Arlene Arkinson
POLICE in the North investigated a claim that child killer Robert Howard confessed to the murder of missing Tyrone schoolgirl Arlene Arkinson – and the confession was relayed on the streets of Letterkenny three years after her disappearance.
Arlene disappeared after going to a disco in Bundoran in 1994. She as just 15.
Howard was cleared by a jury of her murder after they weren’t told of his previous convictions for killing children. He died in prison last year.
Now an inquest is being held into Arlene’s death, even though her body has never been found.
But that inquest has heard that a man from Derry called police in 1997 to say he had information about Howard.
The subsequent statement recorded by detective constable Gareth Jenkins was outlined at Belfast Laganside court.
The man said he knew Howard and first met him at a “drying out centre” in Newry around 1987.
He went on to describe an encounter in 1997 in Letterkenny when he and his cousin got talking to someone while they drank alcohol on the street.
“When they were drinking out on the street they bumped into a man who had burns on his face and hands,” the statement taken by the detective recorded.
The man said he then claimed Howard had lived on a caravan site in Letterkenny and while he was there he had told him about a girl.
“Howard told him how he had throttled her and then strangled her before burying her,” said the statement.
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