A serial killer convicted of the murder of a schoolgirl whose remains were found in Kent has been given a new date to appeal against his sentence.

Peter Tobin was jailed in 2008 for killing 15-year-old Vicky Hamilton, whose body was discovered buried in the garden of a house in Irvine Drive, Margate, the previous November.

Vicky disappeared while waiting for a bus in Bathgate, West Lothian, in February 1991.

A judge ordered Tobin, 63, of Johnstone, Renfrewshire, should serve a minimum of 30 years in jail - a sentence the handyman says was too harsh.

His appeal was due to be heard in April but was delayed when Tobin was taken ill.

The case will now be heard on July 22 in Edinburgh , a spokesman for the Scottish Courts Service confirmed.

Tobin is serving another two life sentences for the murder of 18-year-old Dinah McNicol, whose remains were found close to Vicky’s in 2008, and Polish student Angelika Kluk, whose body he hid in a Glasgow church in 2006.