Emma Caldwell was murdered in April 2005 by serial rapist and sex offender, Iain Packer. The investigation of her murder was one of Scotland's longest-running cases, with nineteen years between her death and Packer's imprisonment in 2024 for a minimum term of 36 years. Angela Constance MSP, the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs, announced that there would be an independent public inquiry into the police handling of the investigation.
Emma Caldwell was born on 31 January 1978 in Cardross, Argyll and Bute, Scotland.[1][2] Described as having had a "very happy childhood",[3] Caldwell had a keen interest in horses and became a horse riding teacher in her early 20s. When her older sister died of cancer in 1998, it sent Caldwell into a deep depression. A partner encouraged her to try heroin to cope with her grief, and by 2002 she had moved in with him in the Govan area of Glasgow.[3] Caldwell's parents said that they were left in a "blind panic" when they realised that she was addicted to heroin as they did not know what to do.[4]
Her parents attempted to support her, and visited her at a hostel she was now staying in the Govanhill region of Glasgow. They saw her weekly and helped her by doing her washing, buying her food, and giving her credit for her phone bill.[3] Caldwell often returned to have Sunday dinners at her family home, now in Erskine in Renfrewshire.[5] Her parents said they were 'naive' about the cost of her heroin addiction, and did not initially realise that she had turned to prostitution to fund her drug addiction.[3] Emma's parents were overjoyed when they heard of her plan to seek rehabilitation.[3]
Disappearance and discovery of body
Caldwell's family grew concerned when they could not reach her on 6 April, after arranging to meet and spent weeks searching for her around Glasgow.[3] On 8 May 2005 her body was found at Limefield Woods around 8 miles south west of Biggar, South Lanarkshire by a dog walker.[6][7] His dog had remained steadfast when called and when the walker went to retrieve his dog he realised that she was standing directly beside a dead body, face down in a ditch.[3] In a state of shock he called one of his family members who said in a recorded 999 call that she was in "the middle of nowhere" and could see that the body was unclothed with a garotte around the neck.[3]
A pathologist who examined Caldwell's body after it was discovered confirmed the "clearly identifiable" cause of death was compression of the neck. Her report stated "the pattern of injury is more in keeping with manual strangulation, but the application of a ligature – either instead of, or in addition to a hand – could not be excluded."[8] This could have been the plastic cord or line visible at the back of Caldwell's neck when she was found.[8] The delayed discovery complicated forensic efforts, hindering DNA recovery.[9] Caldwell's mobile phone, her clothing, and her personal belongings, were never recovered.[10]
The case was featured on BBC Crimewatch on 15 June 2005.[11] Police reported new leads as a result[12]
Investigations and suspects
Strathclyde Police performed DNA testing on items found on Caldwell's body, but no DNA traces were found. There were traces found on swabs of Caldwell's personal areas, however these were not enough to identify an individual. Tests were also carried out on three used condoms found near Limefield Woods, as well as cigarette ends, and condom wrappers, but they did not match the DNA of any suspects or Caldwell.[9] Glasgow had seen seven women who had engaged in prostitution murdered between 1991 and 2005, only two of these cases had been solved, with accusations that Strathclyde Police had not done enough to investigate.[5]
The first major lead came when Caldwell's phone history was investigated, with her last contact being with a previously unknown Turkish man.[9] This led to an investigation in which four Turkish men were arrested. They were alleged to have strangled Caldwell at a Turkish café in Glasgow before dumping her body in the woods.[13] The investigation became the most expensive in Strathclyde Police's history (totalling £4 million), with extensive audio and visual surveillance of the men.[14] The men were said to have been regular users of prostitutes, and were said to have brought prostitutes to their cafe where they also drank, gambled, and used drugs. Further evidence emerged when a search found a speck of blood identified as being from Caldwell, and one of the last 'pings' on her mobile phone was linked to a location near the cafe.[15] Officers also searched the home of a barber who was an amateur musician who played at the cafe at times, where they found a cable that the police believed was almost identical to that found on Caldwell's body. One of the men was later arrested and convicted of rape and sexual assaults of other women, some from this investigation.[15]
The case against the men collapsed when the police officer translating the tapes (who was of Turkish origin) claimed there was evidence the men had discussed the murder of Caldwell. Two specialists who reviewed the tapes said there was no evidence on the tapes that indicated they had discussed killing Caldwell.[14] One of the men then sued the newly formed Police Scotland (which had merged all of Scotland's police forces into one) for £100,000 where he settled out of court for damages for wrongful arrest and 80 days on remand.[16] A detective working on the case said that the investigation had been a "colossal waste of money" and he believed that the investigation continued because senior officials in Strathclyde police wanted a conviction due to the record sums spent on the investigation.[17] Another former detective said that because the operation against the Turkish men was so big and at such an advanced stage it blinded officers from looking at more realistic suspects.[18]
