Tobin's crimes may stay secret
THE full extent of serial killer Peter Tobin's crimes may never be known, the detective leading the hunt for more of his victims has admitted.
As police began digging into the gardens and interiors of two properties linked to Tobin this week, Detective Superintendent David Swindle of Strathclyde Police said the killer's nomadic existence, the many aliases he has used and the more than 120 cars he has owned during his lifetime made it impossible to know the full extent of his crimes.
Teams of police officers and archaeologists descended on two properties in Brighton, East Sussex.
They were searching for bodies or other evidence left by the 63-year-old when he lived at the addresses in the 1980s.
Evil Tobin is currently serving life for three murders, including Vicky Hamilton's, who was last seen in Bathgate.
Tobin drove the body of Miss Hamilton, 15, to Margate, in Kent, where he buried her in the same back garden he would later use to hide Dinah McNicol, 18, so police are keeping an open mind over who could be buried in the gardens of Marine Parade and Station Road, in Brighton.
Police said the searches could continue for a month.
Tobin has previously been linked to the disappeances of Louise Kay, 18, and art student Jessie Earl, 22.
The former church handyman was also found guilty of the murder of Angelika Kluk, 23, a Polish woman found dead in a Glasgow church.
Mr Swindle said: "Tobin led such a complicated life, travelling throughout the UK, using different vehicles, different names.
"We may never know what he has done, but I assure the public we will investigate him thoroughly.
"The issue about Peter Tobin and his target type victims is that there are people he may have met and we'll never know. Relatives may never know what he has done. He has a propensity for targeting lone victims, that is why we may never know.
"But there's a determination for us which is now all about victims' relatives, rather than about sentencing.
"All the information we've been accumulating has helped us build up a really big picture about where Tobin has been and what he could have been doing.
"I hope that, realistically, in three months' time we will be able to say what Peter Tobin has done and what he has not done."
The Station Road hairdressing salons were once a caf, Ye Olde Tea-Room, run by Tobin in 1988 with his future wife, Cathy Wilson. The couple had a baby son.
Marine Parade is a large housing association block of flats which backs on to a small area of grass and concrete paving. Tobin worked as a caretaker at the property when it was the Seafront Hotel in the late 1980s.
Despite mounting suggestions that Tobin could be responsible for further deaths, he has consistently refused to ease relatives' suffering by talking to police.
The latest search could also uncover evidence linking him to the deaths of "Babes in the Woods" murder victims, Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows, who were killed in Brighton.
Sussex Police have confirmed they are looking for bodies, but could also be hoping to discover clues that would link Tobin to other murders.
Chief Inspector Laurence Taylor, of Sussex Police, said: "As part of a national scoping exercise we are trying to piece together his life and whereabouts across the decades.
"We know that he lived in Brighton and the surrounding area in the 70s and 80s."
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Monday 21 May 2012
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