Twenty-five years ago, 14-year-old Hannah Williams vanished after telling her mother she was going window-shopping in Dartford. The schoolgirl from Deptford never returned home, and her disappearance initially received scant media attention, with police assuming she was a runaway. It was not until March 2002 that her remains were discovered in disused cement blocks at an industrial site in Northfleet, wrapped in tarpaulin and with a blue rope around her neck.
Prolific paedophile Robert Howard, 61 at the time, was convicted of Hannah's murder in 2003. The court heard that Howard, who had a 40-year history of sex attacks, targeted Hannah, a vulnerable teenager with learning difficulties. He abducted her on April 21, 2001, subjected her to a depraved sexual assault, and strangled her while she fought back. Howard died in prison in 2015 aged 71, having also been acquitted of the murder of 15-year-old Arlene Arkinson from Northern Ireland.
Hannah's mother, Bernadette, criticised both the police and media for their neglectful response. She felt officers dismissed her daughter as a runaway, and the case received little coverage compared to other missing children. The failure to publicise the search widely allowed Howard to evade detection for nearly a year. The case has since been cited as an example of how class and background can influence the attention given to missing persons.
