Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / Serial Killer Documentary - A Predator Hidden in Plain Sight - Robert Howard

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Serial Killer Documentary - A Predator Hidden in Plain Sight - Robert Howard · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: In August 1994, in the town of Castlederg, Northern Ireland,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: 15-year-old Arlene Arkinson went out to a disco and never
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: came home. The last person to see Arlene was 50-year-old
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Robert Howard. He was in a relationship with Arlene's friend's
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: mother and a convicted sex offender.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: This was part of his pattern of going to a place,
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: kind of infiltrating himself with people, often people that had
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: young daughters.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: He would attract children to his flat and one neighbour
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: called him the Pied Piper.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Arlene's disappearance went unsolved. Seven years later, another teenager went
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: missing in south-east London.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: Still in my mind, the last word she said to me, Mum,
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: I love you and I'll never leave you.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: When Hannah Williams' body was found a year later, all
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: roads led to Robert Howard.
• 1:12
  Speaker 5: We put his name into the police national computer and
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: were staggered to find what we would describe as a
• 1:20
  Speaker 5: career sexual offender.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Though it took decades to bring him to justice, Robert
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Howard was finally proven to be one of the world's
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: most evil killers. Robert Howard was a serial sex offender
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: who preyed on vulnerable women and girls for over 35 years.
• 2:06
  Speaker 6: Howard was a prolific, predatory sex offender and had been
• 2:11
  Speaker 6: a sex offender from a very, very young age.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: He was someone who, everywhere he went, would have an
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: interest in young girls. And then eventually that would become
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: difficult for him. So he would move on and he
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: would just do it somewhere else.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Though there was plenty of suspicion along the way, it
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: would take years for the true horror of Howard's crimes
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: to be uncovered.
• 2:39
  Speaker 7: There's no doubt now that Howard murdered Arlene. Why did
• 2:43
  Speaker 7: the RUC let him get away with it?
• 2:46
  Speaker 8: He was in bail for assaulting another child.
• 2:49
  Speaker 9: A public inquiry should examine all of this.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: This killer's story begins on the 20th of April 1944.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Robert Howard was born into a large family in the
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: tiny rural community of Wolf Hill in the Republic of Ireland.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Howard would come to be known as Wolfman and later
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: gave himself a middle name, Lezarian.
• 3:22
  Speaker 10: So his name was Robert Lezarian Howard and Lezarian is
• 3:25
  Speaker 10: the name of a mythical child killer.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: From early childhood, Howard rarely attended school and soon turned
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: his attention to making money any way he could.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: His first acknowledged burglary came when he was 13 and
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: he was sent away. Remember we're talking about Ireland in
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: the 1950s and he was put into Catholic institutions and
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: in recent years we've come to know that those were
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: sometimes difficult and dangerous places to be. Robert Howard came
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: out of the institution at the age of 16 but
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: wasn't welcomed.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Back into the bosom of his family. Howard was forced
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: to live as a vagrant, staying in local barns, sheds
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: and other derelict buildings in the countryside around Wolf Hill.
• 4:14
  Speaker 6: That is an incredibly young and vulnerable age to suddenly
• 4:18
  Speaker 6: find yourself having to look after yourself completely.
• 4:24
  Speaker 10: He had a nomadic, difficult background, no question of that.
• 4:30
  Speaker 10: And I think he was someone who was continually in difficulties.
• 4:36
  Speaker 8: With the law.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: At one point, he's actually effectively forced to leave Ireland
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: and go to the UK.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: By the age of 21, Howard was living in London,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: where in 1965, he committed his first known sexual offence.
• 5:08
  Speaker 5: He broke into a house and tried to rape a
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: six-year-old girl. He got away at that point, but returned
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: a week later and was caught. He got nine days'
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: bail for that.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: This slap on the wrist did nothing to deter Howard.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: He was deported back to the Republic of Ireland, but
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: quickly returned.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: He returns to the UK, and in 1969, at the
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: age of 24, he breaks into the home of a
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: young married woman in Durham, in the north of England,
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: and tries to rape her.
• 5:44
  Speaker 6: She clearly fought with him, ran into the street seeking help,
• 5:52
  Speaker 6: He attacks her and grabs her around the throat in
• 5:54
  Speaker 6: the street in front of people who were coming to
• 5:58
  Speaker 6: her aid. Now, that's a really serious escalation.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Howard was sentenced to six years in HMP, Franklin, but
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: served only three. On his release, he moved to the
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Republic of Ireland and began reoffending.
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: From that point on, Howard went on a litany of
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: sexual offending.
