Convicted child killer Robert Black was caught when a curious postman turned his head to look at the unfamiliar van as it passed on his street and in those seconds saw a child’s feet disappear into the back.The sliding-doors moment meant the end of the road for Black but the start of a massive police investigation which would him to some of the most notorious child murders and abductions of the previous decades.Black pleaded guilty to kidnap and was later convicted of five murders and one attempted abduction - but a delve into his past links him to many more and unravels a story of pure evil.Nicola Tallant talks to journalist Zoe Apostolides, whose book End of Innocence focuses on the unsolved cases that bear all the hallmarks of Black’s dark heart.She describes the early life and forgotten crimes of Robert Black and reveals how he moonlighted as a willing delivery driver while staking out victims.

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The murder of Robbie O’Connor behind the walls of Mountjoy Jail has been a shocking and rare killing of an inmate in the Irish Prison System.Lured to a cell by his attackers and fatally injured in a matter of seconds, his brutal death is a reminder of the highly dangerous and volatile atmosphere that exists at all times in our jails.Nicola Tallant talks to Irish Independent Crime Correspondent Ken Foy about the motives behind the murder and about the systems in place to make sure such killings are the rarest of occurrences.We discuss the perfect crime scene that was left behind for investigators and why science and not motive will prevail in solving the killing.

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When journalist Hugh Jordan first exposed a Belfast taxi driver who’d offered his friend a job as a naked clearer he named him ‘Mucky Marty’.And 12 years on, he had no idea how apt the nickname would become when Martin Heaney pleaded guilty to controlling 10 women in prostitution and became the first person subject to a 'Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Order'.Understood to have pimped out vulnerable and addicted women for decades while pocketing a fortune for their services, Heaney was sentenced to five years for his crimes.Now, Jordan recalls how he first came across 'Mucky' Marty and how he followed his career of sleaze and greed, facing him down a number of times as he groomed young women to sell sex to strangers.

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HE might appear to be just another drug dealer passing through the courts after he was nabbed with a consignment of cocaine.But the story of Patrick Casey tells more about the criminal underworld than most.A rising Dublin football and hurling star, his life was derailed through a drug habit and later when he was jailed for his crimes he met up with some of Ireland's most-feared underworld figures behind barsNicola Tallant talks with Irish Independent Crime Correspondent Ken Foy on the jailing of Casey and how his past mistakes finally caught up with him.

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From a notorious robber who splurged his loot on properties and a six-week Florida holiday, to a gangland criminal whose mammy tried to help get back his cash in the attic, the targets of the Criminal Assets Bureau are wide and varied.Nicola Tallant talks with journalist Eamon Dillon as they dip in to the latest CAB listings before the High Court and give listeners a snapshot of the Bureau's work.They talk about the colourful, eagle-eyed Judge who presides over the list, about the cases that come before him and about the lengths some will go to hold on to their ill-gotten gains.

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THROUGHOUT his life he was known as the greatest gangland player of all – a criminal who worked the system and always appeared to win.But now, Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch is behind bars and his latest bid to stop his trial for the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel has failed.Like a chess player, he is now facing the greatest game of his life and one which will set out the course of his future.So what will The Monk do next? Nicola Tallant talks to Sunday World Deputy Editor Niall Donald about the looming murder trial that will centre on events at the Regency Hotel and the State's case against a legendary criminal mastermind.

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THEY remain Ireland’s most notorious loyalist terrorists, but 'Mad Dog' Johnny Adair and his right-hand man Sam ‘Skelly’ McCrory had been enjoying a retirement of sorts in Scotland.Friends since childhood, they had embraced anarchy, fascism and later formed the murderous UDA 'C Company' which terrorised Northern Ireland for years.But this week, the tight-knit duo were finally separated for good when McCrory died in a tragic accident after battling alcoholism for years, leaving behind Adair to forge his future alone.Nicola Tallant talks with Sunday World journalist Hugh Jordan, author of 'Mad Dog; The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and ‘C Company', who became an unlikely confidant of the pair in recent years.He tells me about the fear they brought to the streets of Belfast, about their blood-brother bond which survived through the decades, and about the death of McCrory on a lonely stone stairway

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A survivor of the Cold War and of the notorious Russian Gulags, Imre Arakas was an international hitman who washed up on our shores like a character dreamed up in a work of fiction.His paymaster for this trip was Daniel Kinahan, the son of Christy Kinahan Snr and director general of the Irish mafia on the Costa Del Sol where Arakas lived.He’d worked for them before and he’d always been paid swiftly and efficiently on completion of a jobHe’d flown into Dublin with a tent, a little camping stove, fishing rods and binoculars, looking every bit the nature lover who enjoyed holidays in the great outdoors.Despite his celebrity as an international hitman for hire, Arakas was confident that nobody would know him in Ireland and that he could pass off as a tourist.It didn’t quite work out like that though. This is his story.

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Some mothers would do anything for their sons - and Sophie Kokkinos proved her loyalty when she took part in the killing of a man found burning in a London Park.Drug dealer Loike Guei’s body was discovered by a cyclist at Mitcham Common in September 2020, which led police to the home of Raphael Kokkinos, a 34-year-old who was believed to owe him money.But their investigation didn’t stop at the assault which led to his death and instead led officers to the door of his elderly mother who they discovered had helped him in the cover-up.Nicola Tallant talks with journalist Chris Sommers, editor of Total Crime, who covered their trial. He tells me the story of drugs row, a crime scene deep clean and a family matriarch who helped cover up for her son.

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It was an explosion of violence that claimed five lives in a few months yet it is indicative of the new gangland where bullets do the talking.From the murder of 23-year-old Zach Parker outside a gym to the assassination of a 41 year old Iranian blasted to death as he came to pay respects to his slain mob boss, the heady months of 2019 in Coolock left a devastating legacy.So why did violence spiral out of control in a part of Dublin which often finds itself at the epicentre of gang wars. Was the fallout a freak occurrence or simply a very modern feudToday I’m talking to the Sunday World Deputy Editor Niall Donald about the jailing of gun killer Wayne Cooney, about the frightening murders than engulfed a group of friends and about those left behind to pick up the pieces.

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