TOBIN: A MONSTER TO THE BITTER END
Scotland’s most notorious serial killer dead at 76, taking to the grave the grim secret of how many more women he murdered...
PETER Tobin, the most reviled serial killer in Scottish criminal history, died yesterday – taking to the grave the secret of how many other women and girls he murdered.
The 76-year-old psychopath and sex offender, who was convicted of three horrific murders, died while chained to a hospital bed. Last night, police revealed they had recently appealed to Tobin to speak about his other crimes – he is suspected of 11 more murders – but the monster refused to co-operate.
Detective Chief Superintendent Laura Thomson, Police Scotland’s head of major crime, said: ‘Our thoughts are with the victims of Peter Tobin, their families and friends.
‘Recent attempts to encourage him to do the right thing and share any knowledge he may have which could assist the police were unsuccessful.
‘While we have no current lines of investigation into Peter Tobin, we
welcome any information in relation to his activities.’ The monster was serving life for the murders of Angelika Kluk, Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicol. He beat, raped and stabbed Angelika to death in 2006, hiding her body under the floorboards of the church where she was staying and where he had been working as a handyman.
The following year, the bodies of Vicky and Dinah, both missing since 1991, were found buried in the garden of Tobin’s former house in Margate, Kent.
Last night, Lindsay Brown said a ‘dark shadow’ had been cast over the family since the death of her schoolgirl sister Vicky, who was last seen alive near her Falkirk home. Ms Brown said: ‘We’re hoping that now Tobin’s gone, that shadow can eventually just clear and we can remember Vicky as the sweet loving sister that she was, rather than trying to remember what we don’t have any more and what was taken from us.
‘He didn’t just rob Vicky of her life, he robbed us of a big sister, nieces and nephews and a life with her.’
The Hamilton family added in a statement: ‘We remember Vicky, we remember her laughter, her smile and we want to keep that memory after all the years of having no idea what had happened to her, followed by the heartbreak of losing our mum not long after Vicky went missing.
‘He does not deserve any more of our family’s thoughts. If he has taken more victims, our hearts go out to their families and we can only wish one day they get the closure they so badly deserve.
‘We will not be celebrating any passing but instead will be remembering Vicky, Angelika and Dinah, along with any other victims, and we respectfully ask for others to do the same.’
Criminologist David Wilson, who wrote a book on Tobin in which he concluded he was the 1960s Glasgow serial killer Bible John, said yesterday: ‘If there is a hell, today it has a new inmate.’
Tobin, originally from Johnstone, Renfrewshire, dies one of the UK’s worst serial offenders, convicted for burglary, forgery, rape and murder. He had cancer and ended his days virtually unable to move after falling and breaking his hip.
He was serving a whole-life order for the three murders committed between 1991 and 2006.
Before being locked up in 2007 for his heinous crimes, he served ten years behind bars for a double rape in 1993, being released in 2004.
Tobin spent a lifetime committing crimes all over Britain before he gained notoriety following his conviction in 2007 for the murder of Polish student Angelika.
The year before, he had been working as a handyman at St Patrick’s Church in Anderston, Glasgow, under the false name Pat McLaughlin.
Tobin, who used many aliases during his decades of offending, attacked Angelika, 23, before beating, raping and stabbing her to death, then hiding her corpse under church floorboards.
He was found guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh and given a sentence of life imprisonment, with Judge Lord Menzies branding him ‘an evil man’.
The conviction brought Tobin into clear focus for police forces across the country as a potential suspect for similar crimes.
The following year, he was detained for the murder of 15-yearold Bathgate schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton. She had last been seen waiting at a bus stop in Redding, Falkirk, in 1991.
Her remains were unearthed by police officers and forensic scientists who searched Tobin’s former home in Margate, Kent. Horrifyingly, Vicky’s body was discovered alongside that of a third victim, Dinah McNicol.
Like Vicky, Dinah, 18, had not been seen since 1991 when she hitched a lift with a man, later identified as Tobin, after leaving a music festival in Hampshire. Tobin was given two more life sentences and was assured of seeing out his days in prison.
His death yesterday marked the end of a slow, painful deterioration. In 2015 a fellow inmate attacked him with a razor blade, permanently disfiguring him. He was also taken to hospital in 2016 after a suspected stroke, although he was notorious for feigning illness.
In addition to the murders of Angelika, Vicky and Dinah, Tobin was suspected of at least 11 other murders, and potentially dozens more.
This year, Nicola Stork, whose teenage sister Louise Kay disappeared from Eastbourne, East Sussex, in 1988 and is strongly believed to be another of Tobin’s victims, said: ‘If he dies without giving us
‘We remember Vicky, we remember her laughter’
information about Louise, then it probably means we’ll never know what happened to her or where she is.’
Tobin was also believed responsible for the disappearance of Louise Kay, from Beachy Head, Eastbourne, in 1988. Tobin was working in a hotel in the town when she vanished, and she was also known to have met a ‘Scottish man’ shortly before she disappeared.
He is suspected of the murder of Jessie Earl, also from Eastbourne, in 1980. Her body was found nine years later at Beachy Head. Tobin was again working in the area, while Jessie had met a ‘middle-aged Scottish man’ at cliffs near where her body was discovered.
Pamela Exall, 22, who vanished after a late-night beach walk in Norfolk, in 1974, was believed to be wearing jewellery similar to some
of the trinkets found in Tobin’s possession, when she disappeared.
Tobin’s past behaviour prompted some to believe that he was also the mystery Bible John killer thought to have killed three women in cases linked to Glasgow dance halls in the 1960s. Former Detective Superintendent David Swindle led Operation Anagram to investigate missing persons cases that could be linked to Tobin.
These included looking closely at the murders of Patricia Docker, 25, Jemima McDonald, 32, and Helen Puttock, 29, in 1968 and 1969, which have been attributed to Bible John. Despite millions of pounds of resources and meticulous police work, Operation Anagram was unable to find evidence that was strong enough to charge Tobin with any other murders.
Mr Swindle and his team could find no clear connection with Tobin. He said: ‘We may never know how many people he killed.’
The murderer himself never showed any inclination to help police and, when asked about other victims, told officers to ‘go and waste your money’. Tobin’s former wife
Cathy Wilson said she was certain that he was to blame for even more murders.
Ms Wilson, 51, said: ‘Everyone knows there were more victims than Angelika Kluk, Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicol, the three he was jailed for.’