A serial rapist was convicted only after a jury heard evidence normally deemed inadmissible in court, writes Joe Humphreys
More than 30 years after his first conviction for rape, Robert Howard remained at large, travelling between Ireland and Britain without any monitoring by either British police or gardaí.
The Co Laois man received two prison sentences for rapes in north-east England and Cork in 1969 and 1974 respectively. However, because the crimes predated the establishment of a sexual offenders register, Howard was free to travel from community to community without checks.
Detectives are unsure how many crimes he has committed since he was arrested for attempting to rape a six-year-old girl in London in 1964. They believe he fits the profile of a serial rapist and possible serial killer, given both the length of time over which he had been operating and his ability to cover his tracks.
His final conviction in 2003, for the murder of English schoolgirl Hannah Williams, followed an extraordinary court case in which the jury heard evidence that would normally be deemed inadmissible about the defendant's other alleged crimes.
The jury was told of Howard's past, including allegations that he had murdered Co Tyrone teenager Arlene Arkinson and had raped a 16-year-old girl. The court also heard of an allegation that Howard had indecently assaulted another girl at the cement works where Hannah's body was dumped.
Det Supt Colin Murray, who led the investigation, said: "We argued at the Crown Court that we should be able to use similar fact evidence because these girls were similar in description and age and everything but the circumstances, how he would target certain people."
Born in Wolfhill, Co Laois, in 1944, Howard was first sentenced just before his 21st birthday, serving only nine days in Borstal for attempted rape.
In 1969 he was sentenced to six years in jail in England after breaking into a house where he tried to rape and strangle a young woman. In 1974, shortly after his release from prison, he was convicted in Cork of raping a 58-year-old woman.
She was asleep in bed when Howard broke in, gagged and bound her with a sheet and then subjected her to a five-hour ordeal of sexual assaults.
In 1988 Howard was sentenced to 15 months in prison for larceny offences in Dublin. He moved to Northern Ireland after being released from Mountjoy and spent time in an alcoholism rehabilitation unit in Newry, Co Down, before moving to Derry, and later Castlederg, Co Tyrone.
In 1993 he was accused of repeatedly raping a 16-year-old girl in a flat in the town. He claimed the teenager consented and he was later convicted of the lesser charge of having unlawful sex with a girl under 17.
In August 1994, while on bail for the rape charges, Howard was seen giving Arlene a lift in his car. The 15-year-old subsequently disappeared and was presumed to have been murdered.
Howard was arrested and questioned about the disappearance but released without charge. He moved to Scotland but was hounded out of the Drumchapel area of Glasgow after his past was exposed by a newspaper.
The Irishman subsequently lived in London and set up home with a woman in Northfleet, Kent, who later unwittingly introduced him to 14-year-old Hannah Williams. On April 21st, 2001, the schoolgirl went missing. Her body was discovered the following year at a disused cement works in Northfleet.
In May 2002 Howard was arrested and charged with Hannah's murder in Kent. Days later he was arrested and charged with Arlene Arkinson's murder at Enniskillen Magistrates' Court.
In October 2003 he was jailed for life at Maidstone Crown Court for Hannah's murder, but last June he was found not guilty at Belfast Crown Court of murdering Arlene Arkinson. Outstanding charges against him were dropped yesterday, thus allowing reporting restrictions to be lifted.
Sentencing Howard for Hannah's murder, Mr Justice McKinnon told the Maidstone court: "It is plain to me that there are no mitigating circumstances whatsoever. It is clear you are a danger to teenage girls and other women and have been for a long time."