Suspected serial killer Peter Tobin lived in a sixth property in the city, The Argus has discovered.

In addition to the convicted murderer's five former homes in Brighton and Hove, Tobin also lived in a basement flat at 11 Grand Parade during 1973 and 1974.

John Nottle, of Ninfield Place, Brighton, worked with Tobin for Brighton Corporation Water Department digging up water mains across the city in the seventies.

He remembered Tobin as "a happy-go-lucky bloke."

The two men worked as part of a gang of four based at the corporations headquarters in Falmer, Brighton, until Tobin didn't appear for work one morning.

Later, Mr Nottle discovered he had been arrested for breaking into empty homes and stealing copper pipes.

It was the last he heard of him until last week when he saw him on the television.

Mr Nottle said: "I recognised him straight away. I said to my wife, I knew him.

"I couldn't believe it. I just thought he was a happy-go-lucky bloke but you never know people. I was very surprised."

Mr Nottle remembers Tobin living on Grand Parade in Brighton. It is not clear when he left the property and where he moved to next.

The suspected serial killer would give Mr Nottle lifts to work.

Mr Nottle said: "We became quite friendly and went for drinks after work a few times. I can't recall him having any close mates but he used to drink in The Richmond Pub, near where he lived.

"He had an Austin 840 which he hand-painted with purple gloss paint.

"One day he never turned up for work. He'd been breaking into disused houses on Old Shoreham Road, when it was being widened.

"He seemed quite a nice bloke. He was a good worker. I'm certain he was married but never met his wife.

"He worked with us for about 18 months but in that time worked with other teams too."

Tobin was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a Polish student earlier this year.

A police search of a house where Tobin lived in Margate, Kent, in 1991, has uncovered the bodies of two missing teenage girls, Dinah McNicol and Vicky Hamilton.

Sussex Police officers are planning to contact all current owners and occupants of his former homes.

But, at this stage, there are no plans to begin searching any of the houses unless they believe there are grounds to suspect links to unsolved murders.

His other known homes in the city include properties in Chadborn Close, Dyke Road, Eastern Street, Regency Square and Station Road in Portslade.

Yesterday The Argus reported one of Tobin's former neighbours, Pauline Terry, 71, saying she believed police should dig up the front garden of Tobin's previous home in Chadborn Close.

She described how Tobin's first act on moving into the ground floor flat in Brighton's Bristol estate was to dig up the garden and entirely clear it.

Mrs Terry, whose son James used to play around the property, said: "It was literally the first thing he did.

"There were no plants or grass on the front garden. He just put a motorbike on it.

"I think the police should look there."

Mrs Terry also described how a woman committed suicide by jumping off the top of Tobin's building around 1990.

She claimed he was left in a state of shock by the incident and that it was this that sparked his move away from Brighton.

In a demonstration of the notoriety which has engulfed Peter Tobin, Georgina Anderson, 29, was reduced to tears after realising she had agreed to move into a building the killer used to occupy.

Miss Anderson and her boyfriend have swapped contracts on the flat she believes Tobin used to live at in Station Road, Portslade.

She said: "It's just been devastating. When I realised I just said to my boyfriend, 'We've moved into a murderer's flat'. I think we're going to have to get a priest in."

Did you know Tobin? Leave your comments below or contact the newsdesk on 01273 544520.