Police have stepped down operations at a second English property where serial killer Peter Tobin used to live, after ruling out any links to further violent crimes.
Officers spent the past 15 days excavating the large back garden of a house in Brighton, while forensics staff carried out investigations in the building’s basement.
However, Sussex Police now say there is now evidence that the property in Marine Parade was linked to any crimes carried out by Tobin, who lived there in the 1980s.
A similar search at Station Road in nearby Portslade ended last week following nine days of excavations.
The probes were part of Operation Anagram, set up to investigate the life and movements of the 63-year-old Scots handyman, who has already been convicted of killing three young women.
Police believe Tobin claimed further victims during his time travelling across Britain, living under different names. They think he trawled motorways looking for vulnerable female hitchhikers, and began their searches in East Sussex after information suggested the properties could hold links to other crimes.
However, on Thursday, Detective Chief Inspector Nick Sloan, of Sussex Police's major crime branch, said: "As a result of work conducted under Operation Anagram, two addresses in Brighton and Hove were identified as there being enough intelligence to warrant searches of the back gardens and some interior spaces of the buildings.
"We have a duty to fully investigate any allegations of criminality and teams of specialists and experts undertook these complex searches.
"I am completely satisfied that we have conducted thorough and meticulous searches and that both addresses are unconnected to any criminality linked to Peter Tobin."
DCI Sloan added: “Literally, no stone was left unturned.”
Killer
Tobin is serving three life sentences for killing Angelika Kluk, Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicol.
He is currently appealing against his record prison sentence for the murder of 15-year-old schoolgirl Vicky. However, he missed another appearance at the Court of Appeal in Edinburgh last week after claiming to have fallen ill.
The killer has a history of missing court appearances as a result of health concerns.
His latest appeal will have little impact on him, as he was told last December he would die in jail after he was convicted of strangling 18-year-old Miss McNicol.
Tobin was already serving life terms for the murders of Vicky and 23-year-old Ms Kluk at the time of the trial.
Police discovered the remains of Vicky and Miss McNicol buried in the garden of a house in Margate, Kent, which Tobin had moved to March 1991. Both girls had been abducted elsewhere and then moved by the killer.
At the start of the searches in East Sussex, police said their work behind flats in Marine Parade and a hairdressing salon in Portslade could last a month.
The Station Road hairdressing salon was once a cafe, Ye Olde Tea-room, run by Tobin in 1988 with Cathy Wilson, who later became his wife and with whom he had a son.
Neighbours recall Tobin doing a substantial amount of DIY on the property as he converted it from a junk shop and cleared the garden.
Investigators refused to go into detail about why police were targeting the two properties or what cases they may be linked to. However, police are believed to have narrowed their review of unsolved murders and disappearances linked to Tobin to nine cases.
These may include the murders of art student Jessie Earl, 22, whose body was found in 1989, and Louise Kay, 18, whose body was never found after she vanished after a night out in Eastbourne in 1988.
There are several other possible cases, including law student Pamela Exall, 22, who vanished in Norfolk in 1974, schoolgirl Patricia Morris, 14, who went missing in Essex in 1980, and Suzanne Lawrence, 14, last seen in Essex in 1979.
Other cases include the murders of three women in Glasgow in 1968 and 1969 by a figure nicknamed "Bible John", and the deaths of schoolgirls Karen Hadaway, 10, and Nicola Fellows, nine, in Brighton in October 1986.
Detectives attempted to speak to Tobin in prison about the latest developments but he refused to talk to them, and they remain keen to unravel further details of his life, particularly where he lived in 1977 and 1978. Police believe that in the past, he may have owned more than 100 vehicles and used 40 aliases.
Meticulous
Police said today that despite Tobin's failure to comply with officers, Operation Anagram continues to "meticulously examine" his life through information received from the public.
DCI Sloan added: "Commencing the search at both addresses on July 12, we used ground penetrating radar to map out any unusual fluctuations in the ground within the garden and the property itself.
"Areas which necessitated further exploration were excavated and tonnes of earth and concrete have been analysed, sifted and metal-detected by Sussex Police search teams and archaeologist experts from University College London."
As part of the investigation, officers from Sussex Police's specialist search unit excavated two wells, one at each location.
Work will now begin to restore the properties and gardens to their previous condition.
Mr Sloan added: "I would like to take this opportunity to thank Essential Hair and Beauty, Scizzor Sisters Barber Shop and the residents at 67 Station Road, Portslade, Brighton Housing Trust and the residents at 152-154 Marine Parade, Brighton.
"They have all been incredibly patient in light of the disruption caused by the police activity and the inevitable large media presence.
"I would also like to thank the wider communities who may have been temporarily inconvenienced by the police search.
"We made every effort to minimise disruption and appointed resident and community liaison officers for each address, offering regular updates and street briefings to keep those affected informed and to ensure that they could go about their day-to-day business as unhindered as possible.
"I know that the majority have supported and understood our work here in the last few days."
Nikki Homewood, director of homelessness and complex needs services at Brighton Housing Trust, said: "During the last two-and-a-half weeks, we have worked closely with Sussex Police to assist them all we could during this sensitive operation.
"Police have ensured that they have given the Trust and all the residents support and have also taken into consideration their day-to-day needs, which have been affected by the work.
"We'd like to thank the liaison officers for their continued support, keeping us informed and up-to-date as the operation progressed.
"The process in place made it much the more bearable under such a high profile spotlight."
Mr Sloan said officers were still receiving calls from members of the public about Tobin and he renewed an appeal for other people with information to come forward.
Anyone with information can call Sussex Police on 0845 6070 999, quoting Operation Anagram, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
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