Emma Caldwell’s killer convicted nearly two decades after first police interview
The scandal of one of Scotland’s longest cold cases as suspect who was interviewed in initial investigation is convicted of murder and multiple rapes
Nearly two decades after the body of Emma Caldwell was found in an isolated woodland, a man who was interviewed in the initial investigation has been convicted of her murder and of being a serial rapist.
The unsolved murder was one of Scotland’s longest cold cases, and was branded a “scandal” by an ex-newspaper editor who exposed Iain Packer as the “forgotten suspect”, after which police and prosecutors reopened the inquiry.
The jury took four days to find Packer guilty of murdering the 27-year-old, who went missing in Glasgow on April 4 2005 and whose body was found in Limefield Woods, near Roberton, South Lanarkshire, the following month.
He was also convicted of indecently assaulting Miss Caldwell and raping nine women among dozens of sex offences spanning 26 years, following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Packer, from the east end of Glasgow, was convicted of raping an underage girl in 1990, which the court heard during the trial was dismissed by the child’s family.
He was first reported to police in March 1999 after a sex worker stole a tax disc from his vehicle to have proof of his identity after he raped her.
He preyed on “young, vulnerable and drug-addicted” sex workers in Glasgow’s red light area, and had a pattern of violent behaviour which included strangling women, the court heard.
Packer presented himself as a “jack the lad” who worked for a family business and enjoyed “treating women rough” and wore women’s underwear, according to one victim who was assaulted between 1993 and 2004, near the Tennent’s Brewery in the east end of Glasgow – the area where many attacks took place.
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.
She came from a close-knit family and saw both parents twice a week and spoke to them daily.
She was reported missing after she failed to respond to attempts to change a planned meeting with her mother.
A dog walker found Miss Caldwell’s body in woodland, with a “garotte” around her neck, on May 8, 2005.
Her father William, who died in 2011, made his family promise they would get justice for her.
The scandal of one of Scotland’s longest cold cases as suspect who was interviewed in initial investigation is convicted of murder and multiple rapes
Nearly two decades after the body of Emma Caldwell was found in an isolated woodland, a man who was interviewed in the initial investigation has been convicted of her murder and of being a serial rapist.
The unsolved murder was one of Scotland’s longest cold cases, and was branded a “scandal” by an ex-newspaper editor who exposed Iain Packer as the “forgotten suspect”, after which police and prosecutors reopened the inquiry.
The jury took four days to find Packer guilty of murdering the 27-year-old, who went missing in Glasgow on April 4 2005 and whose body was found in Limefield Woods, near Roberton, South Lanarkshire, the following month.
He was also convicted of indecently assaulting Miss Caldwell and raping nine women among dozens of sex offences spanning 26 years, following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Packer, from the east end of Glasgow, was convicted of raping an underage girl in 1990, which the court heard during the trial was dismissed by the child’s family.
He was first reported to police in March 1999 after a sex worker stole a tax disc from his vehicle to have proof of his identity after he raped her.
He preyed on “young, vulnerable and drug-addicted” sex workers in Glasgow’s red light area, and had a pattern of violent behaviour which included strangling women, the court heard.
Packer presented himself as a “jack the lad” who worked for a family business and enjoyed “treating women rough” and wore women’s underwear, according to one victim who was assaulted between 1993 and 2004, near the Tennent’s Brewery in the east end of Glasgow – the area where many attacks took place.
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.
She came from a close-knit family and saw both parents twice a week and spoke to them daily.
She was reported missing after she failed to respond to attempts to change a planned meeting with her mother.
A dog walker found Miss Caldwell’s body in woodland, with a “garotte” around her neck, on May 8, 2005.
Her father William, who died in 2011, made his family promise they would get justice for her.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:07 My name's Amr Amwar, I'm the solicitor acting on behalf of Margaret Colwell, the mother of Emma Colwell, and also with her family.
00:30 On the right of Margaret is Stuart, who is the grandson of Margaret Colwell, and on the left of me is Jamie Colwell and Nicola, his partner.
00:40 Today's statement is following the guilty verdict at the murder trial of Ian Packer.
00:46 "Over the years I have stood on the steps of the High Court and said the dead cannot cry out for justice, it is the duty of the living to do so for them.
00:54 While Margaret Colwell, Emma's mother, has more than fulfilled that duty. Emma was a much loved daughter and sister, and when her life was cruelly taken away nearly 19 years ago, her family's lives were torn apart forever.
01:06 The moment Emma went missing, Margaret's life changed forever. She has thought about her every minute of every day.
01:12 When William's, Emma's, father died in 2011, he made his wife, Margaret, promise she would never give up the fight for justice.
01:20 Many will ask Margaret how she feels following the verdict. She says she feels no joy, no elation, no closure.
01:26 The loss of Emma shattered a mother's soul, but finally the presence of justice allows Margaret to breathe again.
01:33 It is only because of the perseverance of a mother and father and the many women who so courageously came forward that justice is possible today.
01:43 Today, Margaret Colwell wishes to honour those women, some of whom were sex workers who spoke up not just for Emma, but for the many unknown victims of Ian Packer.
01:51 But Margaret also wishes to acknowledge those who have been lost due to illness, overdose and other forms of harm.
01:59 Those women were a part of our communities. They were important to their loved ones, to their families and should have been important to the police.
02:09 A toxic culture of misogyny and corruption meant that the police failed so many women and girls who came forward to speak against Packer.
02:17 Instead of receiving justice and compassion, they were humiliated, they were dismissed and in some instances they were arrested.
