Senior officers repeatedly dismissed Iain Packer as a suspect in the months after Emma Caldwell's murder, despite evidence of his violent behaviour, four former detectives have told BBC Scotland. Packer was found guilty of the murder almost 19 years after Emma's body was discovered in Limefield Woods.
Retired Det Con Stuart Hall took a statement from Packer in June 2005, just weeks after the body was found. Packer initially denied knowing Emma or using prostitutes, but Hall grew suspicious. He asked to detain Packer as a formal suspect but was told no by senior investigating officer Willie Johnston.
Another ex-detective, David Barr, said he was also denied permission to detain Packer after Packer admitted paying Emma for sex and taking her to the woods. Barr recalled being told: “It doesn't matter what he tells you – he won't ever be an accused in this case.”
Instead, police focused on four Turkish men, pursuing a theory that they killed Emma in a Glasgow café. High-level surveillance was authorised at considerable public expense. The men were charged in 2007 but later cleared.
Statements from other women had linked Packer to the woods where Emma's body was found. One woman identified the exact location six months after reporting a sexual assault. Packer was spoken to six times between 2005 and 2007 but not questioned again for over a decade.
