True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

(Peter Tobin. Picture credit: scotsman.com) 

Continued from part one 

Please be aware in this post that I will be sharing some disturbing details. 

As I mentioned in part one, Peter Tobin had a history of violence towards women and a troubled background. Looking back it's clear to see that the red flags were always there, that a pattern was emerging and the feeling that he'd carried out his sadistic and cruel acts a number of times but somehow managed to get away with it.

He had already drugged, raped, murdered, dismembered & buried two girls in his back garden in 1991 but we weren't to discover this fact until years later when investigators started to delve thoroughly into his background. Around 1993, all we knew was that he had a history of extreme violence towards women. 

It was in 1993 that two teenage girls almost died at the hands of Peter Tobin. He'd moved to a flat to be closer to his son Daniel. His ex wife, Cathy felt that Peter had the right to visit their son and have him stay overnights at his flat as she said that he never laid a hand on his son. Cathy's feeling was that she had a bad childhood without a father and she didn't want that to be the same situation for her son.

On the night of the 4th of August 1993, Daniel was staying at his father's flat. This would be a regular arrangement and sometimes Peter would have babysitters around to look after Daniel if he fancied going out for a couple of drinks.

On this night however, Peter had a plan. He had arranged for two teenage girls to come to the flat in the pretence that they would babysit Daniel. His plan was to have sex with the two girls.

When the the girls arrived, Peter didn't leave the house and instead told them that he wanted to hang out with them and have a few drinks. A few hours passed and the drinks flowed, Peter tried to flirt and come onto the girls, when that didn't work, he drugged their glasses of wine.

As the drugs began to take effect, Peter became sadistic and threatened the girls with a knife in some kind of sick cat and mouse game. 

The girls were becoming more drowsy and disorientated until they finally passed out on the sofa. Five year old Daniel was still awake and Peter wanted to get rid of the child so that he could carry out his sick plan for the girls. He called Cathy in the middle of the night and told her to come and collect Daniel because he was having heart trouble and was going to call an ambulance.

When Cathy arrived, Peter was already stood on the doorstep with Daniel. Cathy asked him if everything was ok and did he want her to wait with him until the ambulance arrived? Peter told her just to take Daniel and go home and that he would sort it all out himself.

Once Cathy had driven away, Peter went back inside the flat where he raped and sodomised the two girls before putting on the gas taps and fleeing the scene. 

It's unclear how the girls were found but luckily they were saved just in time and managed to survive the horrific attack. 

Cathy got a phone call the next morning from the police telling her to come down to the police station straight away and bring Daniel with her.

It was at the police station where she learnt the horror of what went on the night before and even more horrendous was that Daniel had told investigators that Peter had told him to get some ice out of the freezer and place it on one of the girls who was bleeding after Peter had stabbed her.

Peter Tobin was on the run and managed to hide for several weeks. He'd spent some time with a religious group whilst on the run and the police made several public appeals for information about him.

Peter had been hiding in Coventry but returned to the South Coast where he was spotted after his car had been recognised, he was swiftly arrested by the police.

After a plea bargain, he pleaded guilty to rape but the charge of attempted murder was dropped and on the 18th of May 1994, he was sentenced to 14 years.

In 2004 he was released back into the public and was now on the sex offenders register. The police were keeping a close eye on him. He was 58 years old at the time. 

At this point in his life, he was single, divorced, he had nowhere to go and his family had disowned him. His sister was reported to have told people that he had died.

He returned to Paisley where he grew up and decided to get a flat there. It wasn't long until he tried to use his manipulative ways to lure another young, vulnerable woman into his trap and this time he turned his attention to his upstairs neighbour.

They would visit each others flats for coffee and chats but soon the pair grew closer. The woman had no idea of Peter Tobin's past, he was very polite and caring towards her but the police soon discovered what was going on and warned the young woman to stay away from him.

When the woman confronted Peter about what the police had told her, he said that it was all lies and he was going to sue the police. The lady kept her distance from Peter and he gave up and decided to move to another flat in 2005.

He struck up a friendship with another young woman but this time the woman was a bit of a tomboy and had been in the Army so she could handle herself which proved to be the case when, after inviting her to his house for a coffee, he jumped on her with a knife.

The woman fought back and managed to grab the knife off him during which she was cut. She ran as fast as she could for the door with Peter grabbing the knife off the floor and charging after her.

She got to the door which was locked and Peter came right up behind her, she did her best to fight back and Peter gave up and pretended to have a heart attack.

Thinking on her feet, the woman tried to calm him down and he told her that he wasn't going to stab her, that it was all a joke. She played along and told him to open the door to let some fresh air in and she would help him.

As soon as Peter opened the door she ran as fast as she could with him soon following after. She managed to get away and was taken to the hospital.

After she'd reported the incident to the police, they went to Peter's house to find that he had fled the scene. 

Peter Tobin was on the run again, going from hostel to hostel and managed to stay under the radar for quite some time. He was now calling himself ''Pat McLaughlin'' and seven months after the attack on the young woman he began working as a maintenance man at St Patrick's church in Glasgow.

He had found the perfect hiding place or so he thought but it was to be where he would commit one of the most brutal and horrifying murders Scotland had ever seen and the real story of Peter Tobin would be revealed. It would also be the start of a journey into his background, who was he? Could he have been the notorious killer, ''Bible John'' who had murdered women in the 1960s in Glasgow? and who were the young women who were buried in his back garden in Margate? 

How many women did he kill and how did he manage to get away with it for so long? 

In part three I will talk about the horrific murder of Angelika Kluk, the murders of Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicol and what became of Peter Tobin. 

Continued in part three