An independent judge-led public inquiry will be held into how police handled the investigation into Emma Caldwell’s murder, the Scottish government has announced. The announcement came as Scotland’s most senior law officer said she believed there was sufficient evidence in 2008 to prosecute Caldwell’s killer, who was convicted only last week.
Caldwell’s mother, Margaret, has campaigned tirelessly for nearly two decades to bring her daughter’s murderer to justice. She listened from the public gallery as Scotland’s justice secretary, Angela Constance, told MSPs on Thursday afternoon: “There can be no doubt of the serious failings that brought a grieving family to fight for justice.”
The inquiry is expected to examine the sustained police failings that emerged during the trial of killer and serial rapist Iain Packer.
Packer was jailed last week for 36 years for the 2005 murder of Caldwell, as well as multiple other cases of sexual violence against 22 other women.
Caldwell was living in a hostel in Glasgow when she disappeared in April 2005, aged 27. Her mother told the trial that her daughter had started taking heroin to numb her grief after the death of her sister and was funding her drug habit through sex work. Caldwell’s naked body was found five weeks after she went missing, in Limefield Woods near Biggar, South Lanarkshire.
An emotional Constance told the Holyrood chamber: “Given … the gravity of this case, the length of time that it took for justice to be served for so many women and the horrific extent of the sexual violence suffered by the victims and survivors, the case for holding a public inquiry is overwhelming”.
An hour before the statement, Caldwell’s family concluded a meeting with the lord advocate, Dorothy Bain, who worked on the case as crown counsel in 2008.
Bain told the family that after taking the view that there was no murder case against the four Turkish men who the original police investigation had focused on, she and the solicitor general directed investigators to look at Packer, whose name appeared in police papers.
Speaking after the meeting, the Caldwell family’s solicitor, Aamer Anwar, said: “The lord advocate confirmed that multiple women came forward who would have added to the evidence of rapes and attacks. There is no doubt on the basis of evidence available in 2008, had the police listened to the Crown Office, Packer may well have been serving a life sentence”.
Packer, who lodged an appeal against his conviction yesterday, is known to have carried out at least 19 other rapes and sexual assaults after he killed Caldwell.
Police Scotland has apologised for how the original inquiry was handled by Strathclyde police, which was amalgamated into the national force in 2013.
Police Scotland’s chief constable, Jo Farrell, reiterated the apology when she met Caldwell’s family on Wednesday, adding that she supported their calls for a public inquiry and pledged the force would “fully participate”.
“It is important that Emma’s family and the public get answers to the many questions they have,” Farrell said.
