| Appearing as a witness at the trial of Peter Tobin, who denies murdering Vicky, retired Detective Chief Inspector Keith Anderson, formerly of Lothian and Borders Police, outlined the extensive investigations that took place across the UK before her body was discovered buried in a garden in Margate in November, 2007.
Mr Anderson told the jury he was appointed to head up the inquiry in 2006 when a review of the evidence into her disappearance from Bathgate in February, 1991, took place.
He said when she disappeared a team of 21 officers had been involved in a search of the Bathgate area, including the town centre, gardens, the route of the 281 bus she was believed to have taken, houses, building sites, derelict buildings and all roads surrounding the town.
The search also took detectives to all routes leading to Edinburgh and, in particular, to the bus station in St Andrews Square in Edinburgh, where a purse containing items belonging to the teenager was found.
He said extensive inquiries were also conducted in London and Aberdeen in May and June of 1991.
The former DCI said, despite officers conducting inquiries with family, friends, hospitals, the DSS and other places and organisations one would expect people to contact, the results were negative.
He said by the first anniversary of her disappearance, officers had spoken to slightly over 6500 people and taken more than 3000 statements. By then, the inquiry was being wound down and the majority of the officers in the team were returned to normal duties.
Regular reviews were then held into the investigation at five and 10-year intervals, including extensive media appeals.
Asked by Solicitor General Frank Mulholland if, in 2001, some information came to police attention about a man called Hugh Gunn, he replied, “Yes, that’s correct.”
Mr Mulholland then asked if an inquiry into that information was set up and the witness again replied, “Yes.”
He also confirming that at the end of that, the inquiry was wound down again.
He agreed that five years later, in 2006, another review took place and an inquiry team was set up, which he headed.
He said the team contacted all the police forces in the UK, plus the Department of Work and Pensions and the General Registrars.
Asked why that agency had been contacted, he replied, “We were looking for people with the name Vicky Hamilton to try to trace her and ensure she wasn’t living anywhere else.”
He agreed checks had also been made into deed polls, the NHS, surgeries, BUPA, The Inland Revenue, Passport Offices, DVLA and council tenancies across the UK, plus Women’s Aid organisations. All were negative.
Asked if, when the body of Vicky was discovered in the rear garden at 50 Irvine Drive, Margate, he broke the news to her family, he said, “That’s correct.”
Mr Anderson said the investigation was revived in 2001 as a result of information provided by Margaret Mulgrew, who has since died. She gave police a series of statements in which she related a conversation she had with a man named Hugh Gunn in which she alleged he confessed to murdering Vicky.
Mr Mulholland read transcripts of the statements to the court, including claims Vicky had been sacrificed by monks from an order called Knights of the Templar, and her heart had been cut out while she was still alive. In another account, she said Gunn, who she called “Shug”, said he’d killed her because she had “grassed on him to police”.
He claimed to have taken “kinky photos” of Vicky.
Margaret Mulgrew told police Gunn appeared aroused by these admissions.
He was also said to have admitted Vicky was buried under the concrete of a porch at the back door of a cottage near Torphichen — a small village a few miles from Bathgate.
The solicitor general asked Mr Anderson, “Your job is to investigate allegations, regardless of what you think of them?”
The witness replied that it was. He said that was how police came into possession of photos shown to jurors yesterday of Vicky posing on a bed with a whip.
Mr Mulholland asked the witness if he had read forensic reports in connection with the death of Vicky, and he said he had.
He was asked if there was any evidence to support Gunn’s claims about the manner in which he said he killed her or any connection to her remains. Mr Anderson said there was not.
Gunn’s descriptions contained reference to the clothes he said Vicky had been wearing when he killed her.
Mr Anderson agreed the description of the shirt she was wearing was inaccurate and that the other clothes he described would be widely known from publicity campaigns and reconstructions police carried out in an attempt to trace her.
He confirmed his inquiries included speaking to psychiatrists treating Gunn for mental illness. |
