Rape victim hits out at watchdog

A WOMAN raped by the same man who murdered Emma Caldwell almost 20 years ago has accused watchdogs of ignoring her plea to reopen a complaint against the police in the wake of his conviction.

Magdalene Robertson said she had approached the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc) several times after Iain Packer was jailed for life in February 2024.

As well as being convicted of murdering Ms Caldwell in 2005, Packer was also found guilty of 11 charges of rape against nine women – with Police Scotland apologising to his victims saying they had been “let down” by police handling of the case.

However, Ms Robertson told MSPs despite contacting Pirc a number of times, it had “ignored” her calls for her complaint to be looked at again.

She also claimed the organisation, which is responsible for investigating allegations of criminality by on-duty officers and misconduct allegations, had failed to follow up information that she had given it.

With MSPs on Holyrood’s Criminal Justice Committee considering new legislation from the Scottish Government which seeks to improve the police complaints and misconduct process, Ms Robertson – known as Maggie – spoke out about her experience.

She was indecently assaulted by Packer when she was 14 and raped by him when she was 15, speaking to the police about him in 2006.

But she likened the process of complaining about the police to being on “hamster wheel”, adding: “You know you are butting your head, and you can’t get forward.”

She claimed: “It was an exercise to deplete me of my energy so I had nowhere else to go.

“That’s the intention of Pirc for me, I don’t see it as anything else.

“I think it is criminal they did not follow up on that, I still don’t know what happened.”