by Chris Clark
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Day ten of the trial, Monday, 10 October, was to focus on forensic evidence, specifically the initial pathologist’s report, which had more recently been challenged by another pathologist who had different opinions on how Jennifer died and on whether or not she had been sexually assaulted before her death.
First up to speak for the Crown was former Northern Ireland state pathologist Professor Thomas Marshall, who had carried out the autopsy on Jennifer’s body back in 1981. He stated that Jennifer’s body demonstrated signs of neck compression, indicating pressure had been applied to her neck area. But he remained unwavering in his opinion that that was not the cause of death.
‘I’ve always been certain that she died from drowning,’ he said.
He also told the jury that he found no evidence that Jennifer was sexually assaulted: ‘I did think about it and came to the conclusion there was no evidence of sexual activity.’
Professor Marshall repeated that he believed the cause of death was drowning as he had found fresh water in Jennifer’s lungs.
David Spens, QC for the defence, then asked Professor Marshall if he was aware of the opinions of the other Crown witness Dr Nathaniel Cary. Dr Cary, a senior pathologist who had recently reviewed the case and looked over the findings, disagreed with Professor Marshall’s findings, believing that Jennifer had died from strangulation and was the victim of a sexual assault. Professor Marshall confirmed he was aware of Dr Cary’s report but he was still sticking to his views from 1981.
Andy and Pat Cardy left the courtroom for a short period as a black and white photograph from the 1981 autopsy was projected on to the courtroom wall. The photograph was of Jennifer’s neck. Professor Marshall said that whilst her neck had been compressed; he was not sure how forcefully and he was adamant that it did not cause her death: ‘I don’t think death had been caused by whatever happened to her neck.’
When questioned by Toby Hedworth, QC for the prosecution, Professor Marshall conceded she could have been unconscious when she was dumped in McKee’s Dam. ‘She may,’ he said, ‘have been rendered unconscious by the pressure on her neck.’
Cross-examined again by Mr Spens, Professor Marshall reiterated that he had found no evidence of sexual interference.
The next witness to take the stand was an expert in forensic science, Mr David Scaysbrook, who reviewed the evidence from 1981 regarding Jennifer’s clothing. When questioned about a stain found on Jennifer’s underwear, Mr Scaysbrook was asked in his professional opinion if the stain was more likely to have been blood or bodily fluid that was released following Jennifer’s death during the decomposition process. Mr Scaysbrook answered that, while he was not 100 per cent sure, he believed it was blood.
‘If the stain was blood it would support the view that some form of sexual assault had taken place on the victim,’ he added.
Mr Scaysbrook went on to criticise the 1981 forensic notes made on Jennifer’s clothing, declaring that they were neither detailed nor comprehensive enough; he added they were of a poor standard even for their time, but he did concede that this could have been because the police and forensic services had had their hands full with the Troubles.
The court then learned that no forensic reviews or fresh tests could be carried out by police on Jennifer’s clothes because they were lost forever, having been destroyed in 1992 in a Provisional IRA bombing of the forensic laboratories in Belfast where they were stored.
There were two other points of physical evidence, however, that also pointed to Jennifer having been a victim of sexual assault, both relating to the state of her clothing when she was removed from McKee’s Dam. During the post-mortem it was noted that not only was the zip of the child’s trousers down but her underwear was on inside out. This suggested that the bottom half of her clothing had been removed at one stage and then put on again, indicating a sexual motive for Jennifer’s death.
Dr Richard Adams, former head of the Northern Ireland Forensic Laboratory, took the stand to discuss the significance of Jennifer’s red Timex watch when her body was taken from the dam. The first day of the trial had heard from Pat Cardy, who said that she had wound up her daughter’s watch for her just before Jennifer had left on her bicycle. The time was then 1.40 p.m. The time on the watch when Jennifer was taken from McKee’s Dam was 5.40 p.m., four hours after the watch was set.
