Robert Howard was born on April 20, 1944, in Wolfhill, County Laois, Ireland. His descent into crime began early—by age 13, he had already been convicted of burglary. At 19, he was convicted of the attempted rape of a six-year-old girl in London. Over the years, Howard’s rap sheet grew darker, with multiple convictions across the UK and Ireland, including rape, burglary, and violent assault. His behavior followed a disturbing pattern of grooming young girls and preying on their vulnerabilities, often targeting those from unstable or broken homes.

He served multiple prison sentences, including time for rape and strangulation, yet somehow continued to circulate in society. In 1993, he was convicted for unlawful carnal knowledge of a 16-year-old girl in Castlederg, Northern Ireland—another disturbing case where he had reportedly groomed and manipulated a vulnerable teenager.

On April 21, 2001, 14-year-old Hannah Williams left home in Dartford, Kent, to go window shopping. She never returned. For months, police assumed she had run away—especially after a friend falsely claimed to have seen her alive after her disappearance. This assumption, combined with a lack of urgency in the investigation, led to widespread criticism of law enforcement. Her family, already living in difficult circumstances, were left in the dark as to what had truly happened to Hannah.

Almost a year later, on March 15, 2002, workers discovered a decomposed body at a cement works in Northfleet, Kent. Though initially thought to be Danielle Jones, another missing schoolgirl, clothing and forensic evidence confirmed the remains belonged to Hannah Williams. The discovery shocked the community and reignited scrutiny of how her case had been handled. It also brought attention to a troubling trend of media neglect for missing children from lower-income or less “ideal” family backgrounds.

Robert Howard, a known sex offender with a record stretching back to the 1960s, had known Hannah since 1999. On March 23, 2002—just eight days after her body was discovered—Howard was arrested and charged. In October 2003, a jury at Maidstone Crown Court found him guilty of Hannah's rape and murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, though no official minimum term was ever reported. During the trial, evidence showed Howard had groomed Hannah in a similar way he had approached Arlene Arkinson, a 15-year-old girl from Castlederg who had gone missing in 1994 and was last seen in Howard’s car. Her body has never been found, but a 2021 inquest found Howard responsible for her death.

Howard died in prison on October 2, 2015, at the age of 71.