Emma Caldwell murder: Police admit major failings after Iain Packer convicted of killing

Solicitor Aamer Anwar calls for officers suspected of criminality to be prosecuted

Police have admitted major failings which had denied justice to a “significant” number of female victims of violent and sexual crimes after Iain Packer was convicted of murdering Emma Caldwell nearly 19 years after her death.

Police Scotland said the former Strathclyde Police should have carried out further investigations into the 27-year-old’s death following its initial enquiries in 2005.

It said the lack of action until the Lord Advocate ordered the case to be re-opened ten years later "caused unnecessary distress to her family and all those women who had come forward to report sexual violence”.

Emma Caldwell's body was found a month after she disappeared in 2005. Picture: Police Scotland

Packer, 51, was found guilty at the High Court in Glasgow on Wednesday of murder and hiding her body in Limefield Woods, near Biggar in South Lanarkshire following the largest police investigation for years.

He was also convicted of violent and sexual crimes against several other women and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 36 years.

Emma Caldwell murder: Timeline of events leading to the conviction of Iain Packer

Aamer Anwar, the solicitor acting on behalf of Miss Caldwell’s mother Margaret, accused police of a “toxic culture of misogyny and corruption” and called for any officers suspected of criminality to be prosecuted.

Emma Caldwell's mother Margaret Caldwell called for a public inquiry into the case. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

He said Mrs Caldwell wanted a judge-led public inquiry into what went wrong

Miss Caldwell was last seen on CCTV around 11pm on April 4 2005 walking alone on Butterbiggins Road towards Victoria Road on the southside of Glasgow.

She was reported missing by her family a week later and her body was found just over a month later on May 8. The review of the case in 2015 involved more than 53,000 documents and other items of evidence.

Assistant Chief Constable for Major Crime and Public Protection Bex Smith said: “Emma Caldwell, her family and many other victims, were let down by policing in 2005. For that we are sorry.

Iain Packer was convicted on Wednesday of murdering Emma Caldwell and violent and sexual crimes against several other women. (Photo by Police Scotland)

“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.

“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 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.

“This was an extremely challenging re-investigation and without doubt the largest police enquiry of recent times in Scotland.

“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.

“We have reflected and learnt from the initial investigation and subsequent re-investigation. Significant changes have been made in recent years to improve our organisational culture and our response, particularly in respect of investigative structures, victim care and processes to these types of crimes.

“What shone through to the enquiry team throughout the investigations into Emma’s life was her gentle personality, and our thoughts remain with Emma, her family and all those affected by this terrible case.”

Mr Anwar said: “A toxic culture of misogyny and corruption meant the police failed so many women and girls who came forward to speak up against Packer.

"Instead of receiving justice and compassion, they were humiliated, dismissed and in some instances arrested, whilst the police gifted freedom to an evil predator to rape and rape again.

"The scale of the crimes and the failures are so catastrophic that nothing less than a judicial public inquiry will suffice."

Mr Anwar said police officers stood accused of a “shameful betrayal” of Miss Caldwell and other victims “to protect their own careers and of alleged criminality that allowed one of the UK’s worst sex offenders to evade justice for 18 years”.

Former Scotsman crime correspondent Jim Wilson, who was editor of the Sunday Mail when it exposed Packer in 2015, said Police Scotland and the Crown Office must be compelled to explain why Packer was not prosecuted in 2005 and why it took a further nine years before he was convicted.

He said Police Scotland had responded to the newspaper’s story by launching an illegal investigation to identify its sources – before being ordered seven weeks later to re-open the murder investigation by Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland.

He said: “Police and prosecutors who allowed him to remain free for almost 20 years must now also be held to account. They had the evidence to convict Packer for almost two decades but did nothing because it was too professionally embarrassing to admit their mistakes and put them right.

“A killer was concealed because the authorities did not want to explain a murder investigation that lasted two-and-a-half years, cost £4 million, targeted the wrong men and left the prime suspect free to commit more crimes and inflict more grief and misery.”

BBC Scotland has reported that Packer was repeatedly dismissed by senior police officers as a suspect.

It said four former detectives involved in the initial investigation said his violent, abusive and predatory behaviour was known to police from the start but senior officers instead wrongly built a case against four Turkish men, who were then cleared.

Mr Anwar, who had represented one of the men, said Packer had taken police in 2007 to the spot where Emma’s body was discovered, telling them he took other women there. He said: “Those officers were told to shut down that line of inquiry and to pursue ‘the Turks’.”