THE body of a man has been found in the Glasgow church where Polish student Angelika Kluk was raped and murdered by serial killer Peter Tobin.
Police were called to St Patrick’s Church, in the Anderston area of the city, yesterday morning after the discovery, which comes nearly five years exactly since Miss Kluk’s remains were uncovered hidden under the chapel’s floorboards.
The man, who has not yet been identified, is believed to be in his thirties and was found in a small, out-of-the-way area at the back of the church.
It is not yet known who discovered the body, though it is thought to have been a member of church staff, or whether the remains of the man had been in the building overnight, but police said the discovery was reported to officers at 9.40am. A spokeswoman said a post mortem examination is due to be carried out to determine the cause of death. It is not thought the death is suspicious.
Miss Kluk, 23, was murdered in 2006 by Tobin, who had been working as a handyman at the church, using an assumed name. Her body was found on September 25 that year, a discovery that shocked parishioners at the 150-year-old Catholic church and which senior police officers said was one of the most violent deaths they had encountered.
The odd-job man dumped Miss Kluk’s bound and gagged body beneath a trapdoor near the priest’s confessional.
Tobin was jailed for the murder in 2007 and given a minimum of 21 years. He was later given two life sentences for killing Vicky Hamilton, 15, from Falkirk, and Dinah McNicol, 18, of Essex.
Miss Kluk, who had moved to Glasgow from Poland while on holiday from her languages course at Gdansk University, had been staying at the parish house and working as a cleaner in St Patrick’s.
It had been Miss Kluk’s second summer at the church, her sister Aneta, a secretary living and working in Glasgow, told The Herald at the time she was reported missing. She had booked a ticket to return home for exactly one week after she disappeared.
During the trial, the close-knit church congregation was rocked by revelations of murder, sex and alcoholism.
Priest Gerry Nugent claimed to have had an affair with the 23-year-old and confessed to having a drink problem.
Father Nugent, 66, died in January last year after suffering a heart attack and was found dead at his Govan home by his housekeeper.
St Patrick’s Church was closed for 11 months during the investigation and trial but re-opened in August 2007 with a new priest who promised to reunite the scattered congregation.
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Glasgow said it had no details of the body or its discovery but was hoping to learn more in the coming days.
The spokesman said: “The details of the incident are not known at present but are currently being investigated by the police.”
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