Sex killer Peter Tobin was yesterday described by a judge as �a truly evil man ... unfit to live in a decent society� as he was jailed for at least 30 years for the abduction, rape and murder of Vicky Hamilton.
Sex killer Peter Tobin was yesterday described by a judge as "a truly evil man ... unfit to live in a decent society" as he was jailed for at least 30 years for the abduction, rape and murder of Vicky Hamilton.
It was the second conviction of its kind for Tobin, 62, who last night returned to his cell in Peterhead Prison, where he is already serving a 21-year sentence for the murder of Polish student Angelika Kluk in Glasgow in 2006. He will almost certainly die in jail.
Police last night refused to comment on how many other cases they are linking to Tobin, but said that his movements over the past three decades were being analysed for any potential links to unsolved crimes.
Yesterday, the jury of 12 women and three men took less than two-and-a-half hours to convict Tobin unanimously on charges of murder and of perverting the course of justice by transporting and concealing 15-year-old Vicky's remains.
Lord Emslie, sentencing Tobin, said: "It is hard for me to convey the loathing and revulsion that ordinary people will feel for what you have done.
"You already have appalling convictions for sexual and violent crimes ... but abducting and killing a child on her way home from a happy weekend with her sister, and then desecrating her, must rank amongst the most evil and horrific acts that any human being could commit. Once again, you have shown yourself to be unfit to live in a decent society."
Vicky, of Redding, Falkirk, had been in Bathgate town centre on the night of February 10, 1991, to catch a connecting bus to her home in Falkirk. She was unsure of her surroundings and the onward journey, since it was the first time she had stayed away from home overnight.
She met Tobin on the street, and he took her to his home in the town's Robertson Avenue, where he drugged her with the sedative amitriptylene. He then raped the teenager and strangled her, before finally taking her life. Vicky tried to put up a fight, but was rendered incapable by her drugged and weakened state.
Tobin bisected the body with a dagger and wrapped the remains in black plastic bags.
Tobin had denied all charges against him and did not take the witness stand during the 21-day trial at the High Court in Dundee. Just nine witnesses were called by the defence, compared to 110 by the prosecution.
Strathclyde Detective Superintendent David Swindle last night explained how police finally caught up with Tobin.
He said: "During the investigation into the murder of Angelika Kluk, we established that Peter Tobin had used numerous aliases, was linked to around 38 mobile telephone SIM cards, and had travelled extensively throughout the UK during the year prior to her murder. Strathclyde CID officers established that Tobin had resided in Bathgate in 1991, which was around the dates and in the same area as Vicky Hamilton had gone missing."
He added that the "scoping" exercise, Operation Anagram, could throw up further connections to missing women.