Dr Adams, who had gone to McKee’s Dam when Jennifer’s body was found, testified to having seen no signs of a struggle, although there were several buttons missing from Jennifer’s cardigan and some blood on her clothing. He went on to explain that he had carried out a number of tests on the watch to observe the way it reacted when it came into contact with water and how long it ran for afterwards. He came to the conclusion that the 5.40 p.m. on the watch face was relevant to the day Jennifer was abducted: ‘It stopped because water had entered the watch.’
This was significant in terms of Black’s time frame: Jennifer entering the water on the day she was abducted at 5.40 p.m. meant that Black would certainly have had the opportunity and the time to carry out the crime as he was not due back on the boat to Liverpool until much later that evening.
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The trial so far: by this stage it was clear how the case for the prosecution was progressing. The Crown had laid out a firm case that Black had had the opportunity to commit the murder, presenting documented evidence, such as the petrol receipt and wage book, as well as witness analysis of that evidence, to show that Robert Black was in Northern Ireland on the day of the murder and that he was in the general vicinity of Ballinderry at the time Jennifer was abducted. The prosecution also produced evidence in the form of police interviews in which Black conceded that he had used the lay-by adjacent to McKee’s Dam where Jennifer’s body was found, and therefore knew the area. Other evidence, too, such as timing – the time that Black finished his deliveries, the time of the ferries, the time he filled up in Coventry … and the time on Jennifer’s watch – all helped to build up the case against him.
The prosecution then moved on by telling the court of Black’s past crimes – the three child murders, the 1988 attempted abduction in Nottingham, and the 1990 Stow abduction that led to his capture – revealing that Black was a serial killer and committed paedophile. The emphasis at this stage, on how Jennifer died, and if she was a victim of sexual assault, was in order to bring in the third core point of the prosecution’s case – the very strong similarity in MO, to the point of almost being identical, to the methods proved in a court of law to have been used by Robert Black previously, and so distinct that all crimes involved had to have been committed by the same man – and that man, the prosecution was convinced, was Robert Black.
10
THE TRIAL CONTINUES
The following day, day eleven of the trial, Tuesday, 11 October, heard from one of the topmost forensic pathologists in the whole of the United Kingdom. Dr Nathaniel Cary had in the ten years preceding this trial worked on some big murder cases, including the Ipswich serial murders of five prostitutes by Steve Wright, the ‘Suffolk Strangler’, and the case of the Soham murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. Dr Cary stated that Jennifer’s murder was ‘remarkably similar’ to the 1986 murder of Sarah Harper; a killing Black was convicted of in 1994, and added: ‘These cases are very rare. So if a rare thing has similar features that’s an important point.’
Both Jennifer and Sarah’s bodies were dumped in water (Jennifer in McKee’s Dam and Sarah in the River Trent near Nottingham) and both girls were believed to have died by drowning, both thought to have been alive but unconscious when they entered the water. This in itself was a unique yet strong point of similarity.
The bodies had similar marks and injuries. With Sarah Harper there was no doubt that she had been victim of a violent sexual assault. And while there were no similar sexual injuries visible on Jennifer’s body, the evidence of the blood stain on Jennifer’s underpants, the zip of her trousers being down and her pants being inside ou
t all indicated that she had been a victim of sexual assault.
It was not possible to determine if there were any such similarities between them and the two other victims Black was convicted of killing in 1994, Susan Maxwell and Caroline Hogg, due to the severe decomposition of both bodies in the summer heat by the time they had been discovered.
Dr Cary was asked in 2003 to review Professor Marshall’s 1981 findings. Where he differed from Professor Marshall was in the matters of the cause of Jennifer’s death and as to whether she was the victim of a sexual assault. Professor Marshall, as we have seen, stood by his 1981 conclusion that Jennifer had died from drowning and that she had not been sexually assaulted. When he took the witness stand the day before, day ten of the trial, he remarked that he had felt a sense of unease when in 2008 he had a meeting with prosecution lawyers to go over Dr Cary’s review of his post-mortem conclusions. ‘I think at that moment,’ he said, ‘there was a little pressure for me to alter the opinion I had given in 1981. I’ve a recollection of feeling I was being asked to say something which I didn’t believe in.’
