding of the case against him for the murder of nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy in Northern Ireland 30 years ago.

It didn’t matter much to him anyway because he is already serving life sentences for three child murders and at the earliest won’t be released until 2029 when he will be 82.

The 22 days of trial which concluded yesterday with Black pronounced guilty of murder and abduction probably was a diversion for him, a welcome interruption from Wakefield Prison in England where he is an inmate, and also a boon to his twisted vanity and ego.

But we did learn about Jennifer Cardy from her mother Patricia during the trial. She painted a picture of childhood happiness and innocence in awful contrast to the calculating wickedness of Black. Patricia Cardy told of how on August 12th, 1981, she wound Jennifer’s wristwatch at the family home in Ballinderry, near Lisburn in Co Antrim. Jennifer then cycled off at 1.40pm to her friend’s house about a mile and a half away.

Jennifer wanted to be absolutely sure about the time because she was determined to be back later to see her favourite children’s programme Jackanory. The jury was shown a picture of Jennifer cheerfully posing with her red bicycle, a present she received two weeks before her murder. “When Jennifer set off she didn’t have a care in the world,” said Ms Cardy.

The bike was later found behind a hedge close to her home. Six days after she went missing her body was found in a dam 18 miles away near Hillsborough, Co Down. The watch had stopped at 5.40pm, indicating the near time of her death four hours after she left her home.

The Cardys are a deeply impressive and religious family. People, including those reporters who have been in court from day one, have found many aspects of the case distressing, such as Black talking in taped police interviews about his child abduction fantasies – fantasies that at times became realities.

Patricia Cardy had a welcome smile for people, and her children Victoria, Philip and Mark were equally generous in spirit. Her husband Andy, just after the jury of nine women and three men retired to consider its verdict on Tuesday morning, took time to embrace the women reporters and shake hands with the male reporters. He was as emotional and demonstrative yesterday.

“I’m a Pentecostalist, we do a lot of hugging,” he explained, showing as further proof the telltale makeup marks on the shoulders of his jacket.

But through the trial you could sense the Cardys’ anxiety as well, their wish that at least in the criminal sense there would be a resolution to how and why Jennifer was murdered. They got that and were hugely thankful.

In 1994, Black was convicted of three unsolved child murders in the 1980s: of Susan Maxwell (11) from the Scottish Borders, Caroline Hogg (5) from Edinburgh, and Sarah Harper (10) from Morley, near Leeds, and a failed abduction bid in Nottingham in 1988. He pleaded not guilty to these killings, as he did to Jennifer’s murder.