DETECTIVES were told in 1993 that Peter Tobin was a dangerous sexual predator who lived close to where Vicky Hamilton vanished – but failed to investigate a link with her disappearance.
The Evening News can reveal police in Hampshire appealed to their colleagues in West Lothian for help in catching Tobin over brutal sex attacks on two teenage schoolgirls because they knew he had been in Bathgate just two years previously.
• House of horrors still haunts a quiet streetBut despite the fact he had lived only a mile from where 15-year-old Vicky went missing in 1991, no-one made the connection.
Detective Chief Superintendent Malcolm Graham, the current head of Lothian and Borders CID, admitted today that a link with Vicky's disappearance "potentially should have been made".
But it would not be until Strathclyde detectives again alerted the Lothian force – 13 years later, following the murder of Angelika Kluk in Glasgow – that he would finally be caught.
Tobin, 62, now faces spending the rest of his life behind bars after being jailed for at least 30 years for abducting, sexually assaulting and murdering Vicky before cutting up her body and burying it in his garden.
• Twists on the road to justicePolice are now looking into whether Tobin is responsible for at least a dozen other unsolved murders around the UK.
Yesterday, Vicky's family welcomed the verdict and told how "justice had prevailed".
But the revelation that detectives in Portsmouth issued an alert in August 1993 raises questions over whether the Hamilton family's nightmare wait for answers could have ended sooner, and whether Tobin would have been free to rape and murder Polish student Angelika.
Hampshire Police were hunting Tobin in 1993 after he held the two girls, aged 15 and 14, at his home, plied them with drugs and subjected one to a horrific rape, the other to a sexual assault before leaving them for dead.
The appeal appeared in the Evening News on August 7, 1993, under the headline "Lothian link to rape suspect".
Lothian and Borders Police confirmed at the time that officers in the area had been alerted to Tobin's West Lothian links and that a watch was being kept for him.
"We are on the lookout for him but his connection with this area dates back to quite some time ago and are not strong," said a spokesman at the time.
There was, however, no connection made with the runaway sex attacker, then 46, and Vicky Hamilton – at that time still a high-profile missing person case. In fact, Tobin had already buried Vicky's remains under a sandpit.
Vicky, from Redding near Falkirk, had been missing for just over a month when Tobin packed up his belongings and moved south, swapping homes with the Hewitt family from Margate in Kent. It would later emerge that among those belongings were the butchered remains of Vicky.
But with no body and no evidence other than Vicky's purse – planted close to St Andrew Square bus station – many simply believed she had chosen to run away.
Even when Tobin was captured and finally sentenced in May 1994 for the Hampshire attacks – described by the judge at the time as "the worst case" he had ever come across – the prospect of at least quizzing him failed to register with the West Lothian inquiry.
Det Chief Insp Graham refuted speculation that the Hampshire Police appeal from 15 years ago would have led to Tobin being convicted sooner could only be made with the "benefit of hindsight". He added:
"I'm satisfied in this case there was a comprehensive investigation at the time and that the work put in over the 17 years since has led to a guilty verdict."
There was, he added, no reason for the investigation to focus on Tobin at that time.
"He had no convictions (in 1991] that would lead us to assess him as a person that could commit an offence such as this," he said.
"I'm clear that the investigation at that time had no information that would have led us to Peter Tobin's door."
Tom Wood, who was assistant chief constable of Lothian and Borders Police in 1993, told the Evening News he had "absolutely no knowledge" of the Hampshire Police appeal.
Following the 2006 call from Strathclyde Police, 'Operation Mahogany', led by retired Detective Chief Inspector Keith Anderson, was launched.
By June 3 last year his team had turned its attention to 11 Robertson Avenue in Bathgate. Two days after they began stripping the house, they made their most damning discovery – a knife, smeared with traces of Vicky's skin.
Cold Case Review manager, retired DS Bert Swanson, meanwhile, believed the fact that dozens of 'sightings' across the country relating to Vicky's disappearance, and a lack of vital evidence, pushed officers at the time towards thinking that no crime had been committed.
"As far as the early investigation was concerned, yes, they didn't find Tobin," he said.
"But the other side of the coin is that they were not particularly looking for him.
"It's very easy with hindsight to wonder if there were missed chances. But Vicky was a missing person inquiry. It wasn't a murder investigation at that time.
"I looked through every document related to the case from 1991. There's no evidence that a crime has even been committed. No-one has seen anyone being bundled into a car, there's no trace of blood. Nothing."
At the High Court in Dundee court yesterday, Tobin, already serving a life sentence for the murder of Angelika, was branded "unfit to live in a decent society".
It is understood that the former handyman was unwilling to expand upon any defence for his legal team in the month-long trial beyond the fact that he "didn't do it".
Wives suffered horrific abuse at hands of 'chaotic' killerSLIGHTLY built and standing at just 5ft 6ins, physically unremarkable and with a heart condition, Peter Tobin hardly strikes a menacing figure.
