The serial child killer Robert Black cost the taxpayer £250,000 in a failed appeal against his latest murder conviction.
Grangemouth-born Black started legal proceedings despite the fact he refused to give evidence at the original trial during which he was convicted of the 1981 killing of schoolgirl Jennifer Cardy.
New figures from the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunal Service show the cost to the taxpayer of paying lawyers for the appeal was £250,000.
Jennifer's father Andy Cardy, 64, said Black should have accepted his guilt rather than put the family through the trauma of a trial.
He said: "This was an enormous amount of money to be spent on something that didn't need to happen.
"It was absolutely terrible to have to go back to court for the appeal hearing after the trauma of the trial."
It is the latest in a series of futile legal challenges made by Black, who was already serving life for killing Susan Maxwell, Caroline Hogg and Sarah Harper when he was found guilty of abducting and murdering nine-year-old Jennifer near her home in County Antrim in 1981.
Final Legal Aid claims for Black's team of lawyers at the Cardy trial have now been calculated at £879,476, making a total bill for that case alone of more than £1.1 million.
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