• 6:23
  Speaker 10: He was someone who was continually prosecuted for quite a
• 6:29
  Speaker 10: number of serious offences. The point here being that he's
• 6:33
  Speaker 10: not somebody who was below the radar.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: In May 1973, Howard attacks a 58-year-old woman. He breaks
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: into her house, rapes her, sodomises her. and leaves her
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: tied to the bed and drives off in her car.
• 6:50
  Speaker 6: He is arrested for that offence, and he's arrested in
• 6:53
  Speaker 6: an airport, so he's probably trying to leave the country
• 6:55
  Speaker 6: again to escape.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: This time he's actually exposed to a psychiatrist, and the
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: psychiatrist says he's softly spoken, he's courteous. You could never
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: imagine that he would do anything violent.
• 7:13
  Speaker 10: But the psychiatrist knew full well that Howard had an
• 7:17
  Speaker 10: interest in teenage girls and described Howard as an explosive psychopath.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Howard was sentenced to 10 years in jail. Upon his
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: release eight years later, the 38-year-old showed himself once again
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: to be a wolf in sheep's clothing.
• 7:39
  Speaker 10: He had a propensity to befriend people. and to befriend
• 7:42
  Speaker 10: vulnerable people that find his way into their home.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: Not long after his release, Howard marries a young woman,
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: and they have a relationship for three years.
• 7:55
  Speaker 6: That marriage was never going to be anything but abusive.
• 7:58
  Speaker 6: Probably that was simply to trap her as this ever-present victim.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: After the marriage broke down, Howard settled in Castle Derg,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: a small town in County Tyrone, near the Irish border.
• 8:17
  Speaker 10: He did have a period of time where he was
• 8:19
  Speaker 10: living in a caravan. There's an allegation of a case
• 8:23
  Speaker 10: whereby he kept a lady captive.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: She was a vulnerable woman he'd befriended in Dublin and
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: invited to stay with him. He was 47 years old,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: she was 22.
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: He keeps a prisoner there for three weeks, raping her repeatedly.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: She was actually rescued by her family, not by the police.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: There's a huge reluctance in Northern Ireland for people to
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: go to the police. You didn't think you'd be believed,
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: thought that you might end up under suspicion yourself.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: Eventually, the police were told many years after this event,
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: but they didn't press charges. They believed she was too
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: vulnerable to give evidence.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Howard moved to a flat in the centre of Castle
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Derg and started a friendship with a woman who had
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: a teenage daughter.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: It's very common in cases like this where a man
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: has an interest in younger people that he will often
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: become a very trusted friend. friend of the family, which
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: gives them access to abuse young girls.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: And this girlfriend seemed to suspect his true intentions.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: She actually commented that she was aware he was more
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: interested in younger girls than in women.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Howard began to befriend his girlfriend's daughter and her friends,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: one of whom was a 16-year-old girl.
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: Robert Howard had lured this young girl to his flat
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: in Main Street, Castle Derg, on the pretense of meeting
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: a taxi driver who the young girl wanted to meet
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: and perhaps go out with. When she got into his flat,
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: she complained of a headache and he gave her tablets.
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: The next thing she knew, she woke up naked in
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: his bed with a ligature around her neck.
• 10:17
  Speaker 8: He effectively drugged her. and kept her captive.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: And he rapes her repeatedly, very much as he'd done
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: the vulnerable young woman from Dublin.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: On the third day of this nightmare, when Howard had
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: fallen asleep, the girl jumped out of a second-floor window.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: She reported everything to the police.
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: They did arrest Howard. And what did Howard say? Yeah,
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: all of that happened, but it.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Was with consent. Howard was charged but let out on bail.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: He was free to continue preying on teenage girls, and
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: his next attack could leave no victim to testify. In 1994,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Robert Howard was on bail, accused of rape and unlawful imprisonment,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: and living in Castle Derg, a small Northern Irish town
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: close to the border with the Republic of Ireland.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: At this point, there was still a militarised border in part,
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: so you'd see a lot of soldiers around. These are
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: interesting places. They can be quite lawless, particularly in the
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: 90s when the troubles were still going on. but it
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: was surprisingly easy still to just get across the border.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: A short drive from where Howard lived, 15-year-old Arlene Arkinson
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: was staying with her brother near her older sister, Kathleen.
