Murder accused is convicted killer

Peter Tobin, 62, from Johnstone, Renfrewshire, denies murdering 18-year-old Dinah McNicol as she returned home from a musical festival in Liphook, Hampshire, in August 1991.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard Miss McNicol, of Tillingham, Essex, was picked up as she tried to hitch a lift along the A3 towards London.

The last time she was seen alive was when her male companion was dropped off at Junction 8 of the M25. Her body was discovered in November 2007 when detectives re-opened the case and began a forensic examination of a house previously lived in by Tobin at Irvine Drive, Margate, Kent.

There they found the bodies of Miss McNicol and another victim, the jury heard. Miss McNicol's decomposed body was found in a shallow grave in the back garden. Her ankles and wrists had been tied together with the headscarf and leggings she was wearing when she vanished.

The jury was shown a computer graphic of how her body was found in the back garden. It showed her ankles by her head and how her body had been wrapped in bin sacks.

The court heard that her abduction and death bore striking similarities to three other attacks which Tobin has been convicted of.

Prosecutor William Clegg, QC, said Tobin was convicted in 2004 of raping and assaulting a 14-year-old girl and sexually attacking another young girl. He was also convicted of murdering 15-year-old Vicky Hamilton.

Miss Hamilton had suffered a sexual attack at the hands of Tobin after she was abducted in Bathgate, near Edinburgh in February 1991. The court heard that after he murdered her he cut her body in half and transported it to Margate where he buried the body.

Mr Clegg said that in each case Tobin had used a drug called anatryptaline which makes its victims more compliant by making them feel drowsy and dizzy. He added that the case of Vicky Hamilton bore a striking resemblance to the murder of Miss McNicol.