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Serial rapist Iain Packer has been found guilty of murdering Emma Caldwell in 2005 following a six-week trial.
Packer, 51, had been accused of murdering Miss Caldwell, 27, who vanished in Glasgow in 2005 and whose naked body was found in Limefield Woods, near Roberton, South Lanarkshire, the following month.
The former sign fitter was convicted of indecently assaulting Miss Caldwell and 11 other charges of rape against nine women among dozens of other offences, following a six-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Miss Caldwell vanished on April 4, 2005, days after telling her mother Margaret about her hopes to kick a heroin addiction, which began following a family bereavement in her early 20s.
A dog walker found her body with a ‘garotte’ around her neck on May 8. It is believed Packer drove her from Glasgow’s red-light district to the remote woods 40 miles away, where he strangled her and dumped her naked body in a ditch.
Emma Caldwell, 27, vanished in Glasgow on April 4, 2005
Serial rapist Iain Packer, 51, has been found guilty of her murder
Emma’s mother, Margaret (pictured), said following the verdict today that she can now ‘breathe again that this man is gone’
Miss Caldwell came from a close-knit family and saw both parents twice a week and spoke to them daily. She was reported missing on April 11 after she failed to respond to attempts by them to change a planned meeting.
She was last seen last seen on CCTV around 11pm on Monday April 4 walking alone on Butterbiggins Road towards Victoria Road on the southside of Glasgow.
Miss Caldwell’s father William, who died in 2011, made his family promise they would get justice for her.
Packer, who worked as a sign installer across Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland, was first interviewed by police on June 22, 2005 – and lied, telling officers he had never picked Miss Caldwell up and ‘could not help the investigation’, before telling further lies in interviews in 2006 and 2007.
The court heard Packer was a prolific user of sex workers who had described it as an ‘addiction’, and lied repeatedly to police and to a BBC journalist who interviewed him on national television in 2018.
During the trial, Packer admitted forcing a sex act on Miss Caldwell in August 2004 despite her telling him to stop, which he admitted was ‘criminal’ and apologised for.
A friend of Miss Caldwell told the court Packer ‘would not leave her alone’, while another sex worker gave a statement saying she was ‘petrified’ of him.
Packer was investigated by the press in 2015 which caused the case to be reopened, and he admitted ‘instigating’ an interview with BBC journalist Sam Poling in 2018 to ‘clear his name’, before claiming he had never visited the woodland.
However during his evidence at the trial, he admitted visiting Limefield Woods on six occasions including with Miss Caldwell – although prosecutor Richard Goddard KC said it was many more times.
A soil sample taken from the site where Miss Caldwell’s body was found was a ‘97% match’ with soil found in his blue work van after analysis in 2021, and Packer was charged in February 2022.
The jury was taken on a site visit to the isolated spot where Miss Caldwell’s body was found naked between two streams, in an area of woodland 40 miles from Glasgow.
Packer alleged he had never seen the specific location before, and blamed her murder on four Turkish men, later reducing it to two.
The four men were arrested in 2007, after a two-year surveillance operation on a cafe in Glasgow following interviews with other sex workers, but the case collapsed after issues with translation.
Packer lodged special defences of incrimination and consent, claiming many of the sex assaults were consensual, and that he had never met some of the women.
A complainant who was raped by Packer during a £30 transaction in 1998, which she agreed to due to financial pressures, eventually spoke to police in 2021, which she described as ‘the worst thing I’ve had to do in my life’.
Jim Wilson, the former editor of the Sunday Mail, which exposed Packer as the ‘forgotten suspect’ in 2015 on the anniversary of Miss Caldwell’s murder, after which the case was reopened, said the case was a ‘scandal’ and a ‘failure’ of the justice system.
Mr Wilson said: ‘Scotland’s justice system failed Emma Caldwell, her family and all the women terrorised by Packer in the years he was allowed to remain free.
‘His conviction has answered one question but Police Scotland and the Crown Office must answer many more.’
Packer denied all the charges – accusing all the women of lying – but admitted during evidence that he indecently assaulted Miss Caldwell.
He said he was ‘ashamed’ of his actions towards her, and described his behaviour towards another sex workers as ‘disgusting’.
But he denied murdering Miss Caldwell in his evidence, telling the court: ‘It wasn’t me who killed her. It wasn’t me. I didn’t do anything to her.’
Prosecutor Richard Goddard KC described Packer as a ‘violent’ and ‘obsessive’ user of sex workers with an ‘unhealthy addiction’ to procuring their services.
Packer is expected to be sentenced later on Wednesday.
Lawyer Aamer Anwar (L) and the mother of Emma Caldwell, Margaret Caldwell (C) arrive at Glasgow High Court on February 23, 2024
Emma’s mother, Margaret, told Sky News following the verdict she can now ‘breathe again that this man is gone’.
She added: ‘I hope he gets long enough [in jail] that he cannot harm anyone else.
‘I did once ask them [the police] if they were biased because of what Emma did and they said it was like any other case. But they just wanted to get it over, put it in a drawer and forget about it.’
Assistant Chief Constable for Major Crime and Public Protection Bex Smith today apologised to Miss Caldwell’s family after they were ‘let down by policing in 2005’.
She said: ‘Emma Caldwell, her family and many other victims, were let down by policing in 2005. For that we are sorry.
‘A significant number of women and girls who showed remarkable courage to speak up at that time also did not get the justice and support they needed and deserved from Strathclyde Police.
‘Police Scotland launched a re-investigation of the case in 2015 after instruction from the Lord Advocate.
‘It is clear that further investigations should have been carried out into Emma’s murder following the initial enquiry in 2005.
‘The lack of investigation until 2015 caused unnecessary distress to her family and all those women who had come forward to report sexual violence.
‘It is the courage, resilience and determination shown by Emma’s family, in particular her parents William and Margaret, and all those who survived Iain Packer’s horrific catalogue of offending that got us to where we are today.
‘William is, sadly, no longer here to see this day, but I hope this verdict gives Margaret and all those affected by this case, the justice they deserve.
Ms Smith added the re-investigation was ‘without doubt the largest police enquiry of recent times in Scotland’ which involved reviewing more than 30,000 documents and statements
She continued: ‘Iain Packer was a calculating sexual predator who targeted women over many years. It is hard to comprehend how anyone could carry out such despicable, ruthless acts.
‘He took Emma’s life for his own gratification in the most appalling circumstances and cruelly left her body in remote woods hoping to cover his tracks.
‘But time is no barrier to justice and I would urge anyone who has been the victim of sexual violence to please come forward and speak to us.
‘You will be listened to and you will be supported – no matter when the offences took place.
Ms Smith said ‘significant changes’ have been made within the police force in recent years ‘particularly in respect of investigative structures, victim care and processes to these types of crimes’.
She added that Emma had ‘a gentle personality’ and concluded by paying tribute to ‘her family and all those affected by this terrible case’.
This is a breaking news story, more to follow.
