By Joy Watters and Brian Smith

FINGERPRINTS FOUND on one of the plastic bin bags containing the torso of 15-year-old Falkirk schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton came from the man accused of abducting and murdering her, an expert told the High Court in Dundee yesterday.

James Aitken (46), of the Scottish Police Services Agency in Edinburgh, said he matched four fingerprints photographed on the bag to prints taken from Peter Tobin.

He told the court two of the prints came from the right little finger, one from the left ring finger and the fourth from the right middle finger.

Witnesses gave evidence that the bag on which the fingerprints were found was the third in from the outer bag of the four used to encase Vicky’s remains, before it was buried in the back garden of a terraced house in Margate, Kent.

Solicitor General Frank Mulholland asked Mr Aitken if the finding of the fingerprints was consistent with Peter Tobin having placed Vicky’s upper torso in the hole from which it was excavated.

Mr Aitken replied he could not comment further than they showed Peter Tobin’s fingers had been in contact with the bag.

Mr Mulholland persisted, “If something is removed from a hole and fingerprints are on it, the fingerprints must have got there before it was placed in the hole?”

The witness said, “That would be my opinion yes.”

This point was taken up by defence counsel Donald Findlay QC, who said, “The proposition that the presence of fingerprints of anybody on the plastic bag—Peter Tobin’s—would indicate that at some point in time he handled that plastic bag. That’s it?”

Mr Aitken replied, “Yes.”

Counsel continued, “What was in the plastic bag is, in that sense, neither here not there?”

The witness replied, “My role is as a fingerprint officer, I speak to the presence of fingerprints.”

Detained in connection with the alleged abduction of Vicky Hamilton, Peter Tobin’s response was to swear at detectives, a police officer said.

Detective Constable Ian Campbell (39), of Lothian and Borders Police, said he was one of the officers who detained Tobin at a police office in the north of Scotland on July 21 last year.

After he was detained, fingerprints and a mouth swab were obtained.

Cross-examined, the detective said he had been appointed production officer to the investigation on March 20, 2007.

As part of that function he took possession of a number of photographs at the police station at Livingston where they had been lodged bearing the date August 24, 2001.

Asked about them in detail by Mr Findlay, the detective agreed that one series of photographs were of Vicky Hamilton sitting in various poses on a bed wearing a dress and in some photographs holding a whip. In some of the photographs an infant child could be seen in the background.

A separate folder contained two photographs, apparently of the same scene, in which the face of the sitter had been torn out.

Counsel asked the officer, “Do you agree these are not appropriate photographs for an adult to be taking of a girl with an infant present?”

The officer replied, “One could infer that, yes.”

He agreed that the label attached to that group of photographs stated—“13 photographs of Vicky Faye Hamilton (Hugh Gunn).”

A further set of photographs was produced by Mr Findlay and the officer agreed they were said to be taken by an adult male by the name of Hugh Gunn.

The bundle contained another nine prints from the earlier sequence of Vicky Hamilton as well as photographs of women or girls, in a short skirt or shorts, wearing white shoes. Some photographs were simply of a leg and shoe.

Mr Findlay then asked the officer to look at a piece of paper, saying it was written by a woman, now dead, called Margaret Mulgrew.

Counsel asked DC Campbell to confirm that it read, “Sitting on wall in Bathgate. Waiting for bus. Blond haired policeman who took photos out off (sic) Shug’s car when the car crashed. Shug plus friend from The Braies (sic) shot him dead. … After killing Vicky he took her to The Brays and they helped bury her in garage near a cottage.”

Mr Mulholland then asked the officer, “Ever seen anything to suggest that Vicky’s body was buried at Torphichen with help of the White Knights of Templar?”

“Not to my knowledge,” he replied.

The detective constable had not heard of the White Knights of Templar, and was asked by Mr Mulholland if he had seen “anyone dressed as one in Edinburgh or indeed Scotland, charging about on a horse with a pole”.

The officer said he had not.

Karen Kerr (34), a toxicologist in Edinburgh, said she analysed samples from the bruise on Vicky Hamilton’s right hand and from her liver, taken at post mortem. The presence of the drug in the liver indicated it had been ingested.

Both samples returned positive results for a sedative anti-depressant drug and a derivative which occurred when the body processed the original drug.

Changes after death meant that the drugs might have moved from a drug- rich part of the body to another, so quantification would have no value.

A neighbour of Peter Tobin, when he lived in Robertson Avenue in Bathgate, said motorcycle gear and glass demijohns were left at his house when Tobin moved away.

Kevin Ellis (43), said he was aware Peter Tobin’s wife Kathy and their son returned down south sometime before Tobin left in the early part of 1991.

Mr Ellis said there had been a little socialising between the couples after Tobin helped him to move some soil in his garden.

“Did it involve any digging?” The Solicitor General asked in re-examination.

The witness said he had been helped to move the soil from the front of the house to the back, where he was creating two levels.

The trial continues.