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Serial killer Peter Tobin, who has cancer, is confined to his cell and barely eating, prison insiders say.

Tobin, who has a history of faking illness, was diagnosed with cancer early last year and is receiving treatment but in the last few weeks his condition has deteriorated and doctors have begun to prescribe more pain medication.

The 72-year-old, who was being held in Edinburgh ’s Saughton prison, was in and out of hospital in 2018 before being diagnosed with the disease.

The murderer is serving three life sentences for killing three young women between 1991 and 2006.

(Image: REUTERS)

He butchered Angelica Kluk, 23, Vicky Hamilton, 15 and Dinah McNicol, 18 – but has also been linked to a string of unsolved deaths across Britain.

When the Record exclusively broke the news Tobin had cancer, the brother of Dinah said: “I’m pleased to hear that and I hope he is suffering.”

Dan, who along with her Dinah’s late dad, Ian, waited 16 years for answers to her disappearance in 1991, said Tobin had a chance to “tell the truth before he dies.”

(Image: PA)

But Tobin has remained silent and will likely take his secrets to the grave.

A prison source said: “He’s about five stone now, if he’s lucky. He barely eats and he’s on morphine for the pain.

“Nobody expected him to live as long as he has after diagnosis but he surely can’t fight it for much longer. He will never tell his secrets. He’s going to take them to the grave.”

Another jail source said: “He was served up tomato soup, chicken and potatoes and trifle on Christmas Day . He managed to eat a little.”

Tobin timeline August 27, 1946: Peter Britton Tobin born in Johnstone, the second of eight children. 1965: Sent to young offenders’ institution. 1970: Jailed for burglary and forgery. 1989: Marries Cathy Wilson, 19, in Brighton. They have son and move to Bathgate. February 10, 1991: Vicky Hamilton goes missing. March 1991: Tobin flees to Margate. August 4, 1991: Dinah McNicol goes missing. August 1993: Tobin drugs two 14-year-olds, rapes one girl and sexually assaults the other. 1994: He is jailed for 14 years for the attacks. September 2006: He murders Angelika Kluk after moving to Glasgow. May 4, 2007: Tobin is found guilty of raping and murdering Angelika and jailed for at least 21 years. November 2007: Bodies of Vicky and Dinah found in Margate. December 2008: Convicted of Vicky’s murder and jailed for 30 years. December 2009: Jury takes less than 15 minutes to find Tobin guilty of murdering Dinah as he’s caged for life. July 2015: Tobin is slashed in jailed by a fellow inmate and double rapist Sean Moynihan. January 2019: We reveal how Tobin is suffering from cancer.

Dinah was just 18 when she was last seen on August 5, 1991, leaving a music festival in Liphook in Hampshire.

She accepted a lift from Tobin, who promised to drive her to Brentwood and was never seen again.

Police reopened their investigation into the killer in 2007 after he was convicted of killing Angelika and found the bodies of Dinah and Bathgate teenager Vicky buried in the garden of Tobin’s Margate home.

(Image: DAILY RECORD)

Dan said: “We always knew something bad had happened to Dinah as she would never have just disappeared like that.

“But, in the back of your mind, you’re hoping maybe she’s fallen and banged her head and has amnesia or something. When she was found and we knew who was responsible, we were able to grieve for her but you do think of other women missing who he’s been linked to and you want him to come forward and tell the truth before he dies. I don’t think he’s the kind of man who wants to be known as just a child killer.”

(Image: Daily Record)

Tobin, who once pretended to be dead behind bars, has been in and out of hospital with suspected strokes and heart attacks but a prison source said: “You can’t fake cancer. He was attending the hospital a lot before his diagnosis. He’s very frail and rarely leaves his cell.”

We told how Tobin had his face slashed in 2015 by child rapist Sean Moynihan in Saughton, leaving him with an eight-inch scar.

And in 2017, we revealed he was too scared to leave his cell in case of further attacks by inmates repulsed by his crimes.

The source added: “Now he’s just too frail and only really goes out when he’s going to hospital. We didn’t think he’d see Christmas but he’s still hanging on.”

Police have long suspected he killed more young women but he won’t admit his guilt. He has told detectives he “couldn’t give a f**k” about his victims’ families.