Peter Tobin’s home searched

Police on Friday uncovered a second body in the Margate home that once belonged to Peter Tobin. Police believe the corpse to be that of Dinah McNicol, who went missing in 1991 at the age of 18. The body was only discovered when the entire patio of the house at 50 Irvine Drive, Margate, was lifted and the ground underneath excavated.

On Monday last week, police found the body of Vicky Hamilton in the same garden, buried beneath a sandpit. Then - 15-year-old also went missing in 1991. Peter Tobin has been charged with her murder.

Dinah McNicol went missing in 1991 after accepting a lift from a stranger after attending a music festival in Hampshire. Essex police reviewing the case were lead to the Irvine Drive address where they unexpectedly uncovered Hamilton's remains.

Over the weekend, the police search moved inside the house, as forensic experts and archaeologists worked together in an effort to determine if there were more bodies hidden there. Radar technology was being employed to find inconsistencies in the house's concrete floor. A police officer said before the weekend: "We still have a lot of work to do in that house." But by Monday morning, no further bodies had been discovered.

Police have stressed the fact that the current residents of the house are under no suspicion, and are being given counselling from family liaison officers.

It was revealed yesterday that police from the same team are examining nine other properties in Brighton, Hampshire, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Peter Tobin, 61, lived at the Margate address for only a short time in the early 1990s.

Ian McNicol is today awaiting the result of forensic tests to confirm whether the body found at 50 Irvine Drive on Friday is that of his daughter Dinah. He said on Friday: "I'm 68 now and I haven't got long left, because of this, I desperately want to lay Dinah to rest before my time comes."

FIRST POSTED NOVEMBER 19, 2007