Peter Tobin
Encyclopedia
Peter Britton Tobin is a convicted Scottish
serial killer
and sex offender
now serving a sentence of life imprisonment
for the murders of three young women.
Prior to his first murder
conviction, Tobin served ten years in prison for a double rape
committed in 1993, following which he was released in 2004. In 2007, he was sentenced to life with a minimum of 21 years for the rape
and murder of Angelika Kluk in Glasgow
in 2006. Skeletal remains of two further young women who went missing in 1991 were subsequently found at his former home in Margate
. Tobin was convicted of the murder of Vicky Hamilton in December 2008, when his minimum sentence was increased to 30 years, and of the murder of Dinah McNicol in December 2009. Tobin has been labelled a psychopath by a senior psychologist, and by professor of criminology David Wilson
, who also wrote a book on the killer connecting him with the Bible John
murders of the late sixties.
, Renfrewshire
, the youngest of seven children. He was a difficult child and in 1953, aged seven, he was sent to an approved school
. He later spent time in a young offender institution, and in 1970 was convicted and served jail terms in England for burglary and forgery.
In 1969, Tobin moved to Brighton
, Sussex
, with his 17-year old girlfriend, Margaret Louise Robertson Mountney, a clerk and typist, whom he married on 6 August that year. They split after a year and she divorced him in 1971. In 1973 in Brighton, he married a local nurse, 30-year-old Sylvia Jefferies. They had a son and daughter, the latter of whom died soon after birth. This second, violent, marriage lasted until 1976, when she left with their son. Tobin then had a relationship with Cathy Wilson, who gave birth to a son in December 1987. Tobin married her in Brighton in 1989, when she was 17. In 1990, they moved to Bathgate
, West Lothian
. Wilson left Tobin in 1990 and moved back to Portsmouth
, Hampshire
, where she had grown up. All three later gave similar accounts of falling for a charm
ing, well-dressed Tobin who turned violent and sadistic during their marriages. In May 1991, Tobin moved to Margate
, Kent
, and in 1993, to Havant
, Hampshire
to be near his younger son.
and raped them. He then turned on the gas taps and left them for dead but they both survived the attack. To avoid arrest, Tobin went on the run and hid with a religious sect in Coventry
, West Midlands
, under a false name. He was later captured in Brighton, after his blue Austin Metro car was found there.
On 18 May 1994, at Winchester Crown Court
, Tobin entered a plea
of guilty and received a 14-year prison sentence. In 2004, the 58-year-old Tobin was released from prison and moved back to Paisley
.
, Glasgow
. He had assumed the name
"Pat McLaughlin" to avoid detection, as he was still on the Violent and Sex Offender Register
following his 1994 convictions for rape and assault. An arrest warrant had been issued for him in November 2005 after he moved from Paisley without notifying the police, but he was not discovered until he became a suspect in a murder case at the church. In May 2007, he received a further 30-month sentence for breaching the terms of the register.
Angelika Kluk
was a 23-year-old student from Skoczow
, near Krakow
in Poland. She was staying at the presbytery of St Patrick's Church, where she worked as a cleaner to help finance her Scandinavian Studies course at University of Gdańsk. She was last seen alive in the company of Tobin on 24 September 2006, and is thought to have been attacked by him in the garage attached to St Patrick's presbytery. She was beaten, raped, and stabbed, then her body was concealed in an underground chamber beneath the floor near the confessional
in the church. Forensic evidence suggested that she was still alive when she was placed under the floorboards. Police found her body on 29 September,
and Tobin was arrested in London shortly afterwards.
He had been admitted to hospital under a false name, and with a fictitious complaint.
A six-week trial
resulted from the evidence gathered under the supervision of Detective Superintendent David Swindle of Strathclyde Police
and took place at the High Court of Justiciary
, Edinburgh
, between 23 March and 4 May 2007.
The trial judge was Lord Menzies
, the prosecution was led by Advocate Depute Dorothy Bain
, and the defence by Donald Findlay
QC
. Tobin denied raping and murdering Kluk and claimed she had consented to have sex with him.
