‘Rot in hell Tobin’ and ‘monster to the bitter end’
The Scottish front pages go big on the death of serial killer Peter Tobin. News broke on Saturday that the 76-year-old had died in hospital in Edinburgh. “Rot in hell” says the headline in the Scottish Sun as it quotes the father of one of his victims, Vicky Hamilton.
The Scottish Mail on Sunday calls the murderer “a monster to the bitter end” as it reports police had tried unsuccessfully to get Tobin to give up the secrets of his crimes before he died. The paper says he “took to the grave the secret of how many other women and girls he murdered”.
The Sunday Mail – which just weeks ago published an exclusive photograph of Tobin dying in hospital and chained to a bed – says he kept “a chilling silence until his last breath” and that pleas to name his unknown victims were met without answers.
The Herald on Sunday reveals the soaring costs faced by some Scottish families as energy bills climb. Its headline claims the average bill for a Scottish household will be £3,300, much higher than the £2,500 average being quoted by PM Liz Truss
The Sunday Telegraph reports that Prime Minister Liz Truss will issue a “stark warning” to Tory MPs to unite under her leadership when parliament returns this week. In the story a Downing Street source warns that Ms Truss needs the full backing of the party and time to implement her plans as PM, otherwise a Labour and Scottish National Party coalition will succeed her in government.
The Scottish Sunday Express carries a front page photo of Peter Tobin but the lead story is about the the prime minister’s call for unity to MPs and claims that Michael Gove risked helping to put Labour in power. The paper also references Liz Truss’s “battle cry” to Conservative MPs that she will lead them with a “heads down and charge” strategy.
As the SNP party conference gets into full swing, Scotland on Sunday leads with an exclusive poll saying the majority of voters asked rejected the idea of the next general election becoming a “de facto” independence referendum. It says if the party’s Supreme Court case fails, fewer than one in three backs the election plan.
The Sunday National reports from the conference in Aberdeen with a special edition. It leads with a “rallying cry” from Europe where it says MEPs have vowed to do “whatever it takes” to help Scotland rejoin the European Union.
The Sunday Post boasts an exclusive on the mesh scandal, a story it has championed for a long time It reports that not a single NHS Scotland patient has been sent to the US to have vaginal mesh removed, despite “repeated promises” from the Scottish government. A contract had previously been signed in July to send patients to Dr Dionysios Veronikis in St Louis for treatment.
The Sunday Times features a dramatic picture of a freight train ablaze on the Kerch bridge linking Crimea to Russia after Saturday’s explosion. The paper says the blast will have dealt “a powerful symbolic and strategic blow” to Vladimir Putin’s war effort against Ukraine. While Ukraine has not directly claimed responsibility for the attack, it reportedly “sparked jubilation” in Kyiv.