Richard Lee and missing daughter Katrice

EVIL child killer Robert Black has been linked to the unsolved abduction of a two-year-old girl 35 years ago.

New evidence has been unearthed showing there was a “strong possibility” that Black – who died earlier this year – was in Paderborn, Germany, when Katrice Lee disappeared without a trace.

The toddler was snatched in November 1981 from where her family were stationed with the British Army.

Convicted child-killer Robert Black (PA Archive)

Last night, Katrice’s dad, former soldier Richard Lee, welcomed the breakthrough and said he hoped it would be followed up properly by the relevant authorities.

“It is a new avenue which is well worth looking into,” said the 66-year-old. “We have always said there are two options – that she was stolen to order and sold for profit or that she was sadly murdered.

“We realise there could be a dark side to this story and if that is proven and we have a body, then at least we can have closure and move on.”

Retired detective Chris Clark, 70, who has worked on dozens of child abduction cases, said the two theories put forward previously – that Katrice drowned in a nearby river or that she was snatched by a childless couple – do not make sense.

He added: “This was a child abduction by a paedophile and the manner in which she disappeared was exactly the way Black had been able to make children vanish.”

Katrice disappeared from a supermarket aisle on her second birthday as her mum Sharon and auntie Wendy turned away to get some crisps for the little girl’s party.

Mr Clark said Grangemouth-born Black was working for a poster company at the time of the abduction.

Mr Clark said: “Katrice disappeared just a few weeks before Christmas, when Black would have been travelling to Germany to put posters out for alcohol and cigarette firms.

“He’d have been visiting British Army camps along the Rhine, including Paderborn. I’m quite convinced Black quietly befriended Katrice Lee, took her to his van outside the NAAFI and took her away.”

Paderborn lies on Black’s former delivery route off the German highway 33.

Mr Clark has been researching Black’s crimes for four years for a new book co-authored by criminologist Robert Giles.

They believe evidence such as petrol and credit card receipts will appear in a police file into Black’s background, which will reveal he was in Paderborn when Katrice disappeared.

A petrol receipt proved the crucial piece of evidence in nailing Black for murdering nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy 16 years after she was abducted.

Black’s file is held by Devon and Cornwall police, who were set to charge him with the murder of Genette Tate, 13, before he died of a heart attack, aged 69, in January.

Last night, Mr Giles urged them to hand it over to the Royal Military Police, which is reinvestigating Katrice’s case.

He said: “At the very least, they should look at his movements in November 1981. Katrice’s family want answers, they want justice and they want to know what happened to their little girl. This is potentially a very strong new lead.”

Black is also the prime suspect in the brutal murder of 10-year-old Silke Garben, who vanished near her home in Detmold – just 20 miles away from Paderborn – in 1985. She had been strangled and her lifeless body dumped on the roadside.

Mr Clark said the abduction of another girl, Ramona Herling, 11, also appeared to strongly bear the killer’s hallmarks.

The young German was snatched in Bad Dreiburg, which is 14 miles away from where Katrice vanished eight years earlier.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “This is an extremely distressing case and our thoughts remain with the Katrice Lee’s family.

“The Royal Military Police are following a number of lines of inquiry and it would be inappropriate to comment further while these efforts continue.”

Devon and Cornwall Police did not respond to our request for a comment.

Possible other victims

Katrice Lee is the latest in a long list of girls who have been linked to evil murderer Robert Black.

The killer paedophile was sentenced to life for killing four girls – but he may have slaughtered up to 13 more.

April Fabb, 13, vanished shortly after leaving her home in Metton, Norfolk, in 1969.

Christine Markham, nine, who disappeared in Scunthorpe in 1973, while on her way to school.

Mary Boyle, six, was snatched from her grandparents’ farm in Ballyshannon, Donegal, in 1977.

Genette Tate, 13, went missing while delivering newspapers in Aylesbeare, Devon, in 1978.

Fourteen-year-old Suzanne Lawrence, of Harold Hill, Essex, has been missing since 1979.

Katrice Lee, two, was abducted from a NAAFI shop in Paderborn, Germany, in 1981.

Pamela Hastie, 16, who was found dead on Guy Fawkes night, 1981, in Johnstone, Renfrewshire.

Silke Garben, 10, was brutally murdered and left by a road in Detmold, Germany, in 1985.

Cheryl Morrien, seven, was abducted and murdered in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1986.

Perrine Vigneron, seven, was abducted and murdered in Paris in 1987.

Nine-year-old Sabine Dumont was murdered just outside Paris in 1987.

Hemma Greedharry, 11. Her body was found on the outskirts of Paris in 1987.

Virginie Delmas, 10, who was murdered on the outskirts of Paris in 1987.

Ramona Herling, 11, was abducted from Bad Driberg, Germany, in 1989.

Known victims

Black refused to reveal how many children he abducted and murdered.

He was jailed in 1994 for the murders of Susan Maxwell, 11, from Cornhill-on-Tweed, in July 1982, Caroline Hogg, five, of Edinburgh, in July 1983, and Sarah Harper, 10, from Leeds, in March 1986.

In 2011, Black was also convicted of the murder of Jennifer Cardy, from Ballinderry, Northern Ireland, in August 1981.

He was finally caught bundling a six-year-old girl into his van.

One girl who escaped with her life was Teresa Thornhill, the victim of an attempted abduction in Nottingham in 1988.