Tobin was found guilty of raping and murdering Kluk and was sentenced to life imprisonment
, to serve a minimum
of 21 years. In sentencing Tobin, Judge Lord Menzies
described him as "an evil man".
, West Lothian
was searched by police in connection with the disappearance of a 15-year-old girl, Vicky Hamilton, who was last seen on 10 February 1991, as she waited for a bus home to Redding, near Falkirk
. She had been visiting her older sister, Sharon, in Livingston
and was waiting to change buses in Bathgate. The last sighting of her was as she was eating chips on a bench in the town centre. Tobin is believed to have left Bathgate for Margate
, in Kent, a few weeks after her disappearance.
On 21 July 2007, Lothian and Borders Police
released a statement that they had "arrested, cautioned and charged a male in connection with the matter and a report has been submitted to the Procurator Fiscal
", but did not immediately confirm the identity of the man arrested. The investigation later led to a forensic search of a house in Southsea
, Hampshire in early October 2007, where Tobin is believed to have lived shortly after leaving Bathgate.
On 14 November 2007, Lothian and Borders Police confirmed that human remains found in the back garden of 50 Irvine Drive, a house in Margate. occupied by Tobin in 1991, were those of Vicky Hamilton.
After a month-long trial, Tobin was convicted of Hamilton's murder on 2 December 2008 at the High Court in Dundee
.
Tobin was again defended by Donald Findlay QC and the prosecution was led by the Solicitor General for Scotland
, Frank Mulholland
QC. The prosecution case went beyond the circumstance of Tobin having lived at the two houses in Bathgate and Margate in 1991, and consisted of eyewitness testimony of suspicious behaviour by Tobin at the Bathgate house,
evidence to destroy his alibi,
and forensic evidence of DNA and fingerprints left on a dagger found in the Bathgate house, on Hamilton's purse and on the sheeting in which her body was wrapped.
When sentencing Tobin to life imprisonment, the judge, Lord Emslie, said:
On 11 December 2008, Tobin gave formal notice to court officials that he intended to challenge the guilty verdict and overturn the prison sentence imposed on him. Tobin's defence team was not required to describe the grounds for this appeal until a later date in the appeals process. Tobin did not proceed with his appeal, and it was dropped in March 2009.
er from Tillingham
, Essex
, was last seen alive on 5 August 1991, hitchhiking
home with a male companion from a music festival at Liphook
, Hampshire
. He was dropped off at Junction 8 of the M25
, near Reigate
, and she stayed in the car with the driver. She was never seen again. After her disappearance, regular withdrawals of £250 were made from her building society account at cash machines in the UK south coast counties of Hampshire and Sussex
, out of character for McNicol, who had told friends and family she intended to use the money in her building society account to travel, or further her education. In late 2007, Essex Police
reopened the investigation into her disappearance, following new leads.
On 16 November 2007, a second body was found at 50 Irvine Drive in Margate, later confirmed by police to be that of McNicol.
On 1 September 2008, the Crown Prosecution Service
served a summons
on Tobin's solicitor
s, formally accusing him of McNicol's murder, and this trial began in June 2009. The trial was postponed and the jury discharged in July 2009, the judge ruling that Tobin was not fit to stand trial pending surgery. The case resumed on 14 December 2009 at Chelmsford Crown Court. On 16 December 2009, after the defence had offered no evidence, a jury found Tobin guilty of McNicol's murder after deliberating for less than fifteen minutes and Tobin subsequently received his third life sentence, with a recommendation by the judge that his life sentence should mean life. Police are now reopening 'Operation Anagram
', to trace Tobin's past movements and his possible involvement in a further 13 unsolved murders which includes the three Bible John
victims. Tobin is reported to have claimed 48 victims in boasts made in prison.
. There are similarities between photographs of Tobin from that era and the photofit artist's impression of Bible John, and Tobin had moved from Glasgow
in 1969, the same year as the killings officially ended. It had been alleged that Tobin is driven to violence by the menstrual cycle
, something which has long been suspected as the motive behind the Bible John murders. Police have not commented upon any similarities, but said that any surviving forensic evidence will be rechecked. Although DNA had been used to rule out a previous suspect, detectives believe a DNA link to Tobin is unlikely due to a deterioration of the samples through poor storage.