Iain Packer
In April 2015, the Sunday Mail newspaper published an article naming Iain Packer as a person who had been questioned by the police just weeks after Caldwell's body was found in 2005.[18] (A police investigation into identifying the sources of the article would later be deemed unlawful.)[19][20] He was identified by other prostitutes as a regular user who was infatuated with Caldwell and changed his story with police numerous times.[18] These women said he had taken them to woods in South Lanarkshire near where Caldwell's body was discovered.[18] Women working in the sex industry had complained about Packer in 2005, putting him in a 'Beware Book', which collected warnings from prostitutes about potentially dangerous clients. Numerous women identified Packer and complained about rapes that had been perpetrated on them by Packer, and by other clients.[21] These women felt their concerns had been ignored by the police because they were prostitutes.[21]
Packer was described as a Jekyll and Hyde character. One woman said he usually treated her "like a lady" but on one occasion he became angry when she refused to remove all of her clothes when she was outside.[22] He then apologised to this woman for leaving her "scared".[22] Packer was found to have admitted to the police that he had taken prostitutes to woods in South Lanarkshire, but he was ruled out of the initial investigation.[21]
In 2018, Packer was interviewed by journalist Samantha Poling for a documentary on the BBC programme Disclosure. Packer denied killing Caldwell and said that he had never been violent towards women.[23] Within days of the documentary being broadcast, one of his former partners went to the police to complain that Packer had pushed her onto a bed, put his hands around her throat, choked her to her injury, and to danger of life.[23] Packer later admitted the charge, as well as a charge of stalking and breaching a court order preventing him from contacting the victim. He was convicted and sentenced to jail for two years.[24]
Arrest and trial
On 25 February 2022 Packer was arrested for Caldwell's murder, 17 years after her death.[25] He initially faced 45 other charges against 27 other women, three men, and one boy. Of the charges, 11 were that of rape.[26] The trial against Packer began in January 2024, with him pleading not guilty to 36 charges of physical and sexual violence against multiple women.[27] During the trial Packer admitted that that he had previously continued having sex with Caldwell when she asked him to stop.[28] Packer admitted that when asked by Samantha Poling in the Disclosure documentary if he had raped Caldwell, he had not been honest when he denied this.[28] He said that he had denied raping Caldwell as Poling had "set him up".[29] He stated that this behaviour made him feel ashamed, and was not something of which he was proud.[28] However, he maintained that encounters with Caldwell were largely consensual and that he did not kill her.[29] During further evidence, he also admitted that he had lied to police when he said that he didn't know Caldwell during the initial investigation and said that he visited the general area where Caldwell's body was found, with her, a "maximum" of six times.[29]
Further evidence was provided that linked Packer with the location where Caldwell's body was found. Soil samples from around the ditch where Caldwell's body was discovered were compared to soil samples previously taken from the footwell of a van used by Packer. The court heard the "chosen technique" to compare soil samples was to analyse the pollen in them. The forest samples and the van samples each contained the same types and quantities of pollen.[8] The court heard there was 99% to 99.99% chance they matched at least three of the six soil samples.[8] During the trial the jurors, court staff, and the judge Lord Beckett, as well as Packer, were all driven to the alleged scene of the crime, at Limefield Woods some 41 miles (66km) from Glasgow High Court.[30]
The closing statement by the defence counsel asked the jury to examine the evidence alone and "not rumour, not gossip, not innuendo. When the advocate depute suggests all the women can't be wrong, that doesn't mean they were all right."[31] The advocate depute for the prosecution said in his closing statement there was "overwhelming" circumstantial evidence to convict Packer. The advocate depute listed 17 circumstances which he said proved Packer murdered Ms Caldwell in April 2005. He said "the most compelling of all was the place where her body was found, there is nothing to suggest that anyone other than Packer had a predilection for strangling sex workers in Limefield Woods. There are 16 sex workers who have accused Packer of being violent towards them. A further 11 women have accused him of grabbing their throats and trying to throttle them. He finished by saying that the prosecution believed that the strangulation and the murder of Caldwell was the most horrifying chapter in what the evidence tells us was Packer's appalling course of sexual violence towards women that lasted over a period of two decades."[31]
