Homes searched in Peter Tobin murder inquiry (From The Argus)

Homes searched in Peter Tobin murder inquiry

10:00am Monday 12th July 2010 in Video News By Ben Parsons, Crime Reporter

Two addresses in Brighton and Hove are being searched today by detectives investigating whether serial sex killer Peter Tobin murdered while living in Sussex.

Sussex Police arrived at Marine Parade, Brighton, and Station Road, Portslade, early this morning, after more than two years of investigation into the background of the 63-year-old convicted killer.

He is currently serving life sentences for three murders.

Main points from this morning's press conference.

• The searches, which will take up to four weeks, are to establish whether it is worth conducting further digs
• Police are using ground penetrating radar, and mechanical diggers may also be used to dig test trenches
• Family liaison officers have been posted to relatives of anyone whose disappearance or death has been linked to Tobin
• Tobin has been visited in prison and asked questions in connection with these digs, but has revealed nothing

Click on play below to read our liveblog with the latest developments

In 1991, after leaving Sussex, Tobin murdered Vicky Hamilton, 15, and Dinah McNicol, 18, and buried them in the garden of his council house in Margate, Kent, where they lay undiscovered for 16 years.

He was convicted of a violent sex attack on two teenage girls in 1993.

He disappeared after his release in 2004 and murdered Polish student Angelika Kluk two years later, burying her in a Glasgow church.

It was after that murder police grew to believe Tobin was responsible for more crimes.

The inquiry, Operation Anagram, led to the discovery of the bodies in Margate in 2007.

Since then forces around the country have been re-examining missing persons and unsolved murder cases for links with Tobin, while detectives appealed through BBC's Crimewatch for information about his past.

He lived on and off in Sussex between the late 1960s and 1980s, marrying three times. He had a series of different jobs, drove several different cars and motorbikes and had links all around the country.

The police inquiry in Sussex is understood to have focused on the 1980 disappearance of Jessie Earl, whose bones were found at Beachy Head in 1989, and the 1988 disppearance of Louise Kay, aged 18, who has never been found.