THE arrest and charging of a man over a 17-year-old horrific sex murder is not likely to have been of huge interest to Anorak readers.
When Peter Tobin was arrested and accused of the murder of 15-year-old Vicky Hamilton, both pictured above in today’s Scotsman, there was an exception.
In the plethora of thread postings re the missing child Madeleine McCann it became a legal minefield for Anorak. It had been created by the persistence of one poster (unbelievably a man with some legal training) who repeatedly tried to reveal the fact Tobin was already in a Scottish jail and serving a life sentence for murder and rape.
Requests were made, they were ignored and finally a warning given.
Then, in a rare move, the poster had to be blocked/banned for what was regarded as a deliberate attempt to either affect the course of justice or simply drag Anorak into a legal mire.
The poster’s justification appeared to be: “It has appeared elsewhere. Why not Anorak?” It also seemed to be an attempt to display insider knowledge. Both were vainglorious. All good UK journalists knew the pitfalls and risks; all average newspaper readers would have remembered the very recent previous case, good lawyers wanted to see a fair trial and the irresponsibilities of other publishers has nil influence on Anorak’s editorial policies or decision process…and still does not.
Anorak sometimes has to treat very serious stories seriously.
Tobin was yesterday described by a judge as “a truly evil man … unfit to live in a decent society” as he was jailed for at least 30 years for the abduction, rape and murder of Vicky Hamilton.
It was the second conviction of this kind for Tobin, 62, who is back in his cell in Peterhead, one of Scotland’s toughest and most forbidding Category A prisoner jails. He is already serving a 21-year sentence for the murder of Polish student Angelika Kluk in Glasgow two years ago. He will never be freed.
This period, when there are no further charges, allows the freedom to say the legal minefield still exists: Tobin is suspected of up to 12 unsolved murders across the country. Police have refused to comment on how many other cases they are linking to Tobin, but said that his movements over 30 years were being analysed for answers to unsolved crimes.
The Herald says Lord Emslie, sentencing Tobin, said:
“It is hard for me to convey the loathing and revulsion that ordinary people will feel for what you have done.”
Or may have also committed…because the man would have to have an unfettered and unprejudiced future trial if charged. Tragically, that fact may prevent other charges being laid and stop some sort of closure for families of other murdered loved ones.
All that would be allegedly, of course.
- AGW
Posted: 3rd, December 2008 | In: Media Comments (9) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
December 6th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
It is a pity that over there, as over here, many times those who commit the most heinous crimes and escape the death penalty are put in segregated cells in prison for life. Many of the most hardened murderers have an ‘honour’ code re killing and raping young people. Don’t segregate those animals who commit heinous crimes let the law of the jungle in there met out the appropriate punishment.
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:51 pm
agw
It was Bible John I meant.
When I was small there used to be an urban myth (well, rural myth, in our case) that if you read the bible you went mad and would kill people - all because of Bible John (although I didn’t realise the link until I was older).
He will have a terrible time in Peterhead - he might even end up in Carstairs.
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:00 pm
String the bastard up. Why should we pay for 30 years in absolute luxury.
Sorry, had you finished?
Am I too soon?
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Karen:
Good afternoon.
Are you referring to the three killings attributed to the yet unsolved Bible John murders of 1969?
Since there are no charges I am happy to risk showing you this artist’s impression of the Glasgow serial killer of the mid to late 60s. Bible John. ..and yes I know who it looks like.
The killings are certainly in the frame for talking to Tobin, along with another nine alleged murders. The Bible John murders have already been said to have striking resemblances to the Tobin killkings.
We do not know if they are part of the investigations, but Tobin is 62. He has been found guilty of murdering two young women 15 years apart.
As Chenier pointed out this evil swine was not sitting on his hands during the rest of his life and serial killers do not reach their killing frenzy peaks in their mid-40s.
Look at the astounding list of UK serial killers known so far.
Dr Harold Shipman made a life time’s work of it but others: Sutcliffe, the Wests, Donald Neilsen Colin Ireland all started young and went on and on
Tobin can expect to be invited to take tea and scones with some top-ranking detectives over the next few months.
Just before we get the “hang him high” brigade joining in. Tobin will have a dog’s life at Peterhead Prison.
I do not know but will take a shot at saying he likely to be a Sectioned prisoner and kept apart from the other hardened men in there.
His life is at risk in any communal activity and probably 24 hours a day and every day while in any prison. It is pretty close to a life of solitary confinement.
I would just add that despite some people’s ill-informed opinion, Anorak does know a thing or two about how - and when - to do a proper job.
That help you at all?
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:42 pm
I think the problems occured because the person concerned is obsessively anti-Catholic… he hates them all, and the above case with its connections to the Church gave him a perfect stage for a rant about Catholics as did the McCanns. I’m wary of fundamentalists and radicals of all creeds…..
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I also caused legal problems - but I didn’t mean it - it was just dimness.
I’m fascinated by Peter Tobin because the Angelika Kluk case was huge up here, with lots of embarrassing revelations about the Priest and the Parish - and I pass the Church she was killed in everytime I go between my flat and my family home.
And he’s linked to a legendary Glasgow serial killer (I wont name him just in case)… so it’s like suddenly finding out who Jack the Ripper really was. And Vicky Hamilton was in the news on and off for years…
And Tobin was born a few miles from where I grew up… and he might have murdered a girl in woods I used to play in…
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:36 pm
“It had been created by the persistence of one poster (unbelievably a man with some legal training) who repeatedly tried to reveal the fact Tobin was already in a Scottish jail and serving a life sentence for murder and rape.”
I can’t understand why that poster kept on until he was banned. Now I know what it was all about, I don’t know if I can take his intentions seriously any more.
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:25 am
Its amazing how often I have heard ‘but its elsewhere’ as though that justifies it.
The other clarion call is Freedom Of Speech, which when used responsibly is fine, but knowing when discretion and silence is the better and safer option and not to descend into common gossip
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:58 am
The very real impediments to justice by people seeking, for one reason or another, to disclose information which would prejudice a fair trial, are often overlooked in the rush to get one’s name in lights on the Internet Wall of Fame,
Peter Tobin had previously been convicted of rape and murder, and given a sentence appropriate to those convictions, which meant that he could have been freed at the end of that term.
Following his conviction for the rape and murder of Vicky Hamilton he will never be released.
Vicky’s friends and family know that justice has finally been done, and we, the general public, have been safeguarded against a man whose desire to kill for pleasure could almost certainly never be altered.
Both of those outcomes could have been put at risk had Anorak not guarded the process of justice itself.
That is a point worth bearing in mind the next time people demand that the Sheffield rapist, or the people responsible for the death of Baby P, be named here or elsewhere…