'Nightmare' of death house family

Nicola Downing returned to the house briefly with her boyfriend

The resident of the Margate house where police have found the bodies of two teenage girls has spoken of her "nightmare" over the grim discoveries.

In a statement read by a Kent police press officer outside 50 Irvine Drive - where the bodies of Dinah McNicol, 18, and Vicky Hamilton, 15, were recovered - Nicola Downing said the news had "turned family life upside down".

Peter Tobin, 61, who lived in the three-bedroomed house for a short time in 1991, has been charged with murdering Miss Hamilton.

We had never heard of Peter Tobin and we found the news devastating and unreal Nicola Downing House search moves inside

Police are continuing to search the house for possible further bodies, using radar as well as drilling concrete floors.

Ms Downing, 37, described the awful day - Friday, 9 November - when Essex police officers knocked on her door and explained they would have to dig up her garden.

"We had never heard of Peter Tobin and we found the news devastating and unreal," she said.

"I can only describe it as a nightmare that gets worse every day."

'Enormous sympathy'

Ms Downing, who lives at the house with her children, said it had been their "happy family home" for 12 years.

"What they have found is awful and it has turned our family life upside down," the statement added.

The house is owned by the local authority, which has rehoused the family.

Ms Downing said moving out of the house had been traumatic. She and her boyfriend Mark Drage went back to the house on Saturday afternoon to help police with the investigation by pointing out structural and other changes they may have made.

The body of Miss McNicol, of Tillingham, Essex, was found close to the house's patio area.

Speaking about the discovery of the body on Friday, Ms Downing said: "We feel enormous sympathy for Dinah's father and for what he is going through - we wanted to get the answers he needed.

"Since we moved out, the developments have been shocking for all of us.

"Our hearts and thoughts go out to the families involved."