Timeline of Robert Black's killings

13 January 2016

After Robert Black dies in prison, BBC News NI looks back at the child killer's history of abusing and murdering young girls.

1981

Black is in Northern Ireland working as a delivery driver for a London-based poster company.

Nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy is abducted.

Her body is found near her family home in Ballinderry, outside Lisburn, County Antrim.

Black abducts and murders 11-year-old Susan Maxwell from Cornhill-on-Tweed in Northumberland, close to the border between England and Scotland.

Caroline Hogg disappears from outside her home in Portobello, near Edinburgh.

The five-year-old is found dead in a ditch in Leicestershire.

Black used to work as a lifeguard and swim in the Portobello area when he was a young man.

Ten-year-old Sarah Harper is abducted as she walks from a corner shop near her home in Morley, Leeds.

Her body is discovered in the River Trent in Nottingham.

Black attempts to abduct 15-year-old Theresa Thornhill in the Radford area of Nottingham.

He tried to drag her into his van but the schoolgirl fought him off with the help of a friend.

Black is caught when he abducts a six-year-old girl in the village of Stow in the Scottish borders.

She was gagged, bound and stuffed in a sleeping bag in the back of his van when police stopped him.

Black is convicted over the murders of Susan, Caroline and Sarah.

Black is charged with the murder of Jennifer Cardy.

Black is found guilty of the murder of Jennifer Cardy 30 years earlier.

Police say he is "a lost cause to humanity".

Black dies in Maghaberry Prison near Lisburn, County Antrim. He was 68 years old.

Devon police say they were just weeks away from charging Black with the 1978 murder of 13-year-old Genette Tate.