Emma mum to meet new law chief to get justice
THE mother of murder victim Emma Caldwell is to meet the new Lord Advocate in her ongoing quest for justice – 16 years after her daughter’s unsolved death.
The 27-year-old was working as a prostitute when her body was found in woods near Biggar, Lanarkshire, in May 2005.
Her mother, Margaret Caldwell, campaigned tirelessly for answers and in 2015 the case was reopened following consideration by senior lawyers in the Crown Office.
She will now meet Scotland’s most senior law officer, Dorothy Bain, QC, who took over the role from James
Wolffe after he resigned in May. Miss Bain, who secured the first murder conviction against serial killer Peter Tobin, will meet Mrs Caldwell and her solicitor, Aamer Anwar, on Monday morning.
A statement from Mr Anwar said: ‘She will not be asking for very much, just real hope and a recognition that justice for Emma can no longer be delayed.
‘Emma Caldwell, at the age of 27, was brutally murdered in 2005 and her family felt betrayed by the failed original investigation. It is inevitable that other women will have suffered at the hands of this killer.
‘When the killer took Emma’s life, he tore apart her family’s lives forever, they were unable to bury Emma for some two years, her mother Margaret has never been able to grieve and when William, Emma’s father, died from cancer in 2011 he made his family promise they would never give up fighting for justice.
‘Former lord advocates tried to reassure the family that this was a painstaking complex investigation, but as the years passed by, the family became tired of the excuses.
‘I had only recently accused the Crown Office under its former Lord Advocate of unbelievable cruelty to a mother who increasingly lost hope.
‘The new Lord Advocate is widely regarded for her independence and integrity, but the one quality that gives hope is her absolute compassion and empathy for victims.’
Miss Caldwell was working in Glasgow’s red light district when she disappeared on April 4, 2005. There have been various suspects in the case, but never any convictions.
Ten years after her death, police were ordered to reopen the inquiry after it emerged there was a ‘forgotten suspect’. A three-year probe reported to prosecutors after analysis of more than a thousand statements given to the original inquiry.
In the months that followed, Mrs Caldwell confronted Scotland’s legal chief over what she described as the ‘betrayal’ of her murdered daughter.
She visited the Crown Office in Edinburgh to challenge the Lord Advocate at the time, Frank Mulholland, over ‘failures’ by the police and ‘empty promises’.
‘Other women will have suffered’