Jury acquittal urged in murder trial without a body
A jury was today urged to acquit a man of murdering a schoolgirl who, it was claimed, may not be dead.
Arlene Arkinson, 15, from Castlederg, Co Tyrone vanished more than a decade ago after a night out.
Despite a massive search on both sides of the Irish border, her body has not been found.
Robert Howard, 61, who was the last person to see her alive in August 1994, is on trial accused of killing the teenager.
But as the three week hearing at Belfast Crown Court drew to a close, his defence portrayed her as a troubled girl who feared she was pregnant and about to be put into care.
Barry McDonald QC said that Arlene, still traumatised by the death of her mother, had told friends she was thinking about running away from home or even committing suicide.
Alleged sightings across Northern Ireland and England in the weeks and months after she disappeared only compounded the mystery surrounding her fate, the barrister said.
“It would be very difficult to satisfy that she is dead,” Mr McDonald added.
Howard, originally from Main Street, Castlederg, drove Arlene across the border to Bundoran, Co Donegal on the night she vanished, the court was told.
His ex-partner Patricia Quinn’s daughter, Donna, and her boyfriend Sean Heggarty were with them as they spent the night in two bars.
But after leaving the other two in the early hours of Sunday August 14, Howard allegedly murdered Arlene and disposed of her body before returning to Ms Quinn’s house.
“The Crown has to satisfy that Arlene Arkinson died in a six-hour period, because it’s only in a six hour period that Mr Howard had the opportunity,” Mr McDonald said.
Lacking a body, the prosecution has failed to collect any forensics, DNA, finger prints or even clothing fibres linking Howard to the killing.
Mr McDonald claimed: “They rely almost entirely on the evidence that was available in 1994 which the police didn’t feel able to rely on even to persuade the DPP to bring charges.
“It’s all speculation. She could have committed suicide for all we know.
“She could have jumped off a ferry and been claimed by the sea and we would never have found her.
“There’s no direct evidence from any witness that they saw something that morning such as a struggle or an argument, no forensic evidence to support the notion that she died that night.
“Even if you believe the defendant didn’t come in until 9am that morning, six hours is not a particularly long period to assault Arlene Arkinson, dispose of her body in such a way that it was never going to be found in the Castlederg area, then clean up his car if the assault happened in the car.
“He would also have to clean up his old disused flat he left in December the year before in such a way that there was no trace of any struggle or murder, despite the meticulous methods now adopted by forensic science to find evidence.”
Howard did not take the stand during his trial.
He also faces four charges of perverting the course of justice in the week after Arlene disappeared by allegedly asking his Ms Quinn and two friends to lie for him.
Detectives interviewed him at the time she went missing, but no action was taken.
Describing the Crown’s circumstantial case as a weak bundle of “little threads”, Mr McDonald told the nine men, three women jury there was enough evidence to clear the accused.
He added: “You should come to the conclusion that police were right in 1994; that there was no proper basis for suggesting this man was guilty at all.”
