PRESS RELEASE – 28TH AUGUST 2024 – EMMA CALDWELL MURDER APPEAL REFUSED

Press Release – 28 August 2024

EMMA CALDWELL MURDER – IAIN PACKER APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE REFUSED

Statement by Aamer Anwar – Solicitor on behalf of Margaret Caldwell, mother of Emma.

“Today at the Appeal Court in Edinburgh, Iain Packer who in March 2024 was given a life sentence and ordered to serve a minimum of 36 years in prison, had his appeal against sentence refused. Packer was found guilty of 33 charges against a total of 22 women, including Emma’s murder and 11 rapes. Mr Packer evaded justice for nearly 19 years but will die a convicted killer and serial rapist. Packer’s name will one day turn to dust, long after Emma’s name lives on. Had it not been for Margaret Caldwell’s tireless campaigning, then any hope of justice would have been buried forever.

For far too long those responsible for gifting a killer his freedom, have remained in the shadows, but they must face the glare of public scrutiny, the only forum for that will be before a statutory judge led public inquiry. The Scottish Government appear desperate to appoint a Scottish Judge, despite the demands of Emma’s mother and cross-parliamentary support for a judge out-with Scotland’s jurisdiction, for which of course there is precedent- Justice must be seen to