Crusading QC who nailed Black

The lawyer cast as Robert Black’s nemesis completed unfinished business by securing the serial killer’s fourth murder conviction, 17 years after he first faced him across the courtroom.

Toby Hedworth, QC, was a junior counsel for the prosecution in 1994 when Black was found guilty at Newcastle Crown Court of murdering his three other young victims and the attempted abduction of another.

Two years later he was appointed Queen’s Counsel and subsequently established a reputation as one of the most formidable advocates in the north of England.

But it was to Northern Ireland the 59-year-old travelled at the end of this summer after accepting the offer to take on Black again – this time as senior prosecution counsel in the Jennifer Cardy case at Armagh Crown Court.