CHILD killer Robert Howard came close to confessing where he had hidden the remains of missing Co Tyrone teenager Arlene Arkinson, a retired senior PSNI officer has claimed.
The 15-year-old girl from Castlederg was last seen alive in a car Howard was driving when she vanished after going to a disco in Bundoran, Co Donegal, in August 1994.
In 2005, serial rapist Howard, then aged 61, was charged with Arlene’s murder but was acquitted after a jury was not told of his history of sexual violence, including his conviction for strangling south London teenager Hannah Williams in 2001.
Former Detective Chief Superintendent Norman Baxter has told BBC NI’s Spotlight programme he remains convinced that Howard almost told him the location of Arlene’s remains.
Mr Baxter revealed that he had spoken to Howard after the killer had been flown from a prison in England to Northern Ireland to be charged with the teen’s murder.
The retired officer said that after Howard had been placed in a cell in Enniskillen police station he had sent word that he wanted to speak with a senior investigating officer.
“So I went to the cell block and I spoke to Robert Howard in the cell. He was extremely agitated, very unsettled, and his main concern was that he wanted to serve his remand period in Magahberry Prison.
“He felt that his period there would be much easier because he would have had a single room with an ensuite bathroom and television, whereas in Wormwood Scrubs where he had been brought to Northern Ireland from, he had to slop out and share a cell and felt quite under threat,” Mr Baxter added.
The former detective told the programme that the pair then became involved in a “hypothetical conversation” that had been initiated by Howard who indicated “the possibility of the body of Arlene Arkinson being recovered”.
“He didn't say it outright, but the implication of the conversation was that he could help us further and I was certain at that stage he was on the cusp of telling where the body was.
“In my mind I had absolutely no doubt at that point that he was guilty of her murder and knew where her body was,” Mr Baxter said.
Howard, who was incarcerated in HMP Frankland in Co Durham, had been due to give evidence at the re-opened Belfast inquest into Arlene’s death. However, he passed away from natural causes earlier this month.