• 11:50
  Speaker 7: Arlene was a beautiful child. Arlene was bubbly. Everything she wanted,
• 11:56
  Speaker 7: she got it. She just was the baby of the
• 11:59
  Speaker 7: house and she, like, she was spoiled. Mummy passed and
• 12:05
  Speaker 7: Dad had a wild cold and Arlene said he was
• 12:07
  Speaker 7: only 11.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Her mother had died a few years before and she
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: had been living with her father for a little while
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: but he was a bit unstable so hadn't been able
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: to take care of her and she'd kind of moved
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: around living with her different siblings and their families. So
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: she was a somewhat vulnerable girl but very loved and
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: cared for.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: On Saturday the 13th of August 1994, Arlene was helping.
• 12:30
  Speaker 8: Out her sister.
• 12:33
  Speaker 7: I asked her to babysit. It was a lovely August. Summertime,
• 12:37
  Speaker 7: lovely day.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: When Kathleen got home around 10.30pm, she found out one
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: of Arlene's friends had invited her out.
• 12:47
  Speaker 7: She said, but I don't want to go out on
• 12:49
  Speaker 7: my way.
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: Don't bother us.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: But then Kathleen heard a knock at the door. It
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: was Arlene's friend.
• 12:58
  Speaker 8: She says, we're going to go down. I want Arlene
• 13:00
  Speaker 8: to go along with us.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Kathleen was led to believe Arlene's friend's mother was going
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: to be looking after them. But it was the mother's
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: boyfriend who chaperoned them that night.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: Arlene goes out with her friend to a local disco.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: They're being driven there by Robert Howard.
• 13:25
  Speaker 10: When Arlene didn't arrive back home at Kathleen's house, I
• 13:29
  Speaker 10: think Kathleen at that time reasonably assumed that.
• 13:32
  Speaker 8: Arlene had been left off at her brother's house.
• 13:34
  Speaker 10: But of course, when they realized the next day that
• 13:37
  Speaker 10: Arlene wasn't with either of them, when the alarm bells
• 13:39
  Speaker 10: started to ring.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Kathleen's first port of call was to visit the mother
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: of Arlene's friend, who she believed was taking care of
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: the girls the night before.
• 13:55
  Speaker 8: Kathleen, of her own.
• 13:56
  Speaker 10: Volition, went to the family to try to find out
• 14:00
  Speaker 10: exactly what had happened. They all denied any knowledge of anything,
• 14:04
  Speaker 10: of any harm coming to Arlene. And there was even
• 14:07
  Speaker 10: allegations that Arlene wasn't even present, that she didn't go
• 14:12
  Speaker 10: to Bundorn.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: The following day, Mary, Kathleen and Arlene's sister knocked at
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: the door of Arlene's friend and her mother. Robert Howard answered.
• 14:25
  Speaker 8: Mary says, where's our Arlene?
• 14:26
  Speaker 7: And he says, I effing don't know, and he closed
• 14:29
  Speaker 7: the door on her face. Mary came down here crying,
• 14:33
  Speaker 7: and I said, what's wrong? She says, don't you forget
• 14:35
  Speaker 7: the last time you seen Arlene? She said, I think
• 14:36
  Speaker 7: it's the last.
• 14:38
  Speaker 10: And of course, during the time, they went to the authorities,
• 14:41
  Speaker 10: including the social services and to the police, but the
• 14:45
  Speaker 10: family just lied to Kathleen's face, and so did Howard.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: The last time Arlene was seen was in Howard's car.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: When questioned, Howard, who at the time was on bail
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: for the rape and imprisonment of another teenager, denied all
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: knowledge of her whereabouts.
• 15:04
  Speaker 10: At one stage, he was saying that he had left
• 15:06
  Speaker 10: her off at a local pub, but that doesn't make
• 15:10
  Speaker 10: any sense, leaving a young girl in Castlederg at that time.
• 15:14
  Speaker 10: The thing to do for a man of that age
• 15:17
  Speaker 10: with a child in the car is to make sure
• 15:19
  Speaker 10: that she was left at the door of an appropriate adult,
• 15:23
  Speaker 10: and he didn't do that because what he said, of course,
• 15:26
  Speaker 10: was a complete pack of lies.
• 15:28
  Speaker 8: What is difficult to come to terms with is that
• 15:31
  Speaker 8: in view of.
• 15:31
  Speaker 10: His background and the charges that he was actually out
• 15:34
  Speaker 10: on bail upon, he had to be suspect number.
• 15:42
  Speaker 8: One.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: 46 days after Arlene's disappearance, Robert Howard was arrested.
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: We know that when the police did arrest Howard, that
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: the boot lining from his vehicle was missing and that
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: the clothing that he'd worn on the night he went
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: to Bundoran had disappeared.
