THE father of a schoolgirl missing for almost 40 years says he has been denied justice after her suspected killer died in jail this week.

Serial child killer Robert Black, who has died in prison, has long been believed to have murdered former Taunton girl Genette Tate, who disappeared in 1978 aged 13.

The body of Genette, who was born in Taunton, where she lived in Wedlands and attended Priorswood Primary School, has never been found.

But Black, who died on Tuesday (January 12) aged 68, has been quizzed on several occasions by detectives, who were believed to be on the point of charging him with Genette's murder.

Her terminally ill father, John, who lived in West Buckland until the 1990s, wrote to Black several years ago pleading with him to confess and tell police what he had done with Genette's body.

Mr Tate, who now lives in Manchester, said: "I hoped that one day he might have made a deathbed confession, but I don't know what happens now.

"I would have liked to have seen Robert Black go on trial charged with Genette's kidnap and murder, but now that has been denied us.

"We have waited all these years for a breakthrough and it seems we have been denied again, just as something major was about to happened.

"This is a major blow to our hopes of trying to discover the truth."

Black had been in prison in Northern Ireland serving 12 life sentences for killing four young girls in the 1980s - two in Scotland, the others in Leeds and County Antrim.

But police have long suspected Genette was his first victim and investigations into the possibility of charging him with killing her were ongoing at the time of his death.

Genette was last seen delivering newspapers in a lane in Aylesbeare, Devon, before her her disappearance August 1978.

Her bicycle and scattered newspapers were discovered, but police found no other trace of her.

Detective Superintendent Paul Burgan, of Devon and Cornwall Police, yesterday (Wednesday) said: "We are aware of the death of convicted child murderer Robert Black in Northern Ireland and can also confirm that discussions with the Crown Prosecution Service have been ongoing for some months regarding the murder of Genette Tate from Aylesbeare in 1978.

"No formal charging decision had been reached at the time of Black's death and these discussions with the CPS continue."

At the time of Black's death, police are believed to have been working to persuade the CPS to change a previous decision not to charge him with Genette's death due to lack of evidence.