In response, Mr Hedworth asked him if his conclusions ruled out sexual assault. Professor Marshall stated in response that they did not contradict the possibility of sexual assault but that there was no evidence of it found.
Regarding Jennifer’s cause of death, Dr Cary did not rule out drowning but suggested three alternative possibilities as to what happened:
Jennifer was asphyxiated with the use of a ligature – possibly the sleeve of her cardigan.
Jennifer was strangled with the ligature to the point of unconsciousness and then thrown into the water where she drowned.
Jennifer managed to escape from the attack with the ligature around her neck and in the panic of escaping fell into the dam where she drowned.
Dr Cary, very reasonably, added that the third option was the least likely. The second option seems, to me, the most likely scenario given its similarity to Sarah Harper’s death by drowning after being thrown unconscious into the water, and the conviction of Professor Marshall – who had, after all, conducted the post-mortem – that Jennifer had drowned. We must also take into account Black’s attack when he was sixteen on the seven-year-old girl; whom he lured into an air-raid shelter, strangled to the point of unconsciousness, sexually interfered with, and abandoned there, apparently unconcerned as to whether she was alive or dead.
Whilst he conceded feeling ‘uncomfortable’ having to disagree with the findings of the respected and experienced Professor Marshall, Dr Cary stressed that they were merely putting a different emphasis on what had happened, and he then put it into a wider perspective by stating: ‘I actually don’t think it matters, because if drowning took place it was clearly as a result of being abducted and dumped in water.’
Defence counsel David Spens then stepped forward to question Dr Cary, referring to Professor Marshall’s view that there had been no sexual assault. Dr Cary stated that modern techniques in post-mortems make it much easier to identify injuries that result from sexual assault. He emphasised that he was not criticising Professor Marshall’s analysis, commenting that the professor had not practised for nearly twenty years – ‘I would not want to be judged in many years’ time by the techniques of the day,’ he added.
As Dr Cary stood down, the trial judge Mr Justice Weatherup asked Mr Hedworth, QC for the Crown, if the bloodstain on Jennifer’s underwear definitely belonged to her. Mr Hedworth replied that there was no evidence it came from anyone else.
* * *
Day twelve saw a familiar face return to face Robert Black once again. Retired Lothian and Borders Police Detective Chief Superintendent Roger Orr, one of the leading officers whose investigations in the early 1990s led to Black’s first three murder convictions in 1994.
He took the witness stand to read out the statement of Laura Turner, the six-year-old girl whom Black abducted in July 1990. She afterwards told the police how, coming from a friend’s house, she had had to walk right alongside Black’s blue van that had been strategically parked to ensure that she would have to come close to it. Mr Orr read out her account of what happened next.
‘He wasn’t looking at me then but then he looked at me. I didn’t know he was a bad man then. He said sorry but then he grabbed me round the waist and bent me over and pushed me under the chair of the van.’
Black, Mr Orr told the court, shouted at the little girl to be quiet, not once but twice, before slowly and calmly reversing the van down the road, making a three-point turn and going back the way he had come. He drove out of Stow and stopped at a lay-by near a disused quarry. He then pushed the little girl into the back of the van and molested her. Putting strips of tape over her mouth, he bound her hands and put a cushion cover over her head, tying it tightly around her neck. ‘He then placed her inside a sleeping bag and zipped it up.’
Mr Orr went on to tell the court the dramatic story of how Black was spotted by a member of the public, his subsequent arrest and the rescue of the little girl – who was estimated to be twenty minutes away from suffocation. He told the court how Black claimed to the arresting officers that his action had been a ‘sudden rush of blood to the head’.