• 16:03
  Speaker 6: So anything that might have indicated some harm had come
• 16:06
  Speaker 6: to Arlene was now gone.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Howard's alibi that he returned home to his girlfriend's house
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: at around 2.30am was corroborated by his girlfriend and her daughter.
• 16:19
  Speaker 10: They sort of went along with what Hurd was telling
• 16:21
  Speaker 10: them to say. And I got really, really complicated to
• 16:24
  Speaker 10: work out what the truth was.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: I think men like Robert Howard, they know how to
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: target vulnerable.
• 16:31
  Speaker 8: Girls as well.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Robert Howard was released without charge. The case went cold.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Arlene did not return to Castle Derg. In 1995, Howard
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: agreed a plea bargain in the case of the 16-year-old
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: girl he'd been accused of holding captive two years earlier.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: In return for pleading guilty to unlawful carnal knowledge, the
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: rape and unlawful imprisonment charges were dropped.
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: Now, unlawful carnal knowledge at that point was having sex
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: with consent of a girl under the age of 17,
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: while the victim was 16. She attended court ready to
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: give evidence, but her evidence was never given because the
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: prosecuting authorities made that deal and Howard was given a
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: suspended sentence.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Despite his victim's bravery, Robert Howard escaped proper punishment for
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: a heinous sexual crime.
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: Local feeling turned against Howard and he received a visit
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: from certain individuals. who threatened his life and gave him
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: a period of time to leave the province, and Howard did.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: In 1995, Howard fled to Glasgow.
• 17:55
  Speaker 10: Howard moving away, and with the police not actively pursuing him,
• 17:59
  Speaker 10: they pursue another line of inquiry.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Their suspicions seemed to fall on Arlene's family, and they
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: actually went round to her sister's house that she was
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: living with.
• 18:09
  Speaker 10: The police claimed that they had information from a reliable
• 18:13
  Speaker 10: source that Arlene had been murdered at her sister's home
• 18:18
  Speaker 10: and that Arlene was pushed down the stairs and then
• 18:21
  Speaker 10: that she was buried at the home.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: In April 1996, police and soldiers turned up to Kathleen's
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: home accompanied by the press.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: They brought in diggers even to dig up the garden.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: They said they battered the door down as well.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: The search continued for a number of days.
• 18:43
  Speaker 7: There was forensics everywhere.
• 18:46
  Speaker 8: It was just like something like a horror movie.
• 18:49
  Speaker 7: They actually took out my coal out of my fire,
• 18:53
  Speaker 7: canalised my coal.
• 18:54
  Speaker 8: What was that all about?
• 18:57
  Speaker 7: Took the clothes out of the clothesline.
• 19:00
  Speaker 10: And of course that resulted in nothing being found at all.
• 19:04
  Speaker 10: But that event in 1996 completely soured the relationship between
• 19:11
  Speaker 10: the Arkinson family and the police investigation. And the only
• 19:15
  Speaker 10: person who benefited from that, of course, was Howard.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Undeterred, Kathleen found out through a friend who lived in
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Scotland exactly where Howard had moved to.
• 19:29
  Speaker 7: So I phoned one of the papers and I said,
• 19:32
  Speaker 7: Howard's in Scotland.
• 19:33
  Speaker 8: I think it was Drumchapel. Leave that with me. He says.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: He's outed by the Sunday Mail, called The Face of Evil,
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: and pointing to his crimes in the past. Howard is
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: literally hounded out of Glasgow. He travels south to the
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: outskirts of London. Howard moved to London in 1998. In 2001,
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: Hannah Williams was a 14-year-old girl living in Deadford, South
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: East London.
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: Hannah was my daughter, my youngest daughter. My relationship with
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: Hannah was just fantastic. She was very happy. She enjoyed
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: being at home, loved going out to the high street,
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: loved Going to the adventure playground, she was a.
• 20:33
  Speaker 8: Bit like a Tom girl.
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: She loved climbing things and jumping and that. Very energetic.
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: I brought all three of them up myself and I'd
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: done everything for them. It's hard bringing up three children
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: by yourself, but yeah, I'd done it and I loved it.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: But Bernadette's world was about to be torn apart.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: On April the 21st, 2001, Hannah goes shopping in Deptford Market.
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: It was about 11 o'clock. So she got up and
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: she said, mum, I'm going to the market. So I said, well,
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: if you hang on, I'll come with you. She said, mum,
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: I'm only going around the corner just to look at
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: the stalls and whatever.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: It was a decision that would change both of their
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: lives forever, an innocent shopping trip that would take a
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: disastrous turn for the 14-year-old. As darkness approached in Deptford,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: southeast London, Hannah Williams still hadn't returned.