Peter Tobin also had a religious upbringing, as he was forced to attend Mass
every day by his parents. Bible John was heard by Helen Puttock's sister referring to the Bible. Another similarity is that eye-witnesses told police that the suspect had one tooth missing in his upper-right area of the mouth; Dental Records
proved that Peter Tobin had a tooth removed around the late 1960s.
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
and sex offender
Sex offender
A sex offender is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and by legal jurisdiction. Most jurisdictions compile their laws into sections such as traffic, assault, sexual, etc. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crimes of a...
now serving a sentence of life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
for the murders of three young women.
Prior to his first murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
conviction, Tobin served ten years in prison for a double rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
committed in 1993, following which he was released in 2004. In 2007, he was sentenced to life with a minimum of 21 years for the rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
and murder of Angelika Kluk in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
in 2006. Skeletal remains of two further young women who went missing in 1991 were subsequently found at his former home in Margate
Margate
-Demography:As of the 2001 UK census, Margate had a population of 40,386.The ethnicity of the town was 97.1% white, 1.0% mixed race, 0.5% black, 0.8% Asian, 0.6% Chinese or other ethnicity....
. Tobin was convicted of the murder of Vicky Hamilton in December 2008, when his minimum sentence was increased to 30 years, and of the murder of Dinah McNicol in December 2009. Tobin has been labelled a psychopath by a senior psychologist, and by professor of criminology David Wilson
David Wilson (Criminologist)
David Wilson is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Birmingham City University.Wilson studied at the University of Glasgow , Selwyn College, Cambridge, and at the Cambridge Institute of Criminology, where he gained a PhD in 1983. He joined Her Majesty's Prison Service as a junior...
, who also wrote a book on the killer connecting him with the Bible John
Bible John
Bible John is the nickname of a serial killer who is thought to have operated in Glasgow, Scotland, in the late 1960s. Three murders were attributed to him, but it is not clear if they were the work of the same person.-Murders:...
murders of the late sixties.
Early and personal life
Tobin was born in JohnstoneJohnstone
Johnstone is a town in the council area of Renfrewshire and larger historic county of the same name in the west central Lowlands of Scotland.The town lies three miles west of neighbouring Paisley and twelve miles west of the centre of the city of Glasgow...
, Renfrewshire
Renfrewshire
Renfrewshire is one of 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Renfrewshire, the others being Inverclyde to the west and East Renfrewshire to the east...
, the youngest of seven children. He was a difficult child and in 1953, aged seven, he was sent to an approved school
Approved School
Approved School is a term formerly used in the United Kingdom to mean a particular kind of residential institution to which young people could be sent by a court, usually for committing offences but sometimes because they were deemed to be beyond parental control...
. He later spent time in a young offender institution, and in 1970 was convicted and served jail terms in England for burglary and forgery.
In 1969, Tobin moved to Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, with his 17-year old girlfriend, Margaret Louise Robertson Mountney, a clerk and typist, whom he married on 6 August that year. They split after a year and she divorced him in 1971. In 1973 in Brighton, he married a local nurse, 30-year-old Sylvia Jefferies. They had a son and daughter, the latter of whom died soon after birth. This second, violent, marriage lasted until 1976, when she left with their son. Tobin then had a relationship with Cathy Wilson, who gave birth to a son in December 1987. Tobin married her in Brighton in 1989, when she was 17. In 1990, they moved to Bathgate
Bathgate
Bathgate is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, on the M8 motorway west of Livingston. Nearby towns are Blackburn, Armadale, Whitburn, Livingston, and Linlithgow. Edinburgh Airport is away...
, West Lothian
West Lothian
West Lothian is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland, and a Lieutenancy area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Falkirk, North Lanarkshire, the Scottish Borders and South Lanarkshire....