On 28 February 2024, Packer was found guilty of the murder of Caldwell, and of 32 other charges against 22 women. Three charges were found not proven.[32] Packer was sentenced to a minimum term of 36 years in prison before he would be able to apply for parole, the second longest sentence in Scottish legal history after Angus Sinclair.[33]
Aftermath
The mother of Caldwell said she had been "betrayed," by the original police investigation, and was "angry," it had taken so long for Packer to be brought to justice. Aamer Anwar, the lawyer representing Caldwell called for a public inquiry in response to this, and said officers who worked on the original investigation must answer for their conduct as Packer went on to attack numerous other women. He further stated that "this is the most prolific sex offender in the history of Scotland and one of the most prolific sex offenders in the history of the United Kingdom."[33]
Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf MSP, said his government was "seriously considering" the option of an inquiry. He said that Justice Secretary Angela Constance MSP, was going to meet with Caldwell's mother and that he would meet with her "as soon as possible."[34] This was in response to Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross MSP who said there needed to be a "free and fearless inquiry to get to the bottom of the situation that let killer Iain Packer remain free for 19 years." Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar MSP called for this investigation to be led by someone "separate to and independent from Scotland's justice system". Sarwar said the case was one in a long line of 'failures' within Scottish institutions, "which too often fight for their reputations rather than be on the side of victims and seek to find the truth."[34]
A spokesperson from Police Scotland apologised for the way that Strathclyde Police handled the case. They said "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, did not get the justice and support they needed and deserved from Strathclyde Police. We have reflected and learnt from the initial investigation and subsequent re-investigation, significant changes have been made to our organisational culture, response, victim care, and processes for these types of crimes."[35]
On 5 March 2024 Caldwell's mother met with Humza Yousaf and appealed for a public inquiry into the handling of her daughter's case.[36] The following day Angela Constance announced that there would be an independent public inquiry into the police handling of the investigation.[37] After the inquiry was announced, one of Packer's victims, and an acquaintance of Caldwell, said that she believed several of Caldwell's clients were police officers. She accused police of not investigating Packer for his crimes over fears he would reveal that serving officers were using prostitutes.[38]
On 6 March 2024, Iain Packer announced he would appeal against his conviction and the length of his sentence.[39]
Related Research Articles
Thomas Sheridan is a Scottish politician who served as convenor of Solidarity from 2019 to 2021. He previously served as convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) from 1998 to 2004 and as co-convenor of Solidarity from 2006 to 2016. He was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow region from 1999 to 2007.
Bible John is an unidentified serial killer who is believed to have murdered three young women between 1968 and 1969 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Lady Elish Frances Angiolini is a Scottish lawyer who currently serves as Lord Clerk Register. Angiolini has worked at the University of Oxford since 2012 and has been identified as a potential candidate in the 2024 University of Oxford Chancellor election.
Shirley McKie is a former Scottish police detective who was accused by fingerprint analysis staff of the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) of leaving her thumb print on the bathroom door frame of a murder crime-scene in Kilmarnock on 14 January 1997. She denied she had ever been in the house of murder victim Marion Ross, but Detective Constable McKie was initially suspended, then sacked, then arrested by Strathclyde Police in 1998, and tried and acquitted in 1999. A scandal subsequently developed because of allegations of misconduct on the part of the SCRO and the police.
The Ipswich serial murders, commonly known as the work of the Suffolk Strangler, took place between 30 October and 10 December 2006, during which time the bodies of five murdered sex workers were discovered at different locations near Ipswich, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom. Their bodies were discovered naked but there were no signs of sexual assault. Two of the victims, Anneli Alderton and Paula Clennell, were confirmed to have been killed by asphyxiation. A cause of death for the other victims, Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol and Annette Nicholls, was not established.
Aamer Anwar is a British political activist and lawyer of Pakistani origin. He was an active participant in the Stop the War Coalition, and campaigned against the 31st G8 summit at Gleneagles. He has been a longstanding critic of the Dungavel Detention Centre for failed asylum seekers, and is a trustee of the Time for Inclusive Education charity for LGBT-inclusive education in Scottish schools.
Arlene Fraser was a 33-year-old woman from Elgin in Moray, Scotland, who vanished from her home on 28 April 1998 after her two children went to school. No trace of her was ever found, but her husband was convicted of her murder, upheld on appeal.