• 21:53
  Speaker 6: She didn't come home. Her mum is absolutely frantic.
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: I just walked and cried and walked to try and
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: see if I could find her or see her anywhere
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: in Deptford. I just didn't understand why she didn't answer
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: her phone because she always answered her phone to me.
• 22:17
  Speaker 6: But when she goes to the police, the police do
• 22:21
  Speaker 6: not suspect that anything has happened to Hannah. They're convinced
• 22:26
  Speaker 6: that she's run away or she's gone off with friends.
• 22:29
  Speaker 6: And of course, this was a catastrophic decision by the police.
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: The Metropolitan Police told me to wait for 24 hours
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: before they could do anything. And I didn't hear nothing.
• 22:45
  Speaker 8: I didn't hear nothing from them.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Peter Harrison was a reporter working at a local newspaper.
• 22:53
  Speaker 11: I was sitting in the offices of the Mercury in
• 22:57
  Speaker 11: Deptford High Street. The doorbell went and there's this woman
• 23:01
  Speaker 11: standing in front of me, Bernadette, and she said to me,
• 23:06
  Speaker 11: can you help me? My daughter's been missing for the
• 23:09
  Speaker 11: last two weeks and no one seems to care.
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: I didn't think she was dead, but something was really
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: bad that's happened to her and she can't get home.
• 23:31
  Speaker 11: I remember contacting the missing people's section of Lewisham Police.
• 23:37
  Speaker 11: The officer in question was absolutely convinced that this was
• 23:42
  Speaker 11: a down and out family, you know, runaway daughter, troublesome child.
• 23:48
  Speaker 6: Getting police attention, especially in a missing person case, comes
• 23:53
  Speaker 6: back to this thing, are you the ideal victim? The
• 23:57
  Speaker 6: less ideal you are, the less attention and sympathy you're
• 24:04
  Speaker 6: going to get.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: The Metropolitan Police have since improved missing persons investigations. How
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: we investigate missing people has evolved in the 23 years
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: since Hannah went missing. We take the investigation of missing
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: people incredibly seriously and have teams in every local policing
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: area dedicated to this work. In 2001, a number of
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: high-profile missing children's cases meant that Hannah's story also struggled
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: to capture the attention of the media.
• 24:45
  Speaker 11: It seemed at the time there was quite a few
• 24:48
  Speaker 11: missing children. Hannah was one of many, but you had
• 24:51
  Speaker 11: Daniel Jones, Millie Dowler.
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: I feel like because they were living in more suitable
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: places and Me, I was in Deptford and a single mum,
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: so I felt like they got more coverage.
• 25:12
  Speaker 11: But Bernadette made sure that her daughter had a good, warm,
• 25:18
  Speaker 11: clean home. So it seemed preposterous that Hannah was written
• 25:24
  Speaker 11: off just because of her background.
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: I just didn't hear anything for a whole year, not
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: knowing anything. hoping that she'd walk through the door and say, Hi, Mum,
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: I'm home.
• 25:37
  Speaker 11: Not once was Bernadette told, Look, there's a very good
• 25:41
  Speaker 11: chance that your daughter's not going to be found alive.
• 25:44
  Speaker 11: And so she was constantly filled with this hope.
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: Still in my mind, the last word she said to me, Mum,
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: I love you and.
• 25:55
  Speaker 8: I'll never leave you.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: In March 2002, nearly 11 months after Hannah's disappearance, Bernadette's
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: worst fears came true.
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: At the time that Hannah Williams went missing, I was
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: a senior investigating officer in major crime at Kent Police.
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: On Friday the 15th of March 2002, a digger driver
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: was carrying out excavation work in a very woody area
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: in preparation for the International Rail Link at Ebb's Feet
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: Rail Terminal. He saw a blue tarpaulin wrapped in rope
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: and he looked inside and could see what was clearly
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: the skeletal remains of a body.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: The call came straight in to DCI Murray and he
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: attended the scene immediately.
• 26:48
  Speaker 5: It was torrential rain at the time. The excavation work
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: meant it was thick with mud. So straight away I'm
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: beginning to doubt whether we're going to get much forensic evidence.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: The body was found with a ligature around the neck.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: It was clear this was no accidental death. Kent police
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: immediately launched a murder investigation.
• 27:11
  Speaker 5: We went public with details of her clothing and immediately
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: I had a phone call from a local reporter to say,
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: I know who this girl is.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: And he said, it's Hannah Williams.
