Serial killer Peter Tobin is seriously ill in hospital and lies handcuffed to a bed, his emaciated body hidden by a hospital gown.
The notorious Scottish murderer, who has cancer, fell and broke his hip and is now refusing food and medication.
The 76-year-old, who is serving a whole life term for the murders of Angelika Kluk, Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicol, is wasting away.
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But, suspected of dozens of other killings, these families have begged him to come clean about his victims, Daily Record reports.
Nicola Stork, whose teenage sister Louise Kay disappeared from Eastbourne in 1988 and is strongly believed to be another of Tobin’s victims, said: “I don’t want Tobin to die because it means we might never know but I’ve got no sympathy if he’s in pain.
“If he dies without giving us information about Louise, then it probably means we’ll never know what happened to her or where she is.
“I hope he will confess something or the police can go and speak to him to get it out of him.”
And the elderly parents of art student Jessie Earl, 22, whose body was found in 1989 after she went missing in 1980, believe Tobin is their daughter’s killer.
Tobin, who was born in Johnstone and grew up in Renfrewshire, is under constant guard in hospital.
He had emergency surgery but is too sick to be returned to his cell at HMP Edinburgh.
Our exclusive picture, taken last week, is the first image in 14 years of Scotland’s worst serial killer.
Tobin is said to be “frail, weak and at death’s door”.
A source said: “That’s been said about him before but he seems to hang on.
“To the unsuspecting eye, he’s just a sick old man in hospital but the killer’s face is still there.”
Retired detective superintendent David Swindle, who caught Tobin and led the task force looking at his other crimes, said: “If there’s any humanity there, Tobin will give up the secrets of what happened to these other victims.
“There won’t be any sympathy for him being in pain but, if indeed he is dying, it’s the least he could do for these families.”
Louise, 18, vanished after saying she was going to sleep in her car on Beachy Head near Eastbourne in June 1988.
Neither her or her car have been found.
The police officer who caught Tobin and later led the task force Operation Anagram looking into his other crimes established that Tobin was working in a hotel in Eastbourne at the time Louise disappeared and later earned that he was selling a small hand-painted car after she vanished. The small Ford Fiesta car which had a distinctive gold colour with a white door was never found or seen again.
Tobin had history working with dealing cars for an auction company and also had links to scrapyards.
It is thought Tobin could have re-painted Louise’s car and then sold it on to hide his crime.
Louise had met a mysterious Scottish man shortly before she disappeared and it was known that he had given her money for petrol for her car. Nicola, 56, who sells vintage furniture, said: “We’ve never known what happened to her – it is so sad. I wish Tobin would confess and give up these secrets.
“It might lead police to find something that can link to his DNA or Louise’s remains being found but there’s never been anything.
“My dad is still around and is in his 80s so it would be so important for him to know what happened.”
Operation Anagram looked at hundreds of unsolved murders with any links to Tobin and eventually narrowed it down to nine.
Jessie, a 22-year-old art student, disappeared in 1980 and her body was found in undergrowth at Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, nine years later.
In May this year, after a hard-fought campaign by her parents John and Valerie, who are in their 90s, a coroner ruled that she was murdered.
Even after her naked body was found with her bra tied in a knot that could have bound her hands, detectives insisted it had been suicide and a coroner at the time recorded an open verdict.
Her family believe Tobin is responsible as, two weeks before she vanished, Jessie told her mother she had met a Scottish man on the land where she was later found.
Speaking after May’s verdict, mum Valerie said: “For us, this is a triumph because it means that Jessie has got justice.”
“It’s something that we have come to accept. We have to carry on with life but we never give up hope and keep her memory alive.”
Dan McNicol, brother of Dinah who was murdered by Tobin in Essex in 1991, said: “He needs to give up these secrets for the sake of his other victims but he’ll probably take them to the grave.
“I hope he’s suffering in pain.”
Asked about Tobin, a Scottish Prison Service spokesperson said: “We don’t comment on individuals in our care.”
It’s not the first time this year that Tobin has become ill.
In April he spent two nights in hospital after becoming unwell and falling in prison.
And in January he was taken to hospital after being found collapsed in his cell.
In 2019 it was revealed he had cancer.
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