Serial killer detective: ‘I’m sure Peter Tobin’s killed more women’

It had started as a missing person’s case, but the grim discovery of the bound and gagged body of young Polish student Angelika Kluk under church floorboards in September 2006 triggered a major police investigation – which eventually led to the capture of one of Britain’s most violent serial killers.

Angelika, 23, had last been seen by the parish handyman, who had given his name as Pat McLaughlin to officers hoping to shed light on her disappearance. DSI David Swindle had initially headed up the search at the church, where Angelika lived and worked.

But after finding her body buried just feet below, his attention turned to the handyman, who, after being interviewed by David and his team, had also vanished. Police released his picture, and an appeal was launched for him to come forward. But this led to another shocking discovery – “Pat” was actually convicted rapist Peter Tobin – and DNA on Angelika’s body matched that of Tobin.

In May 2007 he was found guilty and sentenced to a minimum of 21 years in jail. But David was certain that Angelika wasn’t vile Tobin’s only victim – and it’s this chilling conviction that forms the basis of part of a gripping new television series, British Police: Our Toughest Cases.

Speaking to Closer, David, 64, says, “Angelika had been beaten, bound, gagged and stabbed, before being dumped beneath floorboards. Tests showed she may even have been alive when she was buried. It was like she was a bag of rubbish. What had happened to her was absolutely horrendous and showed a complete disrespect for human life. The way he had murdered her seemed experienced – I was certain he was a serial killer.”

When Angelika was found, her injuries were so brutal that she wasn’t immediately identifiable. David recalls, “I hope no other senior investigating officer has to deal with something like that again. The depravity of it was unimaginable. After that, it was so fast-moving, we had to get it right and ensure there were no mistakes.”

Angelika’s body had to stay in place while investigators laid down in the tiny space below the floorboards to take swabs.

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Though he fled to London after the killing, Tobin had left behind a bag containing heavily bloodstained clothing, a towel and a knife, all buried under the floorboards, while his DNA proved to be an irrefutable link. He was arrested and formally charged with Angelika’s murder, before standing trial at the High Court in Edinburgh in March 2007, where he was found guilty of murder and two counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Meanwhile, David’s suspicions prompted an urgent re-examination of the UK’s unsolved cases. He went on to launch Operation Anagram, a massive investigation into the killer’s life – and his extensive research uncovered two more victims, Vicky Hamilton, 15, and Dinah McNicol, 18.

He explains, “It was a search for the truth, to leave no stone unturned. People asked why I was doing it, as [Tobin] was going to prison anyway, but any person who has lost a loved one deserves to know what happened. We looked at where he had been throughout his life and what had happened there.”

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Tobin had travelled extensively, using numerous aliases, and the investigation soon highlighted two high-profile missing person cases. Vicky went missing in Bathgate, West Lothian, on 10 February 1991, and Dinah disappeared on 3 August 1991.

Through Operation Anagram, police officers across the UK tracked Tobin’s movements first to a house in West Lothian, Scotland, where he had lived in 1991. Hidden in the attic rafters was a dagger-like knife on which was found a tiny piece of Vicky’s skin. The girls’ skeletal remains were later discovered in the garden of another house in Margate, Kent, where Tobin had lived, buried in bin bags feet apart. Tobin, now 73, was found guilty of both murders at separate trials and given another two life sentences.

After Tobin was convicted of Dinah McNicol’s murder, Judge Mr Justice Calvert-Smith told him that his sentence would be accompanied by a whole life order, meaning he would never be freed from jail.

The horrendous crimes have left their mark on David.

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He says, “Looking at the pictures, trying to work out what Angelika must have gone through and then what Dinah and Vicky had endured as well, these are things that I will never forget. Seeing what he did to those girls made me more determined to get justice. If we hadn’t caught Tobin for Angelika’s murder, the families of Vicky and Dinah might never have known what happened to their loved ones.

"I just wish we knew more about what he’s done.”

David, who retired from the police force after 34 years and now works as a private investigator, hopes cowardly Tobin, who has never admitted his crimes, will confess to other murders.

He says, “I’m sure Peter Tobin has killed other women. I hope the documentary will put him in the spotlight once more – maybe someone will come forward with new information. Tobin approached vulnerable people, he frequented hostels and met people who had no relatives, so who would report them missing? Operation Anagram will never be finished, until we know what else he has done. We owe it to his victims to keep searching for the truth.”