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: Kent police took DNA and she was my daughter. And
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: the guy, I sent him a thank you letter for
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: finding her. He must have been so shocked to come
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: across a body. And I was so happy that he
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: found her. Because if he didn't, then I still wouldn't
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: know what's happened to her.
• 27:49
  Speaker 8: And I went actually up to that site. And I
• 27:52
  Speaker 8: can't even tell you how I.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Felt, to be honest.
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: I mean, to see where your daughter's been lying for
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: a year.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: DCI Murray's first line of inquiry was to look into
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: every detail of Hannah's final movements.
• 28:13
  Speaker 5: On the day she went missing, just after 11am, she
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: had a 14-second phone call from a mobile phone that
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: was listed as belonging to... to a woman who lived
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: very close to the deposition site.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Detectives went to her home. She told them she hadn't
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: made the phone call and it must have been her partner,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Robert Howard.
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: When Robert Howard's name was given to us and we
• 28:44
  Speaker 5: looked at his record and his photographs, it was just
• 28:50
  Speaker 5: mind-blowing because this man... became our instant suspect for that murder.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Police quickly discovered the link between Howard and Hannah. Howard's
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: girlfriend was previously in a relationship with Hannah's father. DCI
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Murray also found out that Howard had previously been arrested
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: in relation to Arlene Arkinson's disappearance and about the 16-year-old
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: he'd held captive in Castle Derg.
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: We had Robert Howard as our number one suspect, but
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: we had no evidence at all apart from a possible
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: 14-second phone call that he made, which in reality proved little,
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: if anything. And the biggest fear that I had at
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: that time was this man. may go on a spree of.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Killing Ken police knew they didn't have enough evidence to
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: charge Howard but they wanted him off the streets immediately.
• 29:52
  Speaker 5: So we took the decision to arrest him because in
• 29:56
  Speaker 5: my view to do nothing was not.
• 29:58
  Speaker 8: An option.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: DCI Murray and his team searched Howard's girlfriend's home and
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: also his allotment, which housed a derelict caravan. But they
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: found no forensic evidence. In the meantime, Howard was taken
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: in for questioning, but only responded, no comment.
• 30:20
  Speaker 5: We certainly never had any evidence to charge Howard with
• 30:24
  Speaker 5: Hannah's murder, and he was released from custody.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: Detectives needed to find out more about Robert Howard's pattern
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: of offending.
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: We've got a man, ostensibly, who's moved from Scotland down
• 30:38
  Speaker 5: to London and during that period of time has not
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: come to the notice of the police. Had Howard been
• 30:46
  Speaker 5: targeting other children? And the answer was almost undoubtedly yes.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Kent Police worked with social services to identify and interview
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: any at-risk children living close to Howard's home.
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: And we identified one particularly young girl who would absolutely
• 31:05
  Speaker 5: prove to be vital to our investigation.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: She was just six years old.
• 31:12
  Speaker 5: Robert Howard had invited her into his flat. He indecently
• 31:16
  Speaker 5: assaulted her and she called him a pervert. and ran
• 31:21
  Speaker 5: out of the flat.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: DCI Murray liaised with the Metropolitan Police, who agreed to
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: arrest Howard on suspicion of indecent assault. The six-year-old girl
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: then told the police that Howard had also taken her
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: on a swimming trip to the lake right next to
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: where Hannah's body was found.
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: Now we've got, obviously, the background of Arlene, The young
• 31:47
  Speaker 5: girl who'd had a ligature tied around her neck whilst
• 31:50
  Speaker 5: Howard raped her. And now we have this young girl,
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: similar profile, taken down to very close to where Hannah lay.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: With strong circumstantial evidence showing a clear pattern of behavior,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Kent police were able to arrest Robert Howard. But did
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: they have enough to convict him for murder? In May 2002,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Kent police charged 57-year-old Robert Howard with the murder of
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: 14-year-old Hannah Williams. While in custody, Northern Irish police arrested
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: him for the 1994 murder of 15-year-old Arlene Arkinson. But
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: then an anonymous tip-off accusing Arlene's sister Kathleen put both
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: investigations into jeopardy.
• 32:50
  Speaker 5: We're going ahead with the trial of Robert Howard. The
• 32:54
  Speaker 5: week before, I get a phone call from an SIO
• 32:59
  Speaker 5: in Northern Ireland to say that they've had recent intelligence
• 33:04
  Speaker 5: to say that Arlene's body was buried under a floor
• 33:10
  Speaker 5: in Kathleen's house.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: DCI Murray was told if the case against Howard in
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Northern Ireland collapsed, it could throw serious doubts on the
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: prosecution case against him for Hannah Williams' murder. But no
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: body was found at Kathleen's home and she willingly came
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: forward to help Kent Police prove their case.
