Child killer Robert Black jailed for 25 years minimum

Serial child killer Robert Black has been told he must serve a minimum of 25 years in jail for kidnapping and murdering schoolgirl Jennifer Cardy. In October, 64-year-old Black was found guilty of snatching Jennifer as she cycled to a friend's house in Ballinderry, County Antrim, in 1981. Jennifer was nine years old when she disappeared. Black, originally from Grangemouth in Scotland, is serving life in prison for the murders of three other children. In August 1981, Black was working as a delivery driver for a London-based poster company. This role brought him to the Lisburn area on 12 August, the day Jennifer went missing. Black was automatically given another life sentence when he was convicted of killing Jennifer and on Thursday the minimum tariff was set at 25 years. Jennifer's parents heard Mr Justice Weatherup tell their daughter's killer he would be at least 89 before he would be considered for release. "Your crime was particularly serious," he said. "You subjected a vulnerable child to unpardonable terror and took away her life." Earlier the court heard Black's own lawyer offer no plea for mercy. David Spens QC told the judge: "This is one of those rare cases in which there is no mitigation and so I propose to say nothing in that regard." Prosecution barrister Toby Hedworth QC had argued that Black should face a whole life term, given his other killings. In November, Black's legal team said they would be appealing against his conviction for kidnapping and murdering the County Antrim schoolgirl. Black is already serving multiple life sentences in Wakefield prison in England. Jennifer's murder was the fourth for which Black has been convicted. In 1994, he was found guilty of three unsolved child murders in the 1980s - those of 11-year-old Susan Maxwell, from the Scottish Borders, five-year-old Caroline Hogg, from Edinburgh, and Sarah Harper, 10, from Morley, near Leeds. Detectives in Devon are reviewing the evidence against Black in connection with the disappearance of another schoolgirl, Genette Tate. The 13-year-old went missing while doing her paper round in a Devon village on 19 August 1978.