Peter Tobin drops Vicky Hamilton murder appeal

Serial killer Peter Tobin has dropped his appeal against his life sentence for murdering schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton, it was confirmed today.

Tobin, 63, who is serving life for murdering three young women, was challenging his 30-year sentence for killing the teenager from Falkirk.

Miss Hamilton, 15, was abducted in Bathgate in West Lothian in 1991.

Her remains were found 17 years later buried in the garden of Tobin's former home in Margate, Kent.

Judge Lord Emslie branded Tobin "unfit to live in a decent society" following his conviction at the High Court in Dundee in December 2008.

A court hearing as part of Tobin's appeal against the sentence he received for murdering Miss Hamilton was due to take place on Friday this week at the High Court in Edinburgh.

But today the Scottish Court Service confirmed a Minute of Abandonment had been received and the appeal would not continue.

The Minute would have been submitted by Tobin's counsel on his behalf.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Court Service said: "A Minute of Abandonment has been received by the court in Peter Tobin's appeal against his sentence for the murder of Vicky Hamilton.

"A hearing scheduled for later this week has now been withdrawn as a result."

In August Miss Hamilton's father Michael and Ian McNicol, whose 18-year-old daughter Dinah was murdered by Tobin, called for him to be denied the right to a court appeal.

The call was made after Tobin failed to turn up at the Court of Appeal in Edinburgh twice through illness.

Mr Hamilton said at the time it was "ridiculous" that taxpayers' money was being spent on the appeal when the killer would spend the rest of his days in jail.

Tobin is serving another two life sentences for the murders of Polish student Angelika Kluk and Miss McNicol.

Miss Kluk, 23, was raped and killed by Tobin at a Glasgow church in September 2006.

Miss McNicol vanished in August 1991 while hitchhiking to her home in Tillingham after leaving a music festival in Liphook, Hampshire.

Her remains were found alongside those of Miss Hamilton.

Miss Hamilton's father Michael, 60, said: "At the end of the day he killed three women, three people. Why should he have the right to appeal?

"Officials keep telling me it's his right. My daughter did not have any rights.

"The news this morning is absolutely brilliant. It's another page of the book closed."