Tobin guilty

A convicted murderer has been jailed for life for raping and killing schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton 17 years ago. Peter Tobin, 62, will serve a minimum of 30 years in prison for abducting, sexually assaulting and then killing the 15-year-old, before cutting up her body and burying it in his garden. He is already serving a life sentence for murdering Polish student Angelika Kluk and burying her body underneath the floorboards of a church in Glasgow in 2005. The jury took just two-and-a-half hours to find him guilty of murdering Vicky, from Redding near Falkirk. Judge Lord Emslie told him the murder "must rank among the most evil and horrific acts that any human being could commit." As the verdict was delivered, there were cries of "Yes" from members of Vicky's family and friends and her father Michael smiled. As Tobin was led from the dock, someone shouted: "You'll die in jail." Outside the court, Vicky's younger sister Lindsay Brown thanked police and said: "Justice has prevailed." During the month-long trial at the High Court in Dundee, the jury heard Vicky's body was found buried at Tobin's former home. It had been wrapped in layers of plastic bin bags "like a Russian doll" and dumped 3ft beneath the surface, under a layer of concrete. Tobin abducted Vicky in Bathgate, West Lothian, on the evening of February 10, 1991, while she was waiting for a bus. He drugged her with the sedative Amitriptyline, strangled her, carried out a serious sex attack and murdered her. Experts told the trial that bruising found on her body suggested she met a violent death. Bruises on the 15-year-old's hand suggested she fought bravely for her life, despite being sedated. The killer then set about getting rid of some of her clothing and personal belongings. He even left her purse near Edinburgh's main railway and bus stations to fool police into thinking she had run away from home. The following month, he moved the body and buried it at the garden of his new home.

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ITN | December 2, 2008

Tags:. .amitriptyline. .floorboards. .bathgate. .evil. .bin