The court heard about the array of items the police found in Black’s van, which included pieces of girl’s clothing, ties, tapes and similar material that could be used to bind and gag, plus a number of ‘sex toys’ and objects that could be used for sexual abuse. The jury learnt how a further search of Black’s flat in Stamford Hill in North London uncovered two scrapbooks of child-pornography pictures and numerous black and white Polaroids of Black carrying out sexual acts on his person in front of a full-length mirror. None of this accorded with his claim of a rush of blood to the head.
Roger Orr then progressed to the cases of Susan Maxwell, Caroline Hogg and Sarah Harper and confirmed to the jury that Black’s work records and petrol receipts placed him at both the scenes of the abductions and the locations where their bodies had been found. Mr Hedworth asked Mr Orr then to explain how records of Black’s deliveries helped convict him.
When explaining details of the three cases Mr Orr particularly focused on how Sarah Harper’s body was found floating in the River Trent near Nottingham a month after she disappeared. He then crucially provided a link with the Jennifer Cardy murder by stating that Sarah had drowned but may have been unconscious when put into the river. ‘Put simply,’ said Mr Orr, ‘she was alive and capable of breathing when she was put in the water.’
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The following day, Thursday, 13 October and day thirteen of the trial, began with all members of the jury, accompanied by the judge, and the prosecution and defence lawyers, visiting the two main locations relevant to the trial. (Black was not taken with them.) They first drove to Jennifer’s home village of Ballinderry and went along the Crumlin Road, following the route that Jennifer had taken that day over thirty years before. The police then took them to the lay-by and they walked down to McKee’s Dam, which had been cordoned off, and they stood at the water’s edge while the judge, Mr Justice Weatherup, told the jury just where Jennifer’s body was found.
As the fleet of people returned to court, the police took down the tape and left the scene; members of the general public had stopped their cars and stood by the dam, most undoubtedly aware of and remembering the horror that had once occurred in this tranquil setting. As they surveyed the pondweed-covered surface of the water, for many it was with deep sadness for the little girl who lost her life beneath it.
* * *
The group returned to Armagh Crown Court to see Roger Orr’s second day on the witness stand. This time he read out to the court the details of the other known and confirmed young girl to have survived an attack by Black: in April 1988, fifteen-year-old Teresa Thornhill escaped from Black after a frantic struggle during which she fought and bit at him until a friend came to her rescue (see p. 106).
Teresa was walking home with a male friend when they both noticed a blue Tra
nsit van ‘driving suspiciously’, Mr Orr told the court, and after she and her friend Andrew Beeson had gone their separate ways, the blue van came back and parked in front of her. Teresa decided to cross the road and as she continued to walk, Black opened the van bonnet. ‘He asked her if she could fix engines. At this time she was becoming quite concerned and quickened the pace. But she was immediately grabbed from behind, she didn’t see it coming. It was a very strong bear hug, pinning her arms by her sides and lifting her off the street.’
As Teresa bit Black’s hand and arm, she knocked his glasses off in the struggle. Mr Orr continued: ‘She screamed continuously and struggled. In her own words she was fighting for her life.’
Mr Orr described how Black had then attempted to push Teresa into the van but she had blocked his efforts by putting her feet up against both sides of the door frame. Black became frustrated. ‘He responded by saying “Get in, you bitch!”.’ Mr Orr finished with an account of how Teresa’s friend heard her screams and came running, whereupon Black dropped her and sped off in his van, while they ran to Teresa’s house.
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On day fourteen, Monday, 17 October, the court heard tapes of interviews between Black and Northern Irish detectives in 1996 and 2005. As mentioned earlier, the 1996 conversations were with the then Royal Ulster Constabulary, who travelled to Wakefield in West Yorkshire to interview Black, whilst in 2005 the interviews were conducted in Antrim Police Station by the RUC’s replacement, the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland). Andrew and Patricia Cardy and Jennifer’s older brother Philip sat in the public gallery and heard the recording of Black describing how he would stalk and watch children on the beach and then insinuate himself into their play.
