Child killer flown to latest trial by private plane

Black, 64, received “Rolls-Royce treatment” going from England to Northern Ireland.

The paedophile was told he must serve a minimum of 25 years for murdering nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy, who was snatched as she cycled to a friend’s house in Ballinderry in County Antrim in 1981.

Black was found guilty in 1994 of three child murders in the 1980s – those of 11-year-old Susan Maxwell, from the Scottish Borders, five-year-old Caroline Hogg, from Edinburgh, and Sarah Harper, 10, from Morley, near Leeds.

Democratic Unionist peer Lord Maurice Morrow said: “I am utterly appalled at the overt expenditure in this case. It is simply outside the realms of reasoning to have the taxpayer shell out this amount of money.”

The murderer, who has been convicted of killing four young girls and is being investigated over a fifth disappearance, is serving 12 life sentences at Wakefield Prison, including those from Mr Justice Ronald Weatherup at Belfast Crown Court last month.