. Wilson left Tobin in 1990 and moved back to Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, where she had grown up. All three later gave similar accounts of falling for a charm
Charm
Charm, charms, charmed or charming may refer to:* A Spell or incantation** any "lucky charm" such as amulets , touch pieces and painted pebbles,*** Italian charm bracelet...
ing, well-dressed Tobin who turned violent and sadistic during their marriages. In May 1991, Tobin moved to Margate
Margate
-Demography:As of the 2001 UK census, Margate had a population of 40,386.The ethnicity of the town was 97.1% white, 1.0% mixed race, 0.5% black, 0.8% Asian, 0.6% Chinese or other ethnicity....
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, and in 1993, to Havant
Havant
Havant is a town in south east Hampshire on the South coast of England, between Portsmouth and Chichester. It gives its name to the borough comprising the town and the surrounding area. The town has rapidly grown since the end of the Second World War.It has good railway connections to London,...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
to be near his younger son.
Rape of juveniles
On 4 August 1993, Tobin attacked two 14-year old girls at his flat in Havant, after they called to visit a neighbour, who was not in. They called at Tobin's flat and asked if they could wait there. After holding them at knifepoint and forcing them to drink strong cider and vodka, Tobin sexually assaultedSexual assault
Sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may involve any combination of two or more men, women and children....
and raped them. He then turned on the gas taps and left them for dead but they both survived the attack. To avoid arrest, Tobin went on the run and hid with a religious sect in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, West Midlands
West Midlands (county)
The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...
, under a false name. He was later captured in Brighton, after his blue Austin Metro car was found there.
On 18 May 1994, at Winchester Crown Court
Winchester Crown Court
Winchester Crown Court is a law court in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It is owned and operated by HMCS. The most high profile case to be heard there was the Rose West murder trial in 1995....
, Tobin entered a plea
Plea
In legal terms, a plea is simply an answer to a claim made by someone in a civil or criminal case under common law using the adversary system. Colloquially, a plea has come to mean the assertion by a criminal defendant at arraignment, or otherwise in response to a criminal charge, whether that...
of guilty and received a 14-year prison sentence. In 2004, the 58-year-old Tobin was released from prison and moved back to Paisley
Paisley
Paisley is the largest town in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland and serves as the administrative centre for the Renfrewshire council area...
.
Angelika Kluk murder
In September 2006, Tobin was working as a church handyman at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in AnderstonAnderston
Anderston is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is on the north bank of the River Clyde and extends to the western edge of the city centre...
, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
. He had assumed the name
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Pat McLaughlin" to avoid detection, as he was still on the Violent and Sex Offender Register
Violent and Sex Offender Register
In the United Kingdom, the Violent and Sex Offender Register is a database of records of those required to register with the Police under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, those jailed for more than 12 months for violent offences, and unconvicted people simply thought to be at risk of offending...
following his 1994 convictions for rape and assault. An arrest warrant had been issued for him in November 2005 after he moved from Paisley without notifying the police, but he was not discovered until he became a suspect in a murder case at the church. In May 2007, he received a further 30-month sentence for breaching the terms of the register.
Angelika Kluk
Angelika Kluk murder case
The Angelika Kluk murder case was a criminal trial that took place at the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, between 23 March and 4 May 2007....
was a 23-year-old student from Skoczow
Skoczów
Skoczów is a town and the seat of Gmina Skoczów in Cieszyn County, Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland with 14,783 inhabitants . It lies in the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia....
, near Krakow
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
in Poland. She was staying at the presbytery of St Patrick's Church, where she worked as a cleaner to help finance her Scandinavian Studies course at University of Gdańsk. She was last seen alive in the company of Tobin on 24 September 2006, and is thought to have been attacked by him in the garage attached to St Patrick's presbytery. She was beaten, raped, and stabbed, then her body was concealed in an underground chamber beneath the floor near the confessional
Confessional
A confessional is a small, enclosed booth used for the Sacrament of Penance, often called confession, or Reconciliation. It is the usual venue for the sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church, but similar structures are also used in Anglican churches of an Anglo-Catholic orientation, and also in the...
in the church. Forensic evidence suggested that she was still alive when she was placed under the floorboards. Police found her body on 29 September,
and Tobin was arrested in London shortly afterwards.
