Vicky Hamilton's body found at ex-home of Tobin

The body of a woman found in the garden of a Margate house once occupied by Peter Tobin is that of 15-year-old Vicky Hamilton, Lothian and Borders Police said today.

Forensic teams discovered the remains buried in a sandpit in the garden in Margate, Kent, earlier this week.

Detectives were at one point examining the possibility that they belonged to student Dinah McNicol, from Essex, who vanished 16 years ago.

But Lothian and Borders Police said this afternoon that the body was that of 15-year-old Vicky Hamilton, who disappeared in West Lothian in 1991.

A police spokesman said: "Lothian and Borders Police can confirm that the body found in the house in Margate, Kent, on November 12 is that of Vicky Hamilton.

"A man has been arrested in July 2007 and charged in connection with the disappearance of Vicky Hamilton and a report submitted to the Procurator Fiscal."

Tobin, 61, had already been charged in connection with the schoolgirl's disappearance.

Miss McNicol, 18, of Tillingham, Essex, disappeared in the same year as Vicky after attending a music festival in Liphook, Hampshire.

Detectives reopened their inquiry into her death last week and said information had led them to a house in Margate where Tobin once lived.

However, they revealed last night that personal items found at the scene were not "consistent with what we know Dinah owned".