London Police Arrest Peter Tobin, Missing Sex Offender Sought After Angelika Kluk Was Found Dead in a Glasgow Church
Tobin had worked at St Patrick's Church under a false name. Strathclyde Police stressed the arrest was on another matter, not the murder.
Published
Angelika Kluk, a 23-year-old Polish student, was found dead beneath the floor of the Glasgow church where she was staying. On October 1, 2006, police in London arrested Peter Tobin, the handyman who was last seen with her.
Tobin, 60, a convicted child rapist, had been doing odd jobs at St Patrick's Church in Anderston under the alias Pat McLaughlin. Kluk, a languages student at Gdansk University, was spending the summer in Glasgow, working as a cleaner. She was reported missing on Monday, September 25, and police questioned Tobin that night, but he gave a false name and they did not recognize him as a wanted sex offender. He disappeared the next day. Her body was found in the church on the evening of Friday, September 29.
Tobin had been released early from a 14-year sentence imposed in 1994 for the rape and sexual assault of two 14-year-old girls in Hampshire. Living in the Paisley area, he was on the sex offenders register, but he stopped registering his address late in 2005, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. The public was never warned that he was at large. Scotland Yard detained him at an address in London in the early hours of October 1, on a warrant under the Sexual Offences Act.
"I would stress that the arrest is in connection with another matter and not with the murder of Angelika," said Detective Superintendent David Swindle of Strathclyde Police, adding that officers were traveling to London. Tobin was later convicted of murdering Kluk, and police then dug up the garden of a former home of his in Margate, Kent. He was convicted of murdering Vicky Hamilton, 15, in 2008 and Dinah McNicol in 2009.
The Observer reported that Tobin had worked at the church for six weeks, while The Guardian reported the next day that he had been living there for two months.
Sources
- Sister criticises police after murdered student's body is found in church, The Guardian
- Missing Polish girl's family refuse to give up final hopes, The Observer (Guardian)
- Found guilty in 15 minutes: the serial killer, The Independent
Related News
- November 14, 2007: Remains in the Garden of Peter Tobin's Former Margate Home Are Identified as Missing Teen Vicky Hamilton
- December 2, 2008: Peter Tobin Is Found Guilty of Murdering 15-Year-Old Vicky Hamilton, Who Vanished in Bathgate in 1991
- December 16, 2009: Peter Tobin Is Found Guilty of Murdering Dinah McNicol, 18, and Given a Whole-Life Term for His Third Killing
- October 8, 2022: Peter Tobin, Convicted of Three Murders, Dies in Edinburgh Hospital at 76