Family visits site of body search

Arlene Arkinson went missing after attending a disco in Donegal

The family of murdered Castlederg teenager Arlene Arkinson have visited the site where fresh searches are being carried out for her body.

Police are focussing their efforts on bogland near Castlederg, County Tyrone.

Arlene, 15, disappeared 11 years ago after attending a disco in Donegal. Convicted sex offender Robert Howard was cleared of her murder in June.

Police said the search was not prompted by new information but are hopeful advances in technology will aid them.

About six acres of land down a laneway off the Drumquin Road outside Castlederg have been marked out for examination.

PSNI inspector John Gilmore said police were now using the latest methodology to try to recover the teenager's remains.

"I want to stress this isn't new, it is part of the ongoing process to recover the remains of Arlene."

Detectives have brought in a team of scientists and a specially trained police dog that can locate human remains by using water to pick up a scent.

This technology has been used successfully in similar cases in other parts of the UK.

Scientists are searching bogland at Drumquin Road

Arlene's sister Kathleen, who visited the search scene, said: "I'm hopeful, but then again I'm afraid to build up my hopes too much because I've been let down so often."

Arelene's remains have never been found despite extensive searches on both sides of the border since she disappeared in 1994.

The current search is scheduled to last for two days.

The Police Ombudsman is investigating the handling of the police inquiry into her murder.

In June, Robert Howard, 61, was found not guilty of killing Arlene Arkinson.

Howard had been found guilty in October 2003 of murdering Hannah Williams, from Deptford, whose body was found in a cement works in Kent.

He was also a convicted child abuser and rapist.

However, the jury at his trial were not told about his past convictions and his past offences could not be reported because he faced separate sex charges in Northern Ireland, now dropped.

The Public Prosecution Service said later that details of Howard's past offences could have been introduced in the Arlene Arkinson murder trial.

But it decided not to put Howard's convictions before the judge following legal advice.