WHY DID POLICE IGNORE CCTV CLUE?
POLICE ignored crucial CCTV footage which may have caught on camera Alexander Pacteau sexually assaulting a young woman.
Only three years before he brutally murdered Irish student Karen Buckley, private schoolboy Pacteau – then just 17 – was charged with a violent attempted rape in a Glasgow lane.
But he sensationally secured a not guilty verdict and walked free from court after the Crown failed to convince the jury there was enough evidence to prove the physical attack took place.
Now, in a shocking new development, The Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal a 24-hour security camera overlooked the exact spot where Pacteau is alleged to have forced himself upon the 24-year-old victim.
Yet – incredibly – crime scene detectives called out to Baliol Lane in the Woodlands area of the city on November 27, 2011, did not ask to see the film.
MoS reporters visited the scene of the crime and could clearly be seen through the CCTV system of a nearby snooker and pool hall. Footage from the cameras is automatically deleted after a month.
Last night police confirmed they had not collected the CCTV footage at the time, sparking an angry reaction from critics who said it was appalling that officers had overlooked such a potentially damning source of evidence.
If Pacteau had been found guilty of the sex attack in 2011, it is highly likely he would have been in jail in April this year when he murdered Miss Buckley, whose body he later tried to dissolve in a barrel of chemicals.
Witnesses at the sex attack trial in January 2013 told of hearing pained screams for ‘help’ and finding the terrified young woman on the ground covered in mud and scratches.
But Pacteau’s defence lawyer successfully argued there was nothing to corroborate her claims Pacteau – who said he was gay and would ‘rather be tried for murder than rape’ – pushed her to the ground and sexually assaulted her in a sustained and degrading attack.
Opposition politicians called on scandal-hit Police Scotland to provide answers to both the original victim and the family of Miss Buckley explaining why the CCTV footage was discounted.
It is understood an assessment was made by senior investigating officers at the time that due to the fact witnesses
‘The police should have asked for the footage’
could place Pacteau in the lane, and he did not dispute being there, there was ‘no value’ in seizing any CCTV.
They had enough evidence to arrest the then teenager and submit a report to the procurator fiscal, a source close to the force explained, so while they were aware of the camera a decision was made that there was ‘no need’ for officers to ask to see CCTV.
The MoS visited Q Club pool and snooker hall on Glasgow’s St George’s Road, where Pacteau was reportedly a regular, during our extensive enquiries at the site of the alleged sex attack.
Bosses revealed they have had a CCTV operating in Baliol Lane, which backs on to the premises, since 2006.
The hi-tech camera, which is fixed to a brick wall around 15ft above the ground, is clear to see to anyone who walks down the cobbled lane.
Q Club manager David McNeil said: ‘The police never came in at all for any footage. Not once. They never asked us for a thing.
‘Pacteau used to come in to the club with his friends a lot. He was a very weird guy.’
Owner Sanjay Sharma said: ‘ The CCTV cameras were definitely there during the time of the attack as they were installed in the summer of 2006.
‘They have always been in the same position and looked on to those parts of the lane. They have never been changed or altered.
‘The police should really have been in. They definitely should have come into us and asked for the footage.’
He added: ‘Unfortunately the hard drive wipes footage after 28 days.’
Mr Sanjay allowed our reporter to watch live footage streamed by the camera and our photographer was then
able to capture her walking down the lane where the victim says she was attacked by Pacteau.
Scottish Conservative chief whip John Lamont said last night: ‘It appears that there have been severe shortcomings when it comes to building this case.
‘When it comes to allegations of rape and sexual assault, it’s simply not acceptable to leave anything out – particularly something as potentially binding as CCTV.
‘Both the family of this killer’s victim and the female involved in this case will understandably be demanding answers.’
A spokesman for Police Scotland said: ‘In relation to the 2011 enquiry, the area around the attack was initially scoped for CCTV and several premises were identified as having cameras.
‘The next phase was to establish which, if any, of the cameras identified could potentially have footage which would add evidential value to the enquiry.
‘No CCTV footage was identified for seizure and other forms of evidence were utilised by the Senior Investigating Officer to compile the case against Alexander Pacteau.’
The alleged attempted rape victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, warned the authorities at the time that the monster would attack again – and tragically she was right.
The charge had chilling echoes of the ordeal that was to befall Miss Buckley, who was also 24 when Pacteau killed her.
In the earlier case, the court heard the alleged victim met Pacteau by chance after a night out with friends. Like Miss Buckley, Pacteau – who was educated at the prestigious Kelvinside Academy – tried to win her trust.
Kelvin Way, where Pacteau killed Miss Buckley, is also just three minutes’ drive from the lane where the alleged sexual assault had occurred.
Pacteau was jailed for a minimum of 23 years after admitting murdering Miss Buckley, from Cork, in the shocking crime.
Handing down the sentence, Judge Lady Rae described the murder as a ‘brutal, senseless, motiveless attack on a defenceless young woman’.
The 21-year-old, who had offered Miss Buckley a lift home after she left Sanctuary nightclub in Glasgow’s West End, carried out the murder in his car before attempting to dispose of her body at a farm north of Glasgow.
After repeatedly battering his victim, the fantasist plotted to dissolve her body in acid as her friends and family desperately searched for the
missing woman. He hid her body in a barrel containing caustic soda at High Craigton Farm near Milngavie in the days that followed.
Just days after being sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow last month, he lodged paperwork appealing against the minimum term of his sentence.
His mother Noreen said she was ‘devastated’ following his guilty plea. Speaking from her family home in Drymen, Stirlingshire, she said: ‘We are devastated by it.
‘Obviously we are devastated for Karen’s family, but right now we are devastated as a family.’