Peter Britton Tobin (27 August 1946 – 8 October 2022) was a Scottish convicted serial killer and sex offender who served a whole life order at HM Prison Edinburgh[3] for three murders committed between 1991 and 2006.

[8] Tobin moved to Brighton, Sussex, England, where he married his 17-year-old girlfriend, Margaret Mountney, a clerk and typist, in August 1969.

[8] All three wives later gave similar accounts of falling for a charming, well-dressed psychopath who turned violent and displayed a sadistic streak during their marriages.

After holding them at knife-point and forcing them to drink strong cider and vodka, Tobin sexually assaulted and raped the girls, stabbing one of them whilst his younger son was present.

To avoid arrest, Tobin went into hiding and joined the Jesus Fellowship, a religious sect in Coventry, under a false name.

He had assumed the name of "Pat McLaughlin" to avoid detection, as he was still on the Violent and Sex Offender Register following his 1994 convictions for rape and assault.

An arrest warrant had been issued for Tobin in November 2005 after he moved from Paisley without notifying the police, but he was not discovered until he became a suspect in the murder of 23-year-old Angelika Kluk at the church.

[13][14] Kluk, a student from Poland, was staying at the presbytery of St Patrick's Church, where she worked as a cleaner to help finance her Scandinavian studies course at the University of Gdańsk.

[17] A six-week trial resulted from the evidence gathered under the supervision of Detective Superintendent David Swindle of Strathclyde Police, and took place at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh, between 23 March and 4 May 2007.

[18] The trial judge was Lord Menzies, the prosecution was led by Advocate Depute Dorothy Bain, and the defence by Donald Findlay QC.

[19] Tobin was found guilty of raping and murdering Kluk and was sentenced to life imprisonment, to serve a minimum of twenty-one years.

[20] In June 2007, Tobin's former house in Bathgate was searched in connection with the disappearance of 15-year-old Vicky Hamilton, who was last seen on 10 February 1991 as she waited for a bus home to Redding, near Falkirk.

[22] The investigation later led to a forensic search of a house in Southsea in early October 2007, where Tobin is believed to have lived shortly after leaving Bathgate.

[23] On 14 November 2007, Lothian and Borders Police confirmed that human remains found in the back garden of 50 Irvine Drive,[24] a house in Margate occupied by Tobin in 1991, were those of Hamilton.

The prosecution case went beyond the circumstantial evidence of Tobin having lived at the two houses in Bathgate and Margate in 1991, and consisted of eyewitness testimony of suspicious behaviour by Tobin in Bathgate,[26] evidence to destroy his alibi,[27] and DNA and fingerprints left on a dagger found in his former house, on Hamilton's purse and on the sheeting in which her body was wrapped.

[29][30] When sentencing Tobin to life imprisonment, the judge said: You stand convicted of the truly evil abduction and murder of a vulnerable young girl in 1991 and thereafter of attempting to defeat the ends of justice in various ways over an extended period...

[31]On 11 December 2008, Tobin gave notice to court officials that he intended to challenge the verdict and overturn the sentence imposed on him.

[33] Dinah McNicol, an 18-year-old sixth former from Tillingham, Essex, was last seen alive on 5 August 1991, hitchhiking home with a male friend from a music festival in Liphook, Hampshire.

After her disappearance, regular withdrawals were made from her building society account at cash machines in Hampshire and Sussex, out of character for McNicol, who had told friends and family that she intended to use the money to travel or further her education.

It aimed to trace Tobin's past movements and possible involvement in thirteen unsolved murders, including the three victims of the unidentified killer Bible John.

[1] Through the HOLMES 2 database, police forces across the UK were involved in the operation, investigating the possibility of Tobin's connection to dozens of murders and disappearances of teenage girls and young women.

[44] Operation Anagram established that Tobin was working in a hotel in Eastbourne at the time she disappeared, and learned that he was selling a small hand-painted car after she vanished.

[50] In 2012, criminologist David Wilson produced a documentary as part of his Killers Behind Bars: The Untold Story series, in which he made his case to support the theory that Earl was a likely victim of Tobin.

[76] It had been alleged that Tobin reacted violently to his victims' menstruation, something that has long been suspected as the motive behind the Bible John murders.

[76] Tobin's DNA was ultimately checked against a semen stain on Puttock's tights as part of Operation Anagram, which was the only remaining forensic evidence in the Bible John case.

[6] Swindle has stated that there is no evidence to link Tobin to the Bible John murders, and Operation Anagram eventually discounted the theory.