He had been admitted to hospital under a false name, and with a fictitious complaint.
A six-week trial
Criminal procedure
Criminal procedure refers to the legal process for adjudicating claims that someone has violated criminal law.-Basic rights:Currently, in many countries with a democratic system and the rule of law, criminal procedure puts the burden of proof on the prosecution – that is, it is up to the...
resulted from the evidence gathered under the supervision of Detective Superintendent David Swindle of Strathclyde Police
Strathclyde Police
Strathclyde Police is the territorial police force responsible for the Scottish council areas of Argyll and Bute, City of Glasgow, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and West...
and took place at the High Court of Justiciary
High Court of Justiciary
The High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court of Scotland.The High Court is both a court of first instance and a court of appeal. As a court of first instance, the High Court sits mainly in Parliament House, or in the former Sheriff Court building, in Edinburgh, but also sits from time...
, Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, between 23 March and 4 May 2007.
The trial judge was Lord Menzies
Duncan Menzies, Lord Menzies
Duncan Adam Young Menzies, Lord Menzies QC is a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland.-Early life:Menzies was educated at the independent Cargilfield Preparatory School in Edinburgh, before obtaining a scholarship to Glenalmond College, Perthshire...
, the prosecution was led by Advocate Depute Dorothy Bain
Dorothy Bain
Dorothy Bain QC is a leading Scottish lawyer.She is the principal advocate depute, a senior post at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, appointed in 2009.She has prosecuted a large number of cases, including Peter Tobin.- External links :*...
, and the defence by Donald Findlay
Donald Findlay
Donald Findlay QC, is a well-known senior advocate and Queen's Counsel in Scotland. He has also held positions as a vice chairman of Rangers Football Club and twice Rector of the University of St Andrews...
QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
. Tobin denied raping and murdering Kluk and claimed she had consented to have sex with him.
Tobin was found guilty of raping and murdering Kluk and was sentenced to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
, to serve a minimum
Tariff (criminal law)
In England and Wales, life imprisonment is a sentence which lasts until the death of the prisoner, although in most cases the prisoner will be eligible for parole after a fixed period set by the judge. This period is known as the "minimum term"...
of 21 years. In sentencing Tobin, Judge Lord Menzies
Duncan Menzies, Lord Menzies
Duncan Adam Young Menzies, Lord Menzies QC is a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland.-Early life:Menzies was educated at the independent Cargilfield Preparatory School in Edinburgh, before obtaining a scholarship to Glenalmond College, Perthshire...
described him as "an evil man".
Vicky Hamilton murder
In June 2007, Tobin's old house in BathgateBathgate
Bathgate is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, on the M8 motorway west of Livingston. Nearby towns are Blackburn, Armadale, Whitburn, Livingston, and Linlithgow. Edinburgh Airport is away...
, West Lothian
West Lothian
West Lothian is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland, and a Lieutenancy area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Falkirk, North Lanarkshire, the Scottish Borders and South Lanarkshire....
was searched by police in connection with the disappearance of a 15-year-old girl, Vicky Hamilton, who was last seen on 10 February 1991, as she waited for a bus home to Redding, near Falkirk
Falkirk
Falkirk is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies in the Forth Valley, almost midway between the two most populous cities of Scotland; north-west of Edinburgh and north-east of Glasgow....
. She had been visiting her older sister, Sharon, in Livingston
Livingston, Scotland
Livingston is a town in West Lothian, Scotland. It is the fourth post-WWII new town to be built in Scotland, designated in 1962. It is about 15 miles west of Edinburgh and 30 miles east of Glasgow, and is bordered by the towns of Broxburn to the northeast and Bathgate to the northwest.Livingston...
and was waiting to change buses in Bathgate. The last sighting of her was as she was eating chips on a bench in the town centre. Tobin is believed to have left Bathgate for Margate
Margate
-Demography:As of the 2001 UK census, Margate had a population of 40,386.The ethnicity of the town was 97.1% white, 1.0% mixed race, 0.5% black, 0.8% Asian, 0.6% Chinese or other ethnicity....
