Serial killer Peter Tobin’s personal belongings are being kept in storage in case a family member wants to claim them.
The monster left behind items including books in his cell at HMP Edinburgh before he died in hospital last October. It’s understood they will be kept in storage for up to three years.
Last September, the Sunday Mail revealed a picture of Tobin as he lay handcuffed on his deathbed in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. He was hospitalised after falling and breaking a hip in prison the previous month and had been refusing food and medication.
Prior to his death, police had looked at hundreds of unsolved murders to see if they were also linked to the killer and tried again to persuade him to co-operate as he lay dying. But the killer – convicted of three murders and suspected of committing more – remained tight-lipped and died, dashing hopes of solving further crimes.
His cell was sealed off after his death to allow a police search. Detectives were keen to examine his personal effects, including letters and papers, to see if there was any evidence that might link him to other crimes. Now his belongings, which the Sunday Mail understands includes his favourite books, are languishing in storage.
It comes after the killer was secretly cremated and his ashes dumped at sea after no family members claimed his body.
A source said: “It’s tempting to say that anything belonging to Peter Tobin should be wiped off the face of the earth after what he did and the misery he caused. But Tobin has always been suspected of many more crimes than those he was convicted of and there is always hope that something belonging to him could potentially lead to something one day.
“However, there is doubt that anyone will ever come forward to claim his personal belongings. No one connected to him even claimed his body after he died.
“He had a lot of books. So they will be stored, then destroyed.”
Tobin’s death certificate shows his cause of death is “unascertained (pending investigations)”. It was claimed the killer had terminal cancer. His cremation was organised by Edinburgh City Council after no next of kin came forward to claim his body.
Tobin was serving three life sentences for crimes including the rape and murder of Polish student Angelika Kluk, 23, whose body he hid under the floor of a Glasgow church in 2006.
The next year he was charged with the murder of Bathgate schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton, 15. She had last been seen waiting at a bus stop in Falkirk in 1991.
Her remains were unearthed by police who searched Tobin’s former home in Margate, Kent.
Vicky’s body was discovered alongside that of Dinah McNicol. Dinah, 18, had not been seen since 1991 when she hitched a lift with a man, later identified as Tobin, after a Hampshire music festival.
None of Tobin’s family responded to the Sunday Mail when contacted.
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