Wednesday August 20th 2008
The 30-year riddle of Genette Tate
Police say they will keep open the 30-year investigation into the disappearance of papergirl Genette Tate.
This is despite the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) ending any hopes of taking a convicted killer to court for her murder.
Genette, 13, disappeared this week in 1978 from the village of Alyesbeare, Devon, and her body has not been found.
For the past decade, police have been attempting to build a case against child killer Robert Black and last year her family were told charges may be looming as a file was passed to prosecutors.
On Monday, the CPS announced there was insufficient evidence to charge him.
But , a spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said: "The force is aware the 30th anniversary is approaching and would ask any one with further information concerning this unsolved crime to contact the force.
"The investigation remains open."
Black, a former delivery driver from Stamford Hill, London, was given 10 life sentences for offences including the murder in the Eighties of 11-year-old Susan Maxwell and five-year-old Caroline Hogg, both from Scotland, and 10-year-old Sarah Harper, from Morley, near Leeds.
His movements were traced through petrol receipts and a witness claimed to have seen him by Exeter airport, a short distance from Aylesbeare when Genette vanished as she delivered newspapers in her home village.
In 2005, police interviewed Black about Genette and after the interview the force sent a file to the CPS.
Black was also interviewed by the Devon and Cornwall force in 1996 and 1998 and, although officially the case will remain open, police are understood to have few remaining leads to investigate.
Genette's father, John Tate, said he was in despair at the news that Black would not be charged.
The 66-year-old, who has terminal prostate cancer, said he would be heartbroken to die without knowing where his daughter was.
He said: "I would be heartbroken to die without ever knowing where my Ginny was. I do have the strength to bury my daughter and I just want the chance to be able to do that.
"I want to know where she is now, where she is buried, so that we could give her a decent Christian burial."
In August 2006, Genette's mother Sheila Cook, who lives in Bristol, told how she looked every day at a photograph of her daughter that she kept in her bedroom.
Thousands of people turned out to search the countryside for the schoolgirl after she vanished on August 19, 1978.
Over the years, the Genette file has grown so large it is kept in a 12ft by 10ft document cage.
The mountain of paperwork includes more than 20,000 cards in a filing system.
Mr Tate has written to Black in Wakefield prison to ask him to meet in an effort to get to the truth.
He added: "It is a bombshell. Only last year we were told a prosecution may be looming.
"We have had our hopes dashed so many times in the past but this is a new low.
"We have been very patient waiting for 30 years to try to get some justice, now we have no idea what the future holds.
"It seems to me now that we will never find out what happened to Genette."
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/30-year-riddle-Genette-Tate/article-278386-detail/article.html