Murdered teenager Arlene Arkinson
THE inquest into the murder of teenager Arlene Arkinson has heard that she may have been pregnant at the time she vanished 21 years ago.
The 15-year-old teenager disappeared in 1994 after attending a school disco in Donegal.
She was last seen in a car driven by convicted killer Robert Howard, who was acquitted of her murder in 2005.
The inquest at Laganside Court heard that Arlene confided in friends on the night that she went missing.
She told them that she thought she might be pregnant.
Coroner Brian Sherrard heard that Arlene said the father was “not a family member” but “someone close to the family”.
At the hearing on Monday, she was described as a “bright but vulnerable teenager”.
The inquest heard the person with whom she was last seen was Robert Howard, a man with a string of convictions for sex assault and rape.
The coroner has not ruled on information that police do not wish to be made public as that evidence has not yet been presented to the court.
The NIO signed off a Public Interest Immunity certificate at the request of the PSNI for certain top secret information not be made public at the inquest.
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