Prayers held for for dead girls - News in brief - Evening Standard
       

Prayers held for for dead girls

A prayer service has been held outside the house where the bodies of missing teenagers Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicol were found.

Police are continuing to assess evidence collected at the property in Margate, Kent, following the discovery of the remains.

Peter Tobin, 61, is charged with the murder of 15-year-old Vicky, from Redding, near Falkirk, who disappeared in 1991.

Miss McNicol, an 18-year-old student, from Tillingham, Essex, went missing the same year on her way home from a music festival in Liphook, Hampshire.

A service was held for the girls outside 50 Irvine Drive in Margate, led by the Rev Arthur Houston of the nearby Holy Trinity Church.

A fund has been set up in memory of Miss McNicol by her former school, Chelmsford County High School for Girls, which Miss McNicol attended between 1985 and 1991.

A school spokesman said: "Staff remember her fondly as a sweet girl who worked hard and achieved well. The school was very shaken by her disappearance at the time. A fund is being set up in school in memory of Dinah."

Proceeds will go to the Essex Police Benevolent Fund and the Missing People charity "in recognition of the efforts of both organisations to find Dinah after her disappearance", the spokesman said.

Miss McNicol's father also paid tribute to the police and the charity. In a statement released through Essex Police, Ian McNicol, 68, said: "I would like to thank the police involved in finding my daughter. We are so indebted to them, as well as the Missing People charity. I would also like to thank all the people who have sent cards and letters. We are really very grateful.

"Also, Chelmsford County High School for Girls has been fantastic and a special thanks to the headmistress. My deepest thoughts are also with the family of Vicky Hamilton."

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