Church garden memorial for murdered girls

TWO of the victims of notorious killer Peter Tobin are to be honoured with a memorial garden in the village where their remains were discovered. Next month, the family of murdered Scottish schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton will attend the official unveiling of the memorial garden, in the grounds of a church in Margate, Kent.

It will be be a permanent memorial to Vicky, and Dinah McNicol, whose lives were cut short by the notorious killer.

It is believed to be the only public memorial of its type to crime victims in the UK apart from the garden laid out in Dunblane following the murder of 16 schoolchildren and their teacher in 2006 and a memorial to the vicitms of the Lockerbie disaster.

It is not known if the family of Tobin's third known victim, Angelika Kluk, who was killed in a Glasgow church, are aware of the memorial plans.

The convicted sex offender has been investigated in connection with many crimes and disappearances. Police said the killer's nomadic existence, the many aliases he has used and the more than 120 cars he has owned during his lifetime made it impossible to know the full extent of his crimes.

He has been linked to the Glasgow Bible John killings as well as the disappearances of Louise Kay, 18, and Jessica Earl, 22, from Eastbourne, and the "Babes in the Woods" murders of nine-year-olds Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway in Brighton.

Made of limestone and granite, and planted with hundreds of ferns and woodland plants, the memorial will help both the families and the community come to terms with the murders that blighted their lives.

Designer Rob Lawrence said a broken circle represented the prematurely ended lives of the two girls. The benches represent the girls themselves and provide a place for reflection. Black limestone and silver granite are being used for the circular base.

The memorial will be surrounded by yew hedging. Woodland bulbs will be planted in the centre circle leading out to the edges..

Between the two benches there will be a black limestone plinth bearing a brass plaque. On it will be the simple inscription: "In loving memory of Dinah McNicol and Vicky Hamilton."

The girls' bodies were discovered in the garden of Tobin's former home in nearby Irvine Drive.John Richardson, the vicar of Holy Trinity, said: "The whole episode is still very raw and still very much in people's minds."

Richardson, who will conduct the memorial service, said the church had agreed to site the memorial garden because "it is in the centre of the community where the girls were buried and their bodies found".

Tobin is serving three life sentences life for murdering Vicky, 15, - who disappeared as she waited for a bus in Bathgate, West Lothian, in 1991 - Dinah, 18, and Polish student Angelika Kluk, 23, in Glasgow in 2006.

Vicky's 60-year-old father, Michael, from Redding near Falkirk, said he was delighted with the design of the memorial garden.

"I did not expect them to create something like this, especially when money is so tight for everyone."

Michael said there had been discussion about whether to pull down Tobin's former home in Margate and create a memorial there.

He said: "There is a family living in the house now and they would have to find somewhere else to live. The memorial in the grounds is the best idea."