An investigation has been launched into the death of notorious serial killer Peter Tobin, who hid his victims’ remains in the garden of his Kent home.

Tobin, who raped and murdered several female students, died in hospital aged 76 in October 2022 after falling in his cell.

Now, a mandatory fatal accident inquiry has been launched to look into the cause and circumstances surrounding his death.

It also aims to establish whether any reasonable precautions could have been taken to prevent it.

Tobin was serving three life sentences at HMP Edinburgh for the killings of 23-year-old Angelika Kluk, schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton, 15, and student Dinah McNicol, 18.

He is believed to have killed others and is linked to several unsolved deaths in Britain.

In 2007 he was jailed for life for the rape and murder of Polish student Angelika, which led police to follow a trail of clues to the garden of his former home in Irvine Drive, Margate.

They made the shocking discovery of the remains of the two missing teenagers 17 years later in black bin liners.

Sixth-former Dinah, from Tillingham, Essex, had last been seen alive on August 5, 1991. She was hitchhiking home from a music festival in Liphook, Hants.

Vicky had vanished on February 10, 1991, while waiting for a bus home to Redding, near Falkirk.

Tobin was convicted of their murders in 2008 and 2009 and given two more life sentences.

In an episode of ITV's The Investigator: A British Crime Story, he was also linked with the disappearance of Sussex teenager Louise Kay, who went missing in June 1988.

The 18-year-old was last seen driving towards Beachy Head after a night out in Eastbourne, East Sussex, close to where Tobin was living at the time.

The first hearing of the inquiry will be held on May 27 at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.