Police Lost Trail of Sex Offender 10 Months Ago

{mosimage} The sex offender suspected of murdering a Polish student in a Glasgow church avoided capture by the police 10 months ago, Scotland on Sunday can reveal. Police raided the Paisley flat of 60-year-old Peter Tobin late last year and, after failing to find him, issued a warrant for his arrest. But despite his history of serious sex crimes they failed to warn the public he was on the run.

Scots-born Tobin, a convicted rapist, is now being hunted in connection with the disappearance of 23-year-old Angelika Kluk. Police were last night continuing to examine a body discovered in St Patrick’s Church, Glasgow, where the Polish languages student had been living over the summer and where Tobin had been working as a handyman, using the name Pat McLaughlin.

Tobin remains at large, with police warning members of the public not to approach him. He is known to have been with the missing girl on Sunday last week, the last time anyone saw her alive.

Strathclyde Police now face growing pressure over what appears to have been a series of blunders which allowed Tobin to roam free.

He has slipped through the hands of officers twice in less than 12 months, first last year after the warrant was issued, and then last week after he was questioned over Kluk’s disappearance.

Last year’s warrant was issued after he changed his address without notifying the police, an offence under the terms of the Sex Offenders Register.

Neighbours said yesterday that Tobin had been seen widely in the area at the time of the police’s inquiries last year. Yet he was never arrested.

Police are also facing questions over why they only discovered the body at St Patrick’s on Friday night, five days after Kluk’s disappearance. It is understood that the body was discovered under floorboards in the church, following a second search of the building.

One police insider added: “If that was about the last place she was seen then they should have completely turned the place over until they found her. They should have found the body.”

The case has led to fresh concerns over the monitoring and supervision of Scotland’s 3,000 registered sex offenders.

Politicians said they feared police were being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of warrants they have to chase up and were therefore failing to arrest dangerous criminals who should be under lock and key. At the time Tobin’s arrest warrant was issued last year, a total of seven warrants were outstanding for rapists in Strathclyde alone.

There were also questions as to why Tobin was even free at all. He had been released from jail in 2004, four years before the end of his 14-year sentence for the rape of a teenage girl in England.

Tobin emerged as chief suspect for Kluk’s disappearance when, still able to fool police with his false name, he vanished after being questioned last week. It took a positive identification from a photograph of his face which was circulated to the public to finally confirm his true identity.

After officers revealed the fact he was a sex offender on Friday, they then made the discovery of the body in St Patrick’s.

One senior police source last night expressed astonishment that it was only last week that officers had finally caught up with him.

They said: “For someone this dangerous, he would have been checked probably weekly at least, and perhaps even daily. More minor offenders might only be checked up every few months, but in this case we would expect to have been checking him a lot more often.

“The fact that he went missing should have had the alarm bells ringing. That a former rapist had gone missing would have had screaming sirens going. Questions will be asked about why he wasn’t found after seemingly going to ground.”

Glasgow Labour MSP Pauline McNeil, whose constituency contains St Patrick’s, said Strathclyde police had a duty to prove they had been doing all they could to find Tobin over the last year.

“We need to know how proactive the police were in the 10 months since the warrant was issued. I hope they can demonstrate that they never gave up in that 10-month period,” she said.

She said police were overwhelmed by outstanding warrants. “There are hundreds and hundreds of warrants outstanding and the police will be looking for all of them. But you would like to think that in this case they would have given it a level of priority given the nature of this person’s offences.”

Stewart Stevenson, justice spokesman for the SNP, said: “There is an undue sense of delicacy to publicise the fact that a serious sex offender has fallen below the radar. If we are serious, when a serious sex offender drops out of contact with the system and the police can’t quickly pick him up, then publicity is something we should make more use of.

“If there is a photo of the person then there is a much greater likelihood that they will be picked up. It is done with other criminals, so we should be doing it with serious sex offenders as well.”

Stevenson added that it was time to rethink the sentences given to sex offenders. “If they represent a continuing threat we should be moving to a more threat-based system rather than a time-based system,” he said.

Tobin had been placed on the Sex Offenders Register, which came into force in 1997. Such offenders must give their personal details to police and inform the authorities if they decide to move.

The rules were tightened at the beginning of this month, giving police powers to make unannounced raids on sex offenders’ homes.

At St Patrick’s Church in Glasgow yesterday, flowers were left at the church gates and surrounding walls. One of those paying their tributes, Martin Smith, said: “I just feel so sorry for Angelika and her family. I hate to think what Poles will think of our country after this.”

As police pursued Tobin last night, they issued a public safety warning for another convicted sex offender after he failed to return to approved accommodation.

Paul Hunter Redpath, 35, originally from Stranraer, pleaded guilty in Downpatrick Crown Court to sex offences against two young girls in March 2005.

Police in Dumfries and Galloway are thought to be monitoring the ferry port of Stranraer.
Six questions the police must answer

1 WHY did police fail to apprehend Peter Tobin last autumn, when they knew his background, true identity and address? Neighbours say Tobin returned to the flat following the police visit, suggesting he was not trying particularly hard to avoid capture.

2 WHY were the public not warned at the time that such an obviously dangerous character was on the run? Police forces have fiercely resisted moves to name sex offenders, fearing public order problems. Some would suggest, however, that public safety should be placed first.

3 HAVE Strathclyde Police been actively searching for Tobin since he slipped through the net last year, or did his case get lost amid the vast numbers of outstanding warrants?

4 WHY did the police fail to find a body the first time they searched the church? Senior officers have expressed amazement that the initial sweep of the building did not reveal the body.

5 WHY, when Tobin – under the false name of Pat McLaughlin – was questioned by police in connection with Angelika’s disappearance did no one realise his true identity? Some ask why – in the context of a missing young woman – more rigorous checks into Tobin’s story were not carried out.

6 HOW many other known sex offenders are on the run? Scotland on Sunday recently revealed that in Strathclyde alone there are dozens of sex offenders with outstanding arrest warrants against them.