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 Caldwerll and raping 11 women among dozens of other charges, 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 lured her away from Glasgow’s red-light district and drove her to the remote woods 40 miles away, where he strangled her and dumped her naked in a ditch.
Emma Caldwell, 27, vanished in Glasgow on April 4, 2005
Miss Caldwell came from a close-knit family and saw both parents twice a week and spoke to them daily, and was reported missing after she failed to respond to attempts by them to change a planned meeting.
During Packer’s trial, the court heard a soil sample taken in 2021 from the site where Miss Caldwell’s body was found was a ‘97% match’ with soil found in his blue work van, and Packer was charged by police in February 2022.
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.’
The trial heard evidence from multiple women about Packer’s brutal attacks on them.
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.
This is a breaking news story, more to follow.