Steven Gerald James Wright is an English serial killer, also known as the Suffolk Strangler. He is currently serving life imprisonment for the murder of five women who worked in Ipswich, Suffolk. The killings took place during the final months of 2006 and Wright was found guilty in February 2008 and given a whole life order
The World's End Murders is the colloquial name given to the murder of two girls, Christine Eadie, 17, and Helen Scott, 17, in Edinburgh, in October 1977. The case is so named because both victims were last seen alive leaving The World's End pub in Edinburgh's Old Town. The only person to stand trial accused of the murders, Angus Robertson Sinclair, was acquitted in 2007 in controversial circumstances. Following the amendment of the law of double jeopardy, which would have prevented his retrial, Sinclair was retried in October 2014 and convicted of both murders on 14 November 2014. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 37 years, the longest sentence by a Scottish court, meaning he would have been 106 years old when he was eligible for a potential release on parole. He died at HM Prison Glenochil aged 73 on 11 March 2019. Coincidentally, he died on the same day the BBC's Crimewatch Roadshow programme profiled the murders.
Peter Britton Tobin was a Scottish convicted serial killer and sex offender who served a whole life order at HM Prison Edinburgh for three murders committed between 1991 and 2006. Police also investigated Tobin over the deaths and disappearances of other young women and girls.
The murder of Leanne Tiernan was a high-profile English child murder involving a 16-year-old schoolgirl who was abducted less than one mile from her home on 26November 2000 while returning from a Christmas shopping trip in Leeds, West Yorkshire, and subsequently murdered. The missing person inquiry which followed was one of the largest in the history of West Yorkshire Police, involving the search of around 1,750 buildings, underwater searches of thirty-two drainage wells, the draining of a two-mile section of a canal and the halting of household waste collections.
The Bradford murders were the serial killings of three women in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England in 2009 and 2010.
Her Majesty's Advocate v Thomas Sheridan and Gail Sheridan was the 2010 criminal prosecution of Tommy Sheridan, a former Member of the Scottish Parliament and his wife Gail Sheridan for perjury in relation to an earlier civil case called Sheridan v News Group Newspapers. Tommy Sheridan was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison, whereas Gail was acquitted.
Samantha Poling is a Scottish investigative journalist working for BBC Scotland and BBC Panorama.
This is a list of sex workers who were murdered in the United Kingdom.
On 2 July 2018, six-year-old Scottish girl Alesha Sarah MacPhail was abducted from her bed and murdered by 16-year-old Aaron Campbell. Alesha, from Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, was three days into a stay with her grandparents on the Isle of Bute when Campbell entered their unlocked home at approximately 02:00 AM. The teenager had previously bought cannabis from Alesha's father Robert, who lived in the house, and initially went to steal the drug. Upon finding the child asleep, Campbell picked her up, carried her to the grounds of a demolished hotel, then raped and killed her by applying pressure to her face and neck. Alesha was reported missing at 06:23 GMT; her body was discovered by a member of the public at 08:54 GMT.
Alun Kyte, known as the Midlands Ripper, is an English double murderer, serial rapist, child rapist, paedophile and suspected serial killer. He was convicted in 2000 of the murders of two sex workers, 20-year-old Samo Paull and 30-year-old Tracey Turner, whom he killed in December 1993 and March 1994 respectively. After his conviction, investigators announced their suspicions that Kyte could have been behind a number of other unsolved murders of sex workers across Britain in the 1980s and 1990s. He was apprehended due to the ground-breaking investigations of a wider police inquiry named Operation Enigma, which was launched in 1996 in response to the murders of Paull, Turner and of a large number of other sex workers. Kyte was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years imprisonment for the murders of Paull and Turner.
David Smith is an English repeat murderer, rapist and suspected serial killer who came to national prominence in 1999 when he was convicted of murdering a sex worker six years after having been acquitted of an "almost identical" murder. Cleared of the murder of 33-year-old west London sex worker Sarah Crump in 1993, Smith was found guilty in 1999 of the killing of 21-year-old Paddington sex worker Amanda Walker. Smith has since been linked to a number of other murders of sex workers across Britain.
The murder of Elizabeth McCabe was the infamous murder of a 20-year-old woman in Dundee, Scotland in February 1980. The case is one of Scotland's most notorious unsolved murders, and led to one of Scotland's largest manhunts. McCabe had disappeared after a night out at Teazer's Disco in Dundee city centre, and was found strangled to death two weeks later in Templeton Woods on the outskirts of the city. This was only 11 months after another woman, 18-year-old Carol Lannen, had been found dead only 150 yards away in the same woods, leading to the killings being labelled the Templeton Woods murders in the press and causing many to fear that there was a serial killer at large in the city at the time, although police have not linked the murders.
Dr Brenda Page was murdered in her home in Allan Street, Aberdeen on 14 July 1978. The case remained an unsolved murder for almost 45 years until her former husband, Christopher Harrisson, who had been a suspect in the original investigation, was convicted in the High Court, Aberdeen in March 2023, and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum period of 20 years before parole.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