, in Kent, a few weeks after her disappearance.
On 21 July 2007, Lothian and Borders Police
Lothian and Borders Police
Lothian and Borders Police is the territorial police force for the Scottish council areas of the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, Scottish Borders and West Lothian...
released a statement that they had "arrested, cautioned and charged a male in connection with the matter and a report has been submitted to the Procurator Fiscal
Procurator Fiscal
A procurator fiscal is a public prosecutor in Scotland. They investigate all sudden and suspicious deaths in Scotland , conduct Fatal Accident Inquiries and handle criminal complaints against the police A procurator fiscal (pl. procurators fiscal) is a public prosecutor in Scotland. They...
", but did not immediately confirm the identity of the man arrested. The investigation later led to a forensic search of a house in Southsea
Southsea
Southsea is a seaside resort located in Portsmouth at the southern end of Portsea Island in the county of Hampshire in England. Southsea is within a mile of Portsmouth's city centre....
, Hampshire in early October 2007, where Tobin is believed to have lived shortly after leaving Bathgate.
On 14 November 2007, Lothian and Borders Police confirmed that human remains found in the back garden of 50 Irvine Drive, a house in Margate. occupied by Tobin in 1991, were those of Vicky Hamilton.
After a month-long trial, Tobin was convicted of Hamilton's murder on 2 December 2008 at the High Court in Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
.
Tobin was again defended by Donald Findlay QC and the prosecution was led by the Solicitor General for Scotland
Solicitor General for Scotland
Her Majesty's Solicitor General for Scotland is one of the Law Officers of the Crown, and the deputy of the Lord Advocate, whose duty is to advise the Crown and the Scottish Government on Scots Law...
, Frank Mulholland
Frank Mulholland
Frank Mulholland QC is a Scottish lawyer and has been Lord Advocate, one of the Great Officers of State of Scotland and the country's chief Law Officer, since 19 May 2011, having previously been Solicitor General, the junior Law Officer...
QC. The prosecution case went beyond the circumstance of Tobin having lived at the two houses in Bathgate and Margate in 1991, and consisted of eyewitness testimony of suspicious behaviour by Tobin at the Bathgate house,
evidence to destroy his alibi,
and forensic evidence of DNA and fingerprints left on a dagger found in the Bathgate house, on Hamilton's purse and on the sheeting in which her body was wrapped.
When sentencing Tobin to life imprisonment, the judge, Lord Emslie, said:
"You stand convicted of the truly evil abduction and murder of a vulnerable young girl in 1991 and thereafter of attempting to defeat the ends of justice in various ways over an extended period... Yet again you have shown yourself to be unfit to live in a decent society. It is hard for me to convey the loathing and revulsion that ordinary people will feel for what you have done... I fix the minimum period which you must spend in custody at 30 years. Had it been open to me I would have made that period run consecutive to the 21 year custodial period that you are already serving."
On 11 December 2008, Tobin gave formal notice to court officials that he intended to challenge the guilty verdict and overturn the prison sentence imposed on him. Tobin's defence team was not required to describe the grounds for this appeal until a later date in the appeals process. Tobin did not proceed with his appeal, and it was dropped in March 2009.
Dinah McNicol murder
Dinah McNicol, an 18-year old sixth formSixth form
In the education systems of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and of Commonwealth West Indian countries such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Jamaica and Malta, the sixth form is the final two years of secondary education, where students, usually sixteen to eighteen years of age,...
er from Tillingham
Tillingham
Tillingham is a small village and civil parish with 1,015 inhabitants in 2001, located from Burnham-on-Crouch and from Bradwell-on-Sea, in Maldon District and the ceremonial county of Essex in England...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, was last seen alive on 5 August 1991, hitchhiking
Hitchhiking
Hitchhiking is a means of transportation that is gained by asking people, usually strangers, for a ride in their automobile or other road vehicle to travel a distance that may either be short or long...
home with a male companion from a music festival at Liphook
Liphook
Liphook is a large village in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 4.1 miles west of Haslemere, on the A3 road, and lies on the Hampshire/West Sussex border.Liphook has its own railway station, on the Portsmouth Direct Line....
