The killer had a long history of violent sexual offences that should’ve led to his arrest sooner, the coroner said.
A coroner has ruled that convicted child killer Robert Howard was responsible for the murder of 15-year-old Arlene Arkinson in 1994.
Coroner Brian Sherrard told Omagh courthouse that on the basis of probability the schoolgirl – whose body was never found – was murdered by the sex offender-killer, known for serially raping girls across the UK and Ireland.
Arlene, from Castlederg, Co Tyrone, had been on a night out in Bundoran, Co Donegal when she vanished. She was last seen in a car driven by Howard, according to multiple reports.
Following a long-running inquest, Sherrard found that she died on the morning of Sunday, August 14, 1994.
He told the court: “There is no record of her being alive after that date.
“Robert Howard, a violent sexual offender and the last person to be seen with Arlene in the early hours of August 14 1994, was responsible for her death. The mechanism of death is unknown.
“The court believes the death occurred in this jurisdiction, but the precise location remains unknown. However the court is confident that her remains were secreted in this jurisdiction as Howard was familiar with the area around Castlederg… and time was limited.”
He also debunked several rumours and theories around her disappearance and paid tribute to her siblings, who cared for her following her mother’s death in 1990, for their “exhaustive” efforts in seeking justice for Arlene.
“It is a matter of profound regret that Arlene did not get to live her life.
“I want to reflect on the grave injustice that has been done to the Arkinson family due to the actions of Robert Howard and I would like to reflect on the exhaustive manner in which Kathleen in particular has driven this case from the first days after the disappearance right through to today, and that is remarkable, and Arlene herself has been served exceptionally well by her family in the intervening years.”
Howard was charged with her murder in 2002 but was acquitted in 2005.
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Robert Howard. Credit: Kent Police
The jury was not told of his history of violent sexual offences and that he had already been convicted of the 2003 murder and rape of 14-year-old Hannah Williams in London.
At the time of Arlene’s disappearance, Howard was on bail for a series of violent sexual offences against a teenage girl. He died in prison in 2015 at the age of 71.
The coroner told the court of several “quasi admissions” by Howard, such as inquiring to a number of police officers about serving his sentence in Northern Ireland if he admitted to certain things, admitting to living in fear and crossing the road when he saw a police officer, and saying he was haunted when he saw a face in a crowd that reminded him of the girl.
He said those concerns “fell short of a confession but indicate culpability.” He also said police should have arrested Howard earlier than they did.
Though he acknowledged the challenging nature of the case, he said that “knowledge of Howard’s criminal history ought to have provoked his immediate arrest.”
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