COURT: Tobin charged with Vicky Hamilton's murder

The 61-year-old appeared in private at Linlithgow Sheriff Court, West Lothian, at lunchtime.

Earlier Vicky's father Michael walked down the road ahead of the prison van carrying Tobin, leading it into the court car park.

Tobin was arrested in July over the disappearance of Vicky, who was 15 when she vanished from Bathgate in 1991.

Her remains were found on Monday buried in the garden of a house in Margate, Kent.

Yesterday, police searching the former home of Tobin were braced for more grim discoveries after they identified a body found there as Vicky.

Essex Police confirmed that remains uncovered in the back garden of the home in Margate, Kent, were those of the 15-year-old who was last seen on Sunday February 10, 1991, in Bathgate, West Lothian - some 490 miles away from where her body was discovered.

Detective Superintendent Tim Wills said officers would continue to search the property for Dinah McNicol, from Essex, who was 18 when she vanished in the same year after attending a music festival in Hampshire.

Mr Wills, of Essex Police, told a press conference in Margate that the search of the home was far from over. He said: "We had reasons to come here. Those reasons still exist. We came here for Dinah, and haven't yet finished.

"There is a chance that she is here. In fairness to the family, we need to fully answer the question as to whether she was here at any time."

He added: "We came here to search for Dinah McNicol or any physical evidence which might link her disappearance to that house, and that's what we will continue to do. I do not intend to leave the house until I'm fully satisfied that there are not any other human remains at that site."

Mr Wills said that, once the ground-level search was complete, a "deep search" would get under way. That could take a number of days.

Miss McNicol's family said there was a common bond of sadness between them and Vicky's family.

Her father Ian, 68, of Tillingham, said he thought his daughter could still be at the house in Margate.

He said: "I know the police have said it's not Dinah's remains they found, but I still think she could be there."

Detectives reopened their inquiry into Ms McNicol's death last week after information led them to the house.

Vicky, of Redding, near Falkirk,had been travelling home from Livingston after visiting her elder sister, Sharon.

For 15 years, police treated the case as that of a missing person, despite concerns from her family and senior officers that she had been abducted and murdered. No trace of her was found until yesterday and her disappearance remained one of Scotland's most baffling unsolved crimes.

Senior Lothian and Borders officers defended their decision to take so long before launching a murder hunt last November, saying no-one had seen her being abducted.

For some time, Vicky's father, Michael, refused to have her legally declared dead, but last November he said he hoped a murder inquiry could provide the clues needed to bring her killer to justice, adding: "It would be a lot easier for me if a body was found and we could put her to rest."

Vicky's mother, Janette, died in 1993.