02:25 Whilst the police gifted freedom to an evil predator to rape and to rape again.
02:30 We now know that Packer carried out rapes, sexual offences and assaults nearly 20 times after Emma's murder in 2005.
02:38 Margaret believes that officers systematically sabotaged an investigation into Packer for a decade and have blood on their hands.
02:46 For far too long, they have remained in the shadows but must now answer for their betrayal.
02:51 Today, Margaret Colwell calls on the Scottish Government to order an independent judge-led public inquiry into what went wrong.
02:58 The scale of the crimes and the failures are so catastrophic that nothing less than a judicial public inquiry will suffice.
03:07 Neither the police nor Crown Office can be allowed or trusted to investigate themselves and their former bosses.
03:13 Margaret, the many women who testified and the public must have faith that any investigation will be robust and transparent.
03:21 Ultimately, Emma's family placed their trust in the word of the present Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain KC.
03:27 Today, Margaret Colwell is truly grateful to the Lord Advocate for keeping her promise
03:33 and to Crown Counsel Richard Goddard, Kat McQueen and the Crown team including Lynne Reid and Tony Bonar.
03:38 The Crown Office has today shown itself at its very finest.
03:42 Emma's family also wish to thank Police Scotland's murder investigation team including SIOs Davy McLaren and Gail Mackey
03:49 who for some eight years have been unwavering in their commitment and dedication to delivering justice.
03:55 They are the very best of policing.
03:58 Margaret is grateful to the trial judge Lord Beckett and wishes to personally thank the 15 men and women of the jury.
04:05 Today's jury has shown us why they are an essential foundation stone of our justice system
04:10 fulfilling one of the most important duties that any citizen in this country can be called on to do.
04:16 Margaret is grateful also to the legal team at Amaranwa Country who acted without fear or favour to campaign alongside her for justice.
04:24 It should be noted that without the work of journalists such as Jim Wilson and Brendan McGinty of the Sunday Mail in 2015
04:31 this campaign would never have built the momentum required.
04:35 Credit is also due to the BBC's Sam Pauling for her work that gave us more damning evidence against Ian Packer.
04:42 Today Police Scotland will finally apologise to Emma Colwell, to her family and many other victims let down by the police in 2005 and the decade that followed.
04:53 Today's officers stand accused of a shameful betrayal of these women to protect their own careers
04:58 and of alleged criminality that allowed one of the UK's worst sex offenders to evade justice for 18 years.
05:05 In July 2007 four Turkish men appeared in court. I acted for one of the accused, Abu Bekir Onkur.
05:12 In 2007 as lawyers we were told that this was the most expensive and complex investigations ever
05:20 with £4 million spent on accusing four innocent men.
05:23 We very quickly discovered that the surveillance conducted over a course of a year proved absolutely nothing.
05:29 That the translation was deeply flawed and at times imaginary.
05:33 We also learned that Ian Packer was interviewed for the sixth time in March 2007
05:40 and he took officers to the spot where Emma's body was discovered, telling them he took other women there.
05:49 Those police officers were told to shut down that line of inquiry and to pursue the Turks.
05:54 For over 10 years the police perpetuated a lie, shutting down an investigation into the real killer,
06:02 spying on journalists of the Sunday Mail and persecuting detectives who had done their duty in going after Packer.
06:08 When the case collapsed in 2008 the police chose not to do anything further other than maintain a lie to Emma's parents,
06:17 telling William who was dying that the Turkish men were guilty.
06:20 In 2016 I was instructed by Emma's mother to act on her behalf to help bring her daughter's killers to justice.
06:26 No grieving mother should ever be forced to set up a campaign to get justice,
06:31 let alone a campaign that lasts nearly 19 years.
06:35 Margaret believes she was betrayed by Strathclyde Police and by Sir Stephen House and his senior detectives.
06:42 House was formerly Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police Scotland and is now the Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
06:48 and I understand presently suspended.
06:50 On Stephen House's watch in 2015 the Counter Corruption Unit unlawfully spied on police officers who blamed Ian Packer
06:58 and tried to uncover the Sunday Mail sources.
07:01 When the police should have been more concerned were taking a serial rapist and killer off the streets.
07:07 I believe that in May 2016 a third investigation called Operation Amontey, led by a Chief Superintendent,
07:14 was commissioned to reconcile a range of complaints and allegations received by Police Scotland and legacy forces
07:20 in connection with the investigation of the murder of Emma Colwell.
07:23 The family have no trust in the police or Crown Office investigating themselves.
07:28 In the coming days we have been told we will meet with the First Minister, with the Lord Advocate and the Chief Constable.
07:36 If there is no time limit on justice, then any officers, retired or not, suspected of criminality must be prosecuted.
07:43 And those in our criminal justice system who gave Ian Packer his freedom should finally be held to account.
07:49 Whatever a woman's job, whatever a woman's status, whatever a woman's addictions or vulnerabilities,
07:55 it should never be used as a reason to ignore sexual violence or to treat them as second class citizens.
08:02 The rape rate for sex workers in the UK is 12 times higher than for other women and in Glasgow it constitutes the largest single group of unsolved murders.
08:10 Emma Colwell mattered. The 25 women who spoke up mattered, 6 of whom are dead,
08:16 and the many whose voices which we never heard in this courtroom mattered.
08:20 Today Margaret Colwell and her family honour them all. Thank you.
08:24 Thank you everyone.
08:26 Thank you.
08:27 Thank you.
08:28 Thank you.
08:30 Thank you.
08:32 [Music]
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