Murder was ‘worst horror in decades of sex crimes’

The strangulation and murder of Emma Caldwell was the “most horrifying chapter” in an “appalling course of sexual violence” by Iain Packer over the course of two decades, a prosecutor has told a jury.

Packer, 51, is on trial accused of murdering Miss Caldwell, 27, who went missing in Glasgow on April 4 2005 and whose body was found in Limefield Woods, near Roberton, South Lanarkshire, the following month.

He faces a total of 36 charges involving offences against 25 women, all of which he denies.

Concluding his closing speech at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, prosecutor Richard Goddard KC said there was “little dispute” that circumstances, taken together, suggested Miss Caldwell had been murdered.

The court heard Packer had gone out with the “purpose” of using a sex worker between April 4 and 5 2005 and, earlier on April 4, and withdrew £20.

Jurors also heard Packer was an “obsessive” and “violent” user of sex workers and had an “unhealthy addiction” to procuring their services.

The prosecutor said choking was an “extraordinary feature” of Packer’s alleged attacks on women.

Mr Goddard said Packer was a “problematic client” of Emma Caldwell’s, with a witness saying he “used to follow her about” and that, once he started going with Emma, the witness said she could not remember Packer “going with anyone else” and described him as “besotted” with her.

Defending Packer, Ronnie Renucci KC cast doubt on the testimonies of many of the women in his closing speech, suggesting many of the complainers were either mistaken or they had got the wrong man. He said: “We don’t know all of the women are telling the truth.”

The trial, before Lord Beckett, continues.