Vicky Hamilton murder trial: Ex-residents didn't recognise knife found in Tobin house

Published on Tuesday 11 November 2008 08:45

A BOY who hadn't been born when schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton disappeared gave evidence today at the trial of a man accused of her murder.

Jamie Dyet, 10, was one of 14 witnesses questioned about a house in Bathgate West Lothian, where Peter Tobin was a tenant between September 1989 and March 1991.

Tobin, 62, denies abducting Vicky and taking her to his then home on February 10 1991, and – either in the house at 11 Robertson Avenue or elsewhere – murdering the 15-year-old girl

Tobin claims that on the day Vicky disappeared while on her way home to Redding, Falkirk, he was in the Portsmouth area, hundreds of miles away.

At the High Court in Dundee today, witnesses were shown photos taken during a police search of the three-bedroomed house in Robertson Avenue last June.

Jamie, along with his parents, spent almost a month in a hotel after police moved into their home. They have since sold the house.

Jamie, hardly tall enough to speak into the microphone in front of the witness box, stood wearing his grey cammo combat jacket buttoned to the chin, hands clasped, waiting for questions from solicitor general Frank Mulholland QC, prosecuting.

He told the court he was in class P6 at St Mary's Primary School in Bathgate and went on to explain which room in the house had been his bedroom.

"Were you ever in the loft?" asked Mr Mulholland. "I was in a few times," Jamie told him.

"Did you maybe see anything in the loft such as a knife?" Jamie replied: "No"

Warehouse supervisor Gary Dyet, 37, – Jamie's dad – was also asked if he had been in the loft.

He told the court: "Yes I was, yes. Just storage, storing stuff you know. Christmas decorations."

He said perhaps he went up there two, three, four times a year.

Mr Mulholland showed him a knife and asked if Mr Dyet had seen it before, other than when it was shown to him by police. "No, never," said Mr Dyet.

He was also shown a photo of a knife lying between a joist and the wall of the loft. "Were you ever aware of a knife being in that location?" asked Mr Mulholland. "Never, no," replied Mr Dyet, who said he had done extensive work in the house in the kitchen and bathroom.

He told defence QC Donald Findlay he remembered three glass demi-john jars shown lined up in front of the knife – but they were not his. He also agreed there had been considerable shifting of items in the loft during the search.

Jacqueline Dyet, 36, a social care worker, said she hadn't been in the loft.

Other residents of the house at 11 Robertson Avenue going back to the mid-1960s also gave evidence today. No-one was able to say they had seen the knife before – apart from when it was shown to them by police investigating Vicky's disappearance and death.

The trail continues.