Dinah McNicol’s heartbroken family have called for serial killer Peter Tobin’s ashes to be “flushed down the toilet”.
Tobin, who was serving three life sentences for the murders of Dinah, 18, Vicky Hamilton, 15, and 23-year-old Angelika Kluk, died just after 6am last Saturday – three years after being diagnosed with cancer. He was 76.
Dinah’s brother, Dan McNicol, says he is “gutted” that Tobin died – because he wanted the cancer-riddled beast who murdered his sister to “suffer in agony for eternity”. It’s understood Tobin will be cremated and, unless a relative claims his remains, there will be no funeral.
But Dan has urged the authorities to simply dispose of his ashes without any ceremony, saying: “Bin them, flush them down the toilet – he’ll just be ashes. I do not care.” Dan wanted to visit Tobin at his hospital deathbed and laugh at the warped serial killer before asking him: “Can you smell the sulphur yet, you sick paedophile?”
The 50-year-old company director planned to drive 400 miles from his Essex home to confront Tobin, who spent the final days of his evil life chained to a bed at Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary. But Dan’s wish to face the monster disappeared last weekend when detectives told him of Tobin’s death.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Record, Dan said he had hoped that Tobin, who had a history of feigning illness, would “go on forever”, leading a grim life in crippling pain behind bars. He said: “When I was told Tobin was on his last legs, I was dubious because he [Tobin] had faked heart attacks and a litany of ailments over the years.
“I answered the door to two plain clothes officers on Saturday morning. They didn’t need to say a word. I took one look at their serious faces and said, ‘He’s dead, isn’t he?’ They both nodded and my heart sank. I was gutted.
“Although impossible, I wanted Tobin to go on suffering, rolling a wheel up that hill for eternity. I wished upon him the worst pain imaginable and daily beatings from fellow prisoners. To me, Tobin’s death seemed too quick and easy.”
Of his wish to face the brute who abducted, drugged and strangled Dinah, the dad of two added: “I wouldn’t have wasted too much breath on him. I would simply have stood over him, glared into his pathetic, old eyes and laughed loudly.
“Then I’d planned to remind him of his imminent arrival in Hell. I would have sneered into his ear, ‘Can you smell the sulphur yet?’ I would also have reminded him that he’s a sick paedophile and psychopath as well as a murderer.
“I believe Tobin was brought up a Catholic and while there’s no proof that Heaven or Hell exist, he must have known that he was only going to one place. I love to think that he wrestled with the prospect of going to Hell.”
Dinah disappeared in August 1991 as she hitched a lift home from a music festival in Liphook, Hampshire. Tobin, who had already murdered Vicky and transported her mutilated body from Scotland to England, picked Dinah and her friend David Tremlett up on the A3.
After dropping David off, Tobin doped Dinah with the painkiller amitriptyline and throttled her. He then buried her in rubbish sacks in the back garden of his home in Margate, Kent. Her body was not found until November 2007 after Tobin was jailed for the rape and murder of Polish student Angelika in Glasgow.
Vicky’s butchered body was discovered just yards away from Dinah’s, in another shallow grave.
Dinah’s dad, Ian McNicol, passed away in 2014, furious that he didn’t get to see Tobin die behind bars. It was the 75-year-old granddad’s dying wish to outlive the “scum” who killed his beloved daughter.
Unlike his son, Ian longed for Tobin to be executed for his heinous crimes. After Tobin’s conviction for Dinah’s murder in December 2009, he said: “I just want him [Tobin] dead. My Dinah was a beautiful, kind, intelligent girl. She had so much to give to the world.”
For Dan, Tobin’s death brought memories of his sister and dad flooding back. He said: “Dad had a few years on Tobin. He would have loved to have heard this news but I think deep down he knew that wouldn’t happen.”
Following Tobin’s death, Detective Chief Superintendent Laura Thomson, head of major crime at Police Scotland, said “recent attempts” had been made to encourage the beast to “do the right thing”. But he took his secrets to his grave.
Dan said last night: “I heard that Tobin refused to give up his secrets. This was another act of evil on his part. I feel so bad for the families of other potential victims who may never get answers now.
“But Tobin was never going to confess to other murders. He was a psychopath, a narcissist, an evil serial killer, a rapist and a paedophile who got off on his vile acts.”
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