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: In our dealings with the Arkinsons, they wanted to do
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: everything they could to help us.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: In the prosecution.
• 33:43
  Speaker 5: Of Robert Howard and were happy to come to England
• 33:46
  Speaker 5: and give evidence at his trial.
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: I'd done everything by myself and to have the Arkansans
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: actually come over and come to the courtroom to support me,
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: even though they're going through the grief of their sister,
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: I mean, I thought that was so nice of them.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Kent police successfully persuaded the judge to allow Howard's previous
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: arrests and convictions to be presented to the jury.
• 34:18
  Speaker 10: The court in England were able to introduce similar fact
• 34:21
  Speaker 10: evidence of what happened in Arlene's case.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Robert Howard's trial for the murder of Hannah Williams began
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: at Maidstone Crown Court in October 2003. The prosecution called
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: upon evidence from Kathleen Arkinson, the 16-year-old Howard abducted in 1993,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: and also the six-year-old girl from South London. Details of
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: how Hannah's body was found were also presented to the jury.
• 34:52
  Speaker 11: Bernadette sat through the entire trial. She felt it was
• 34:56
  Speaker 11: the least she could do to honour her daughter.
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: To hear how he put blue rope around her neck.
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: She must have struggled to try and get away, but
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: she wasn't obviously strong enough, and probably the more she struggled,
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: the rope was tightening. So he strangled her. But then laughing,
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: he raped her as well.
• 35:21
  Speaker 11: She sat through the court hearing about how the gusset
• 35:26
  Speaker 11: of her teenage daughter's underwear had been cut out, probably
• 35:30
  Speaker 11: to hide DNA evidence.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Howard continued to proclaim his innocence.
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: He stood on the stand and was telling lies after lies.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: He never looked up at me.
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: I think Robert Howard phoned Hannah Williams on the day
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: she went missing, used some pretext to meet her, and
• 35:54
  Speaker 5: the cause of death was the ligature.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Around her neck.
• 35:59
  Speaker 5: And I think at that point, he then took Hannah
• 36:03
  Speaker 5: by vehicle over to the Blue Lake. And but for
• 36:10
  Speaker 5: the construction of the Ebbs Fleet Rail Terminal, she would
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: have laid there for years, bless her.
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: The only time he looked up is when the jury
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: left the courtroom to make their decision.
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: It took the jury just three hours to convict him.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: In October 2003, Howard was found guilty of murder and
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: was sentenced to life imprisonment. Kathleen approached the police van
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: as he was being driven away.
• 36:43
  Speaker 11: I looked at the van.
• 36:46
  Speaker 7: I says, Rabbi, I says, you're going to jail.
• 36:51
  Speaker 8: You're not getting out this time.
• 36:54
  Speaker 7: He kicked and he banged and he kicked and he
• 36:58
  Speaker 7: banged at that deer. I felt big relief, such as
• 37:02
  Speaker 7: I'd done the best I could and I did get justice,
• 37:07
  Speaker 7: that's why I'm happy.
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: In 2005, Robert Howard, now incarcerated for life, is brought
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: to trial for Arlene Arkinson.
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: The jury weren't allowed to be told that he had
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: murdered another teenage girl and that, in fact, he was
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: in prison for that murder and had been brought from
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: prison to be on trial.
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: And they don't convict him of Arlene's killing.
• 37:53
  Speaker 8: Never, ever, I ever blamed the jury.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: It wasn't their fault.
• 37:56
  Speaker 7: They didn't know nothing. I remember my father just sitting
• 37:59
  Speaker 7: looking at him in the box. Imagine looking at the
• 38:02
  Speaker 7: person who murdered your child.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: Despite Howard's acquittal, Kathleen continued her tireless fight to find
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: justice for Arlene.
• 38:15
  Speaker 10: So the next legal possibility, now that the trial has collapsed,
• 38:20
  Speaker 10: is an inquest.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: Howard was going to be called once again to give
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: evidence in the inquest hearing.
• 38:28
  Speaker 8: But then in October 2015, Howard dies.
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: Howard never once admitted killing Arlene. Like many murderers, he
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: wanted to keep those secrets to himself, his last bit
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: of control over the family and over the world.
• 38:47
  Speaker 5: He took Arlene's location to his grave and it's so,
• 38:51
  Speaker 5: so sad that Arlene's never been recovered.
• 38:56
  Speaker 8: At least I'm glad he died in prison, so.
