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A FORMER police officer turned author will reveal evidence linking serial killer Robert Black to the disappearances of other missing children.

Chris Clarke has spent years piecing together possible links between Black and decades-old unsolved cases.

His research has also unearthed the first known police mugshot of the man who’d go on to become one of Britain’s most notorious killers.

Black died in January, dashing the hopes of families who’ve spent years seeking answers over missing loved ones.

Chris, 70, hopes his book will provide a degree of closure for victims’ relatives.

He highlights the case of April Fabb, 13, who went missing while out cycling in Roughton, Norfolk, in 1969.

Her bike was discovered but her body has never been found.

Chris, who worked on royal protection duties at the Queen’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk, says his old force consulted with Devon police years later over the possibility Black was involved.

He was ruled out – but the former officer claims new evidence suggests the force were wrong to say the serial killer couldn’t have been involved.

He said: “Another girl, Genette Tate, disappeared in Devon in 1978 in similar circumstances to that of April Fabb nine years earlier.

“Police in Norfolk contacted their Devon and Cornwall colleagues to compare notes – to see if it could be the same killer. They seemed to dismiss any possible link as they believed that at the time April went missing, Black couldn’t drive and didn’t have a car.

“I have since found out he lied about his age and drove for a firm delivering newspapers and for a small building firm.

“It’s possible he may well have driven vehicles before he was officially eligible.”

Black was questioned about April but ­denied being involved.

But Chris said: “I’m certain he was responsible for April’s death.

“It’s exactly the same method he used elsewhere – the sudden disappearance of a girl out on a bike ride.

“I’m just as sure, looking at evidence, that she’s not the only one of his victims unaccounted for.”

Chris, of Durham, believes Black kidnapped and murdered at least five more girls including April and Genette, who was also 13 when she went missing.

Genette’s body was never found but it was revealed the Crown Prosecution Service were weeks away from charging Black with her murder when he died.

A file has since been handed to the CPS who will decide what, if any, action is appropriate following his death.

Chris has also gathered evidence linking Black to missing Mary Boyle and Christine Markham, both nine, and 14-year-old Suzanne Lawrence. Other sources have linked him with possible involvement in the murder of a total of 17 girls, including the four he was eventually convicted of murdering.

During his research, Chris uncovered a mugshot of Black taken in 1968 when the killer was 21.

The photo bears Black’s Scottish crime reference number 7041-63. The last two digits refer to 1963, which was the year Black received his first conviction after an attack on a seven-year-old girl in an air raid shelter in Greenock.

At the time, Black appeared before Greenock juvenile court but was admonished after a psychiatric report suggested the incident was a one-off.

The police mugshot was taken on the day Black was charged with assaulting the child of a foster parent he was staying with in London.

He’d relocated to the city months after being released from Polmont Borstal, where he'd served a year for sexually assaulting a young girl.

His death marked the end of any chance of a conviction on any of the cases. The serial killer refused to co-operate with police, taking his secrets to the grave.

Chris, a former police intelligence officer and expert in cold case reviews, has spent years examining evidence linking Black to several unsolved murders or disappearances.

He has also supported potential victims’ families.

Chris added: “Justice may have eluded them with his death but I hope I can come up with answers or some form of closure.”

Black was convicted at Newcastle Crown Court in 1994 of the murders of Susan Maxwell, 11, Caroline Hogg, five, and Sarah Harper, 10, in the 80s.

He was then convicted at Armagh Crown Court in 2011 of the 1981 abduction and murder of nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy in County Down.

Black died aged 68 while serving four concurrent life sentences in Maghaberry prison, Northern Ireland.

Chris said: “I have amassed a fair amount of information which I believe is compelling and detailed.

“Black’s death put an end to any hopes of prosecution in relation to further cases.”

A Norfolk police spokesman said: “The missing person inquiry relating to April Fabb is perhaps the most high-profile case in Norfolk’s history. Sadly. her mother passed away not knowing what happened to April – but we are determined to find closure for her remaining family.”

Chris’s book is expected to be released this year.