Killer Tobin had 'appalling record'

By Jo Perry
BBC Scotland news website

The judge in the Vicky Hamilton murder trial described her ordeal as one of "the most evil and horrific acts that any human being could commit".

Tobin was jailed for at least 30 years for Vicky's murder

Lord Emslie said ordinary people would feel "loathing and revulsion" for what Peter Tobin had done.

The 62-year-old was convicted of raping and murdering the 15-year-old, whose disappearance in 1991 sparked one of Scotland's biggest ever missing person's inquiries.

The judge also told the court that Tobin had an "appalling record" of convictions for sexual and violent crimes.

"You are currently serving a life sentence with a 21 year minimum period in custody for the rape and murder of a young Polish girl in 2006," he said.

This crime - the killing of Angelika Kluk in Glasgow - came after Tobin arrived in the city in May 2006.

He came to St Patrick's Church in the Anderston area of the city, where he took advantage of homeless group, Loaves and Fishes.

Exploiting the "open doors policy", he worked as an odd job man under the false name of Pat McLaughlin.

Tobin appeared on Crimewatch in 1993 after a double attack

It was here that he met and befriended 23-year-old Angelika Kluk.

She had been staying in the church while on a working holiday to fund her language studies at the University of Gdansk.

Ms Kluk's battered body was found concealed under the chapel's floor in September 2006, days after she was first reported missing.

Strathclyde Police interviewed Tobin about the student's disappearance, just 48 hours after he had raped and stabbed her to death.

However, despite an outstanding warrant and a picture which had been widely circulated around the country's forces, officers initially failed to make the connection.

Tobin fled to London but was eventually arrested after seeking treatment at a hospital under a false name.

Tobin was found guilty of the killing in May 2007 and jailed for a minimum of 21 years.

Presiding judge Lord Menzies described Tobin as "an evil man" and said: "In the course of my time in the law I have seen many bad men and I have heard evidence about many terrible crimes which have been committed but I have heard no case more tragic, more terrible than this one."

It was during the Angelika Kluk trial that it emerged Tobin had stayed in Bathgate at the time of Vicky Hamilton's disappeared.

Minimum 30 years

The subsequent searches of his former address at 11 Robertson Avenue in the town and a house at Irvine Drive in Margate led to the discovery of Vicky's body.

Tobin had moved to Margate in 1991, two years before he attacked two 14-year-olds at a flat in Havant, Hampshire, raping one and indecently assaulting the other.

Tobin fled to Coventry where he sought refuge among an evangelical Christian community using a false name to cover his tracks.

Just days after he left, members of the Jesus Fellowship Church saw his face on the BBC's Crimewatch programme and alerted the police. He was arrested shortly afterwards.

The handyman was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 1994 for the assault.

Tobin travelled to Scotland after his release from that sentence in 2004.

But his latest conviction - and the minimum 30-year sentence which followed - means the 62-year-old is unlikely to ever be free again.