Yet his lack of distinctive presence is clearly deceptive: this is the man who murdered at least two young women and attacked and raped others.
He didn't confine his brutal aggression to unfortunate strangers – for each of his three wives were also subjected to horrific abuse.
So now, as Peter Tobin's criminal past finally unravels, is it just a matter of time before even more victims are found?
Last December – in the aftermath of Tobin's conviction for killing 23-year-old Polish student Angelika Kluk and as the Vicky Hamilton inquiry gathered pace – 40 senior officers from ten police forces across the country gathered in Glasgow to discuss his complex personal background.
It was a two-day summit held under the banner 'Operation Anagram', overseen by Hampshire Assistant Chief Constable Steve Watts and launched in the hope of piecing Tobin's background together with unsolved crimes.
Collectively they were probing the disappearances of up to 16 women. And they came from forces scattered across Britain – Sussex, Dorset, Surrey, Hampshire, the Met in London, Essex, Kent, Cheshire, Staffordshire and Strathclyde.
Tobin was described today by one senior Lothian officer as having lived a "chaotic life" in at least 20 different homes over 40 years. And his irregular jobs as an occasional chef and travelling 'lagger' meant he criss-crossed the country in a van, putting him in a diverse and complicated range of locations.
But it's his Glasgow connections, combined with his tendency towards religious rants and violent outbursts, that have led to serious speculation that he may be the elusive serial killer Bible John.
Tobin left the city in 1969, at the height of the police hunt for the killer of three women, murdered over an 18-month period and each linked to the city's Barrowland dancehall.
At one point it was reported DNA from five unidentified females were traced on 20 items of jewellery hidden in the loft of Tobin's Bathgate home – possibly trinkets from earlier victims. But while Lothian's CID chief Detective Chief Superintendent Malcolm Graham refused to comment on those specific claims, he has confirmed local officers have been involved in talks with counterparts elsewhere, sharing vital information on his background.
"There has been some wider communication and information shared with a variety of forces across the UK," he said.
He added: "The finding of trophy items is common in such cases. Some of these pieces of jewellery could be key to solving other crimes."
To date, Tobin has refused to co-operate at all with the Vicky inquiry or any other.
The signs that Tobin was capable of extreme violence against women emerged when he was still a young man.
By 1965, aged 19, he already had a record for petty crimes.
Each of his three wives suffered, victims of his violent temper. He was 22 in 1968 when 17-year-old Margaret Mountney caught his eye. They met at a Glasgow dancehall – and that plus claims of his religious rants have since linked him to the city's infamous Bible John murders.
Margaret was subjected to horrific cruelty which involved her being held prisoner in her own home, raped and beaten.
At one stage Tobin bought her a black labrador puppy, only for him to cut off its head because its barking annoyed him. He later savagely raped her. He forged the under-age teenager's father's signature on a marriage consent form and took her to Brighton in 1969 – at the height of the Bible John inquiries – where a string of petty crimes of dishonesty put him behind bars and provided her with the chance to flee.
In 1973, Tobin wed a nurse, Sylvia Jeffries, and had a son and daughter, both of whom died. Again, the relationship was mired in violence.
His third wife, Cathy Wilson, was only 16 and Tobin 40 when they met in 1986.
Cathy endured his abuse until finally fleeing with their son, just one month before 15-year-old Vicky Hamilton went missing. She later allowed Tobin access, letting the child visit the Bathgate house. Crucially, the child's DNA was found on Vicky Hamilton's purse.
Sisters tell of relief as 'nightmare' at an endTHE family of Vicky Hamilton said they would always remember her as she lived, not for the horrific way she met her end.
• Vicky's sister, Lindsay Brown, 24, said they were glad their "17-year nightmare" had finally ended.
"There were many times when we thought this day wouldn't come," she said. "We are hoping we can now move on as a family and start to remember Vicky as the loving sister she was."
• Her sister, Sharon Brown, 36, who was the last member of Vicky's family to see her alive, said: "I can't bear to think about what horrors Vicky suffered."
• Vicky's father, Michael, shouted "rot in hell" as Tobin was led away at the end of the trial.
"I want to thank all concerned for bringing my daughter Vicky's murderer to justice."
Tobin's three ex-wives and his son also spoke out as the killer was jailed again.
• Tobin's first wife, Margaret MacIntosh, 57, who was just 17 when she married him in Brighton in 1969, said: "He'd rape me just for the hell of it. But I got away lightly because I lived. Very probably he has killed dozens."
• His second wife, Sylvia Jefferies, 63, whom he married in 1973, said: "He's just pure evil, absolute evil."
• His third wife, Cathy Wilson, 39, married him in 1989 and they moved to Bathgate along with their son, Daniel. She said: "He married three times but we were just a cover for his sordid evil doings."
• His son, Daniel, 21, said: "I won't ever use the name Tobin – as far as I'm concerned that man is not my father and I hope he rots in hell."