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
. He was dropped off at Junction 8 of the M25
M25 motorway
The M25 motorway, or London Orbital, is a orbital motorway that almost encircles Greater London, England, in the United Kingdom. The motorway was first mooted early in the 20th century. A few sections, based on the now abandoned London Ringways plan, were constructed in the early 1970s and it ...
, near Reigate
Reigate
Reigate is a historic market town in Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs, and in the London commuter belt. It is one of the main constituents of the Borough of Reigate and Banstead...
, and she stayed in the car with the driver. She was never seen again. After her disappearance, regular withdrawals of £250 were made from her building society account at cash machines in the UK south coast counties of Hampshire and Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, out of character for McNicol, who had told friends and family she intended to use the money in her building society account to travel, or further her education. In late 2007, Essex Police
Essex Police
Essex Police is a territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Essex in the east of England.It is one of the largest non-metropolitan police forces in the United Kingdom, employing approximately 3,600 police officers and operating across an area of over and with a population of...
reopened the investigation into her disappearance, following new leads.
On 16 November 2007, a second body was found at 50 Irvine Drive in Margate, later confirmed by police to be that of McNicol.
On 1 September 2008, the Crown Prosecution Service
Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...
served a summons
Summons
Legally, a summons is a legal document issued by a court or by an administrative agency of government for various purposes.-Judicial summons:...
on Tobin's solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
s, formally accusing him of McNicol's murder, and this trial began in June 2009. The trial was postponed and the jury discharged in July 2009, the judge ruling that Tobin was not fit to stand trial pending surgery. The case resumed on 14 December 2009 at Chelmsford Crown Court. On 16 December 2009, after the defence had offered no evidence, a jury found Tobin guilty of McNicol's murder after deliberating for less than fifteen minutes and Tobin subsequently received his third life sentence, with a recommendation by the judge that his life sentence should mean life. Police are now reopening 'Operation Anagram
Operation Anagram
Operation Anagram is a British police investigation into the movements and life of serial killer Peter Tobin, convicted of three murders of young women since 2006...
', to trace Tobin's past movements and his possible involvement in a further 13 unsolved murders which includes the three Bible John
Bible John
Bible John is the nickname of a serial killer who is thought to have operated in Glasgow, Scotland, in the late 1960s. Three murders were attributed to him, but it is not clear if they were the work of the same person.-Murders:...
victims. Tobin is reported to have claimed 48 victims in boasts made in prison.
Bible John connection
The conviction of Tobin has led to speculation that he is Bible JohnBible John
Bible John is the nickname of a serial killer who is thought to have operated in Glasgow, Scotland, in the late 1960s. Three murders were attributed to him, but it is not clear if they were the work of the same person.-Murders:...
. There are similarities between photographs of Tobin from that era and the photofit artist's impression of Bible John, and Tobin had moved from Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
in 1969, the same year as the killings officially ended. It had been alleged that Tobin is driven to violence by the menstrual cycle
Menstrual cycle
The menstrual cycle is the scientific term for the physiological changes that can occur in fertile women for the purpose of sexual reproduction. This article focuses on the human menstrual cycle....
, something which has long been suspected as the motive behind the Bible John murders. Police have not commented upon any similarities, but said that any surviving forensic evidence will be rechecked. Although DNA had been used to rule out a previous suspect, detectives believe a DNA link to Tobin is unlikely due to a deterioration of the samples through poor storage.
Peter Tobin also had a religious upbringing, as he was forced to attend Mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
every day by his parents. Bible John was heard by Helen Puttock's sister referring to the Bible. Another similarity is that eye-witnesses told police that the suspect had one tooth missing in his upper-right area of the mouth; Dental Records
Dental Records
Dental Records is a small, independent record label, based in Ipswich, UK.-Releases:*DRCD0501 The Ballistics - Allow Me To Demonstrate*DRCD0601 Singled Out - Hardcore Seanography*DRCD0602 The Ballistics - The Spirit Of Kelso Cochrane...
proved that Peter Tobin had a tooth removed around the late 1960s.