FINGERPRINTS from the man accused of murdering Vicky Hamilton were found on a plastic bag which had been wrapped around her body before it was buried, a jury heard yesterday.
Four prints belonging to Peter Tobin, 62, were identified on the bag, a court was told.
Vicky was 15 when she was last seen alive, while waiting for a bus in Bathgate, West Lothian, in 1991. The High Court in Dundee has heard her bisected body
was dug up last November from the back garden of a house previously lived in by Tobin, in Margate, Kent.
The clothed upper torso had been wrapped in cloth, a curtain and seven black and green bin bags. The naked lower torso was in cloth and seven plastic bags.
James Aitken, of the Scottish Police Services Authority, told the jury prints found on one of the bags matched Tobin's.
Detective Constable Ian Campbell told the court he was present when Tobin was detained in the north of Scotland on 21 July last year in relation to Vicky's abduction.
The officer said Tobin had been cautioned that he need not say anything. Asked if Tobin had made any reply, DC Campbell stated: "I believe he replied, 'P*** off'."
The defence counsel, Donald Findlay, showed bundles of photographs to DC Campbell, who agreed that he had seen them before.
DC Campbell said several of the photographs were of Vicky. He estimated her age in them as 12. She wore a dress and was lying on a bed, holding a black stick of some description, possibly a whip.
Mr Findlay asked if the officer was aware that the photographs had been takenn by a man, Hugh Gunn. DC Campbell said he could not say who took them. Mr Findlay referred to "Shug" being a variation of the name "Hugh", and asked the officer to look at a note which he said had been written by a woman, now dead.
It read: "Sitting on a wall in Bathgate, waiting on the bus. Blond haired policeman who took photos out of Shug's car when the car was crashed. Shug plus friend from the Brays. Shot him dead. After killing Vicky he took her to the Brays and they helped bury her in garage near a cottage."
The prosecutor, Frank Mulholland, QC, said other evidence which had come into the possession of the police over the years had included claims relating to Vicky's death.
Karen Kerr, 34, a toxicologist, had said a drug, amitriptyline, had been found in samples taken from Vicky's body.
In earlier evidence, the jury has been told that Tobin took an overdose of tranquillisers, including amitriptyline.
It was also said he had received a prescription for a month's supply of amitriptyline on 28 December, 1990.
Tobin denies abducting Vicky on 10 February, 1991, in Bathgate, West Lothian, and drugging, indecently assaulting and murdering her. He is also accused of concealing the body, bisecting it and transporting and burying the parts. The trial continues.
The full article contains 503 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
