AN evil Herefordshire father has this week been revealed as the killer of a little daughter he nicknamed 'the skunk' - a child he beat to death more than 30 years ago and whose body has never been found.

Arthur George Carr's identity was disclosed yesterday (Wednesday).

He had been sentenced last year to nine years' imprisonment on a manslaughter charge but until now a reporting ban had been in place due to a second case heard at Worcester Crown Court this week.

The restrictions were lifted when Carr appeared before Judge David Matthews at Worcester yesterday (Wednesday) to admit four charges of rape.

During the first trial, last May, Hereford Crown Court heard that despite the absence of a body, Ross-on-Wye man Carr was charged with murder following allegations of a brutal killing involving his wife, the late Elizabeth Carr, at the family's Purland home during the 1970s.

Practically naked, thin and with straggly hair, the Carrs' daughter, Gillian Maria, who died between 1973 and 1975 when she was aged between seven and nine, was seen only once by her eldest sister, Elaine.

Sobbing as she gave evidence against her father - 61 at the time of the first case - she said he called Gillian the 'skunk' and believed he had locked her away.

Found guilty of manslaughter and obstructing the coroner by concealing his daughter's body, Carr began a nine-year prison sentence on May 22, 2003.

Passing sentence at the time, Judge Richard Curtis, said: "As long ago as 1973 you unlawfully killed your little daughter Gillian Maria.

"The jury convicted you of her manslaughter on the basis the necessary intent of murder was not proved. After you killed her by beating her to death you concealed her body, which was not found.

"I'm confident, having tried this case, that your wife had nothing to do with the child's death, though you tried to implicate her when you made your unguarded partial confession to Vincent.

"During the investigation and this trial you exploited the fact that your wife is dead to minimise your behaviour in the house."

Screened off from his father, eldest son Vincent Carr, had broken down in tears as he delivered the incriminating evidence to a jury of 12.