I'm haunted by Dinah, says the last man to see house of horrors victim alive

13 April 2012

Murdered: Dinah McNicol was last seen being driven off by a 'scruffy, weird' man after hitchhiking with David Tremlett

The last man to see murdered teenager Dinah McNicol alive has broken his 16-year silence – and revealed the sense of guilt he feels over her death.

David Tremlett and Dinah – whose remains were discovered ten days ago at a house in Margate, Kent – accepted a lift as they hitchhiked home from a music festival in the summer of 1991.

But Mr Tremlett, then 27, got out of the car leaving Dinah, 18, to continue the journey alone with the driver.

She was never seen again. Last month – weeks before police began their grim search at the house – Mr Tremlett was quizzed for eight hours by detectives after they reopened the investigation.

Mr Tremlett, now 43, recalled how he and pretty Dinah, who had just completed her A-levels at grammar school, instantly 'hit it off' after meeting at a music festival at Liphook, Hampshire.

The three-day event was organised by Spiral Tribe, a loose-knit anarchic group notorious for organising so-called 'rave parties' whose motto was "No money, no ego".

Mr Tremlett recalled how he and Dinah met by chance because he didn't like the dance music blasting from the event's massive sound system.

"I was getting a bit fed up with the techno music that was being played," he said.

"I went for a bit of a walk around and met this girl. There must have been something between us because we got chatting right away.

"I can't remember what we talked about. We were just chatting as we wandered around the festival site.

"We must have hit it off because we stayed together for two days and when the festival was over she left her friends to take a lift with me.

"I remember something special about her – her hair. She was wearing dreadlocks or it was braided. I was into reggae music at the time and after meeting her I had my hair done in dreadlocks, too."

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Vital witness: David Tremlett

On Monday, August 5, the pair decided to hitch lifts back to their respective homes – Mr Tremlett to his mother's house in Redhill, Surrey, and Dinah 80 miles further on to the village of Tillingham in Essex.

Initially they were given a lift to a petrol station on the A3, where they were picked up by a man described at the time by Mr Tremlett as being "scruffy".

His car was "a green old banger", possibly a Vauxhall Viva. The driver has never come forward and the vehicle has never been traced.

Mr Tremlett said: "I didn't like the attitude of the driver. He was too familiar with her. Too chatty, that sort of thing.

"I had a weird kind of feeling about him. I got out where I wanted [junction eight on the M25] so I could get home to my mother's house."

He said that after leaving the car he instinctively watched it drive off. "I tried to remember the registration number," he said. "There was something in the manner of the driver. It was my instinct. Perhaps people should follow their instinct.

Tragic: The remains of Vicky Hamilton were also found at the Margate house

"Perhaps I should have followed mine and got Dinah out of that car or perhaps I should have stayed with her.

"But that was the last I saw of her. She had given me a phone number and I called it several times, but all I got was an answering machine.

"I don't like answering machines so I didn't leave a message.

"Anyway, I thought she might just not want to talk to me or was not interested in me. I thought that was the end of our friendship. I often thought of her but didn't do anything to find her."

Then, nine months later, Mr Tremlett was told by a friend that Dinah had been featured on BBC1's Crimewatch and had been missing since the day they parted.

"I didn't see the programme,' he recalled, "But I went to the police at Redhill and told them what I knew about her and what happened during our lift.

"I told them I had an odd feeling about the driver. They questioned me closely. It was not a very nice time. I suppose they were treating me as a possible suspect.

"I thought it was a missing-person case but then I was told it was a murder inquiry."

Mr Tremlett refuses to disclose what was discussed at the police station. But he admitted: "I could not get that ride in the car with Dinah out of my mind. Now I think of it more than ever.

"I think about what if we hadn't taken that lift, or if I had told her to get out of the car with me, or if I had been a gentleman and seen her right home.

"And if she had stopped with her friends and not come with me, she might still be alive.

"That's how I think now. I feel responsible for what happened even if I am not. It plays on my mind."

When Dinah failed to arrive home, Essex Police immediately treated the case as a possible murder because going missing without contacting her family was completely out of character.

At the time of her disappearance, regular withdrawals were made from her Halifax bank account at six cash machines along the coast of Hampshire and Sussex.

Dinah had about £2,000 in her account and the withdrawals were also out of character. She was not in the least materialistic, making her clothes and jewellery or buying them from charity shops.

She had told family and friends that she intended to use the money to further her education and travel.

Her case, though constantly reviewed by detectives, went cold until October this year. Mr Tremlett, who lives a hippy-style existence on benefits in a battered Transit van in Llanberis, North Wales, received a phone call from police.

He said: "The police phoned my mother and she gave them my mobile number. I went to Bangor police station. I can't remember the exact date but I was there from ten in the morning until eight at night.

"We were in the rape suite because they said the chairs were more comfortable there. I was treated differently than when I was with the police at Redhill, more as a witness. I'd felt as if I was being bullied before.

"I made a statement about everything I knew about me meeting Dinah, our journey in the car and about the driver."

Earlier this month, Essex Police began an inch-by-inch search of the three-bedroom Margate council house.

Police found the buried remains of 15-year-old schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton, who vanished from her home in Redding, near Falkirk, Stirlingshire, in 1991.

Four days later, Dinah's remains were also found buried in the garden.

Mr Tremlett, a gangling figure at over 6ft tall, was educated at Reigate Grammar School in Surrey. After leaving, he lived in Spain for several years, where he taught English to Spanish students.

When he returned to Britain he moved to North Wales, where he has worked as a delivery driver. He smokes roll-up cigarettes and likes to eat organic food. For most of the year he lives in his Transit van, but in winter he moves into a dormitory in a nearby youth hostel.

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Makeshift home: David Tremlett's transit van

A close friend, who would only say his name was Simon, said: "He is a wanderer. He lives that wandering kind of life. He can just take off and go where he likes. He does that quite a lot when his van is working."

But at the moment Mr Tremlett is not on the move. The engine of his battered Transit refuses to start and the vehicle needs extensive welding before passing its MOT.

He is now regarded by Essex Police as an important witness in any future trial over Dinah McNicol's death. He said that he had been so affected by the huge revival of interest in the case that he is considering visiting her widowed father Ian, 68.

"I wonder what he must feel about it," he said. "But I don't know how I would be received.

"After all, I could be blamed for us taking that lift.

"I have deliberately not read the newspapers or watched the television news. Of course I am interested in the case, but I do not want to have any possible identification issues. The police might want me to look at multiple images and ask me to pick out someone.

"For all I know, the bloke who drove the car might not be her killer. But I could be the last person apart from her killer to see Dinah alive.

"I should not really feel any responsibility for what happened, but I do. I am in a bit of a mess over it."

A spokeswoman for Essex Police said: "Mr Tremlett is a material witness. We have spoken to him and are speaking to him."

Peter Tobin, 61, has appeared at Linlithgow Sheriff Court charged with the murder of Vicky Hamilton.

Yesterday her father Michael was due to travel from his home near Falkirk to Margate to visit the house where his daughter's body was found.

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