Murder of Emma Caldwell

Emma Caldwell (1978–2005) was a Scottish woman who was murdered in April 2005 by serial rapist and sex offender, Iain Packer.

Early life and background

Emma Caldwell was born in 1978 to Willam (deceased 2011) and Margaret Caldwell. Emma was said to have had a "very happy childhood," in Cardross Argyll and Bute. Growing up she had a keen interest in horses, and became a horse riding teacher in her early 20s. When her older sister Karen died of cancer in 1998, it sent Emma into a deep depression. A partner that she met in the years that followed encouraged her to try heroin which would numb her pain, and by 2002 she had moved in with him in the Govan area of Glasgow. Emma's parents said that they were left in a "blind panic," when they realised that she was addicted to heroin as they simply did not know what to do. 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. Emma often returned to have Sunday dinners at her family home, now in Erskine in Renfrewshire. 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.

Disappearance and discovery of body

Emma had agreed with her parents to go into rehab. In April 2005, her family grew concerned when they could not reach her. The family spent weeks searching for her around Greater Glasgow, before her body was found five weeks later at Limefield Woods. Her body was found by Neil Borland, a dog walker. When his pet labrador Gigha remained steadfast when called, Borland went to retrieve his dog, before he realised that she was standing directly beside Emma's body. Borland said in a recorded 999 call that he was in "the middle of nowhere" and could see that there was a garotte around her neck which had been used to murder her. The delayed discovery complicated forensic efforts, hindering DNA recovery. Emma's mobile phone, her clothing, and her personal belongings, were never recovered.

Investigations and suspects

Tests were performed by Strathclyde Police on items found on Caldwell's body, but no DNA traces were found. Traces were found on swabs of Emma's personal areas, however 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 Emma. 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.

The first major lead came when Emma's phone history was investigated, with her last contact being with a previously unknown Turkish man. This led to an investigation in which four Turkish men Huseyin Cobanoglu, Halil Kandil, Mustafa Soylemez and Abubekir Oncu Ga (who had phoned Caldwell), were arrested. They were alleged to have strangled Emma at a Turkish café in Glasgow and then dumped her body in the woods. The investigation became the most expensive in Strathclyde Police's history (totalling £4,000,000), with extensive audio and visual surveillance of the men. 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. One of the men (Huseyin Cobanoglu) was later arrested and convicted of rape and sexual assaults of other women, some from this investigation. 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. One of the men (Halil Kandil) 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. A detective working on the case (Geoff Fisher) said that the investigation had been a "colossal waste of money," he believed that the investigation continued because senior officials in Strathclyde police wanted a conviction due to the record sums spent on the investigation. Another former detective (Gerry Gallagher) 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.

Iain Packer

One such suspect was a man named Iain Packer, who resurfaced in 2015. It was revealed that he had been questioned by the police just weeks after Emma's body was found. He was identified by other prostitutes as a regular user who was infatuated with Emma and changed his story with police numerous times. These women said he had taken them to woods in South Lanarkshire near where Emma's body was discovered. 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 other clients. These women felt their concerns had been ignored by the police because they were prostitutes.

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. He then apologised to this woman for leaving her "scared". 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.

In 2018, Packer was interviewed by journalist Samantha Poling for a documentary on the BBC program 'Disclosure,' Packer denied killing Emma and stated that he had never been violent towards women. 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. Packer later admitted the charge, he was convicted and sentenced to jail for two years.

Arrest and trial

On 25 February 2022, Iain Packer was arrested for Emma's murder 17 years after her death. Packer initially faced 45 other charges against 27 other women, three men, and one boy. Of the charges 11 were that of rape. The trial against Packer began in January 2024, with him pleading not guilty to 36 charges of physical and sexual violence against multiple women. During the trial Packer admitted that that he had previously continued having sex with Emma when she asked him to stop. Packer admitted that when asked by Poling in the Disclosure documentary if he had raped Emma, he had not been honest when he denied this. He said that he had denied raping Emma as Poling had "set him up". He stated that this behaviour made him feel ashamed, and was not something of which he was proud. However, he maintained that encounters with Emma were largely consensual and that he did not kill her. During further evidence, he also admitted that he had lied to police when he said that he didn't know Emma during the initial investigation and said that he visited the general area where Emma's body was found, with her, a "maximum" of six times.

The closing statement by the defence counsel (Ronnie Renucci KC) 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." The advocate depute for the prosecution (Richard Goddard KC) said in his closing statement there was "overwhelming" circumstantial evidence to convict Iain Packer. Mr Goddard listed 17 circumstances which he said proved Mr 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 Mr Packer had a predilection for strangling sex workers in Limefield Woods. 16 sex workers have accused Mr 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 Emma 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."

On the 28th of February 2024, Packer was found guilty of the murder of Emma Caldwell, and of 33 other charges against 22 women. Three charges were found not proven. Packer was sentenced to a minimum term of 36 years before he would be able to apply for parole, the second longest sentence in Scottish legal history after Angus Sinclair.