Johnstone: Peter Tobin takes secrets of crimes to the grave

No tears were shed for Johnstone-born serial killer Peter Tobin as he died on Saturday at the age of 76.

Instead, thoughts turned to his innocent victims and the loved ones who continue to mourn them.

Tobin was serving a life sentence for raping and murdering Polish student Angelika Kluk, 23, in Glasgow in 2006.

He had also been handed life terms for the murders of 15-year-old schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton, of Redding, near Falkirk, in 1991, and 18-year-old Essex woman Dinah McNicol the same year.

The bodies of Vicky and Dinah were found 17 years later, buried in the garden of his former home in Margate, Kent.

Police have long suspected Tobin had more victims and hoped he would give up his secrets before he died.

Angelika Kluk was killed at the age of 23 (Image: Newsquest)

However, he delivered one final insult by refusing to provide them with any information.

Detective Chief Superintendent Laura Thomson, head of major crime at Police Scotland, said: “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.”

David Swindle, a former Strathclyde Police detective who led the investigation into Tobin, said he has no doubts the serial killer murdered more people.

More than 1,000 leads on Tobin were looked at by officers working on Operation Anagram, which was headed by Mr Swindle and delved into any links they could find with unsolved murders or missing women in the various areas he had lived in over the years.

They narrowed the list to nine unsolved crimes and missing person cases that they believed he was involved with.

Despite pleading with Tobin to give closure to their families, he refused to ever speak about the cases.

Mr Swindle said that, now Tobin is dead, the true extent of his horrendous crimes will never be known.

Retired detective David Swindle is convinced Tobin had more victims (Image: David Swindle)

“This was an individual who took pleasure in torturing and murdering vulnerable women,” he added.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s responsible for many more murders but, as I feared he would, he’s taken his secrets to the grave with him.

“I always hoped that he might find a shred of decency as he neared the end of his life and do the right thing but this shows he was someone who was incapable of feeling any remorse, right until his last breath.

“He never cared about his victims or their families. He was a calculated murderer who ultimately only ever thought about himself, right until the very end.

“I don’t think he was ever capable of humanity.

“Tobin never wanted to reveal the true extent of his crimes, it was all about the power and control it gave him.

“He only ever cared about himself and none of his victims or their relatives ever mattered to him. He never once showed an ounce of regret and that continued right to his dying day.”

Vicky Hamilton, who was just 15 when she went missing, was among Tobin’s victims (Image: Newsquest)

Tobin died at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

He had been suffering from cancer and was taken to hospital from HMP Edinburgh.

Tobin was born in Johnstone in 1946, the youngest of eight children.

In 2004, he lived in Paisley for a while after being freed from a jail term for the kidnap, drugging and violent sexual assault of two 14-year-old girls at a flat in Hampshire.

Three years later, he was given life for raping and murdering Angelika, whose body was found under the floor at St Patrick’s Church, in Glasgow.

Tobin had met her while working there as a handyman.

In 2008, he was convicted of killing schoolgirl Vicky, who went missing in 1991.

A further conviction for murdering Dinah, who disappeared while hitch-hiking home from a music festival in 1991, followed in 2009.

Among the cases examined as part of Operation Anagram was the death of Dorothea Meechan, 37, whose body was found in Renfrew in 1971.

Dinah McNicol was abducted and killed (Image: Newsquest)

Richard Coubrough was convicted of killing her but always protested his innocence. He was freed on bail in 2008 pending an appeal against conviction but died before it was heard.

Among those who believe Tobin had other victims is Vicky’s sister, Lindsay Brown.

She said her family was “ripped apart” by Vicky’s disappearance.

Ms Brown, who was six when her sister went missing, said: “It’s been horrendous. All the years not knowing what happened to Vicky and not knowing where she could be, if she was still out there.

“That affected us, not having that closure.

“The only thing I feel (about Tobin’s death) is did he have more victims and, now he’s gone, are there other families out there that aren’t going to get that closure that we got because he is no longer around to tell?

“I was hoping that he would maybe come out when he got diagnosed with cancer, that he would maybe come out and tell people what he did, if he did have any kind of remorse.

“All I feel is that, if there has been other victims, and I know there’s speculation, they might not know what’s happened to their loved ones.”