• 39:00
  Speaker 7: He couldn't go out and hurt any other child or
• 39:03
  Speaker 7: infant or a woman again.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: After a number of legal challenges, the inquest was due
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: to start in 2016.
• 39:13
  Speaker 10: And then on the eve of the inquest starting, the
• 39:16
  Speaker 10: Secretary of State issues what is known as a PII certificate,
• 39:20
  Speaker 10: a Public Interest Immunity Certificate. So it's effectively the government
• 39:25
  Speaker 10: saying on the grounds of the national security of our country,
• 39:29
  Speaker 10: we cannot respond.
• 39:30
  Speaker 8: This information.
• 39:33
  Speaker 10: What on earth are they trying to keep from the
• 39:36
  Speaker 10: inquest involving the death of a 15-year-old child?
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: There had been a lot of rumours that Robert Howard
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: had been a police informer.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: When asked if Howard was an informer, the police have
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: said they will neither confirm nor deny, and that no
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: inference should be drawn from this. The PII certificate limited
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: what evidence could be shared, but the inquest went ahead
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: as planned at Belfast Coroner's Court. Arlene's friend and her mother,
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: Howard's girlfriend at the time of Arlene's disappearance, were called
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: to give evidence. Their stories kept changing.
• 40:19
  Speaker 10: His partner initially was saying that he did come back
• 40:22
  Speaker 10: in the early hours of the morning, but then that
• 40:24
  Speaker 10: changed to him coming back later in the morning and
• 40:28
  Speaker 10: that he was still wearing the same clothes that he
• 40:31
  Speaker 10: wore the evening before. So there's no doubt he had
• 40:34
  Speaker 10: more than adequate time to murder Arlene and dispose of
• 40:38
  Speaker 10: her body.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: Detectives dropped a bombshell that they had some inside information,
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: a confession Robert Howard had made to a cellmate.
• 40:49
  Speaker 10: The chief investigating officer was able to relay to the
• 40:52
  Speaker 10: court what Howard had said about how Howard had held
• 40:56
  Speaker 10: Arlene over a sink, how there was a lot of blood,
• 41:00
  Speaker 10: and how she had put up a good fight. And
• 41:03
  Speaker 10: so that was very upsetting for Kathleen to hear.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: Due to huge delays in the court system, it wasn't
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: until July 2021 that the conclusions of the inquest were
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: shared at Omar Courthouse, 27 years after Arlene disappeared.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: The inquest into Arlene's death did conclude that Robert Howard
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: had killed her. They ruled that they were confident her
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: remains were still near the town where she disappeared. I
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: think this case is just so shocking, really. We have
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: this man with a long history of violence and convictions
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: who's literally on bail for assaulting another teenage girl. And
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: he's the last person to see a teenage girl alive.
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: And yet he still completely gets away with it and
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: is able a few years later to kill another girl.
• 41:53
  Speaker 5: I've always maintained that if Howard had been properly sentenced
• 41:59
  Speaker 5: for rape, unlawful imprisonment, Arlene Arkinson and Hannah Williams would
• 42:03
  Speaker 5: be alive today.
• 42:06
  Speaker 8: She never got to her prom.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: Arlene's body has never been found. What exactly happened on
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: the night of her disappearance remains a mystery.
• 42:30
  Speaker 8: I just wished.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: I had said, no, I need to go, please to go.
• 42:35
  Speaker 8: But I don't know. That's a real mess, my sister.
• 42:43
  Speaker 9: I just hope she doesn't suffer. But I know she
• 42:46
  Speaker 9: doesn't suffer. But they know I'm never going to give up.
• 42:53
  Speaker 9: I'm never going to ever, ever. The last breath I take,
• 42:56
  Speaker 9: I'm only finer. You're a decent girl.
• 43:06
  Speaker 8: I hate him.
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: And just taking my 14-year-old daughter and killing her and
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: raping her.
• 43:11
  Speaker 8: I hate it.
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: I always think about what she would be doing now.
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: And I just wish Hannah was still here.
• 43:22
  Speaker 8: But that evil person just killed her.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: She's always in my heart.
• 43:28
  Speaker 4: I know she's saying, Mum, be strong. She's looking down
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: on me right this minute.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: Bless her. Robert Howard was a violent sex offender known
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: to the authorities. He managed to brutally attack women and
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: children for over 30 years. We may never truly know
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: the extent of this master manipulator's crimes, but after the
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: deaths of Arlene and Hannah were finally proven, there is
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: no doubt that he is one of the world's most
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: evil killers.