MARKED MAN
Vicious killer Pacteau moved out of prison for his own safety after bosses uncover brutal inmates’ vengeful plot
Alexander Pacteau’s savage murder of nurse Karen Buckley made him a target for violent cons. access to satellite TV, a personal fitness programme, badminton, volleyball a n d we i g h t training at a targeted con to intensify the sessions. awful burn injuries. Prisoners like Pacteau were even
Pacteau was caged and ordered encouraged to take part in creative to serve at least 23 years behind writing, crafts and drama at the bars after he admitted murdering jail’s new “learning centre”. the Cork nurse last year. Inmates were able to buy televi
After being sentenced l ast sions and electronic games conSeptember he was moved from soles using an in-house service proBarlinnie prison – where he had viding them with Scottish taxpayerbeen held on remand – to the notofunded ‘wages’. rious Lanarkshire jail. But while all these mod cons
However, there were accusations were on offer to Pacteau, he was the prison had become too “cushy” quickly singled out by fellow for lifers following a refurbishment inmates who were planning a viodesigned to provide a “supportive lent attack on him. regime” to ease convicts into penal And prison bosses decided to life. ship him to Kilmarnock after
It meant Pacteau – branded an receiving intelligence he had been “e v i l c o w a r d” by targeted. Karen’s distraught Our prison insider said family – was given that Pacteau was a solitary figure in prison life.
“He has kept himself to himself inside and struggled to make any friends behind bars,” said our source.
“He’s very much a loner, which I understand was what he was like outside too.”
He reportedly sparked anger in Glasgow’s Barlinnie prior to his conviction by boasting about his pampered upbringing.
The former private school pupil, who grew up in the leafy town of Milngavie near Glasgow, told prisoners his parents had a maid while he was studying at posh Kelvinside Academy.
Karen went missing in the early hours of April 12, 2015, after leaving the Sanctuary nightclub in Glasgow’s West End.
Pacteau killed her within 20 minutes of meeting and luring her to his car, it emerged during the case.
He battered her with a spanner and strangled her, then attempted to dissolve her body in caustic soda he had bought. A massive search was launched after she failed to return home from the night out. Her body was found nearly three days later.
Last night, a spokeswoman for the Scottish Prison Service said it did not comment on
individual prisoners.