Crown ‘saw the evidence’
CROWN prosecutors knew Packer had admitted having sex with Emma Caldwell and taking her to the remote location where she was found dead in 2007.
Despite also having witness accounts of the killer’s sexual violence he was allowed to remain on the streets attacking women until 2022.
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service declined to provide a timeline on its knowledge of Packer as a person of interest this week. It was previously believed it could have been kept in the dark by police until the Sunday Mail’s 2015 front page naming him as a suspect.
But lawyer Aamer Anwar has revealed the evidence was also in their hands.
It leaves questions for former Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini – who is in charge of an inquiry into how officer Wayne Couzens was able to abduct, rape and murder Sarah Everard.
Anwar, who at the time was representing a Turkish man wrongly accused of Emma’s murder, said he received a hard drive with Crown Office disclosure, adding: “Among those was buried the six statements of Iain Packer. In March 2007, he had told police he knew Emma and had taken her and several other women to Limefield Woods but then actually took the detectives to the spot where her body was dumped.
“Why did the Crown Office and four Lord Advocates prior to Dorothy Bain KC take no action over the police shutting down of an investigation.”
Anwar believes voices calling for Packer to be prosecuted were overruled. He said disclosure of Crown Office papers “should show at the very least he was a person of significant interest but I understand it was much more, he was flagged up for prosecution, so what happened?”