Serial killer Peter Tobin dies after falling ill in prison while serving three life sentences

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Serial killer Peter Tobin has died after falling ill at the prison where he was serving life sentences for the murder of three women.

The murderer in his 70s was taken to hospital earlier this week and subsequently passed away, sources said.

Tobin was one of Britain’s most hated serial killers and the full extent of his violence may never be known.

He was serving three life sentences for the murder of three women at the time of his death: 23-year-old Polish student Angelika Kluk, 15-year-old schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton and 18-year-old Dinah McNicol.

Tobin was given a whole life order on his third murder conviction, meaning he would spend the rest of his life in jail.

Sources said he was taken from HMP Edinburgh to hospital on Wednesday and has now passed away.

The family of Hamilton said they “no longer wish to talk about Tobin” and would not be celebrating his death after the news emerged.

“Unfortunately the popularity of Serial Killers and True Crime will make him infamous for a long time and his victims will all but become a footnote in his history,” they said in a statement posted on social media.

“We remember Vicky, we remember her laughter, her smile and we want to keep that memory after all the years of having no idea what had happened to her, followed by heartbreak of losing our mum not long after Vicky went missing.

“He does not deserve any more of our families’ thoughts.”

The family added: “We will not be celebrating any passing but instead will be remembering Vicky, Angelika and Dinah along with any other victims, and we respectfully ask for others to do the same.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Laura Thomson from Police Scotland said the force’s thoughts were with the victims and their friends and families after Tobin’s death was announced.

“Recent attempts to encourage him to do the right thing and share any knowledge he may have which could assist the police were unsuccessful,” she said.

“While we have no current lines of investigation into Peter Tobin, we welcome any information in relation to his activities.”

It is widely suspected Tobin was behind other murders than those of Hamilton, McNicol and Kluk.

His first life sentence was for the murder of 23-year-old Kluk, who he had stabbed and gagged in 2006 before hiding her remains beneath the floorboards of a Glasgow church.

He was jailed for at least 21 years for the murder at the High Court in Edinburgh in 2007.

Detectives later found the body of Hamilton - who was his first-known murder victim - and McNicol in the garden of Tobin’s former home in Margate in Kent. The discoveries came 17 years after both girls disappeared.

He had abducted Hamilton in West Lothian in 1991. while she waited for a bus. He drugged her, strangled her, carried out a serious sex attack and murdered her.

Tobin received a life sentence with a minimum term of 30 years for Ms Hamilton’s killing after a trial at the High Court in Dundee at the end of 2008.

He was convicted of the murder of McNicol and ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison the following year.

The 18-year-old vanished in 1991 while hitchhiking to her home in Essex after leaving a music festival. She too had been drugged and strangled.

Police examined hundreds of other unsolved murder and missing persons cases to see if they could be linked to the serial killer but this operation would down in 2011.

Tobin had been hospitalised on a number of occasions in recent years, including in January and March this year.

Back in 2016, the convicted murderer was also rushed to hospital from prison after reportedly collapsing in his cell.

The year before, Tobin is thought to have been left permanently scarred after being slashed in the throat and face with a razor blade by another prisoner.

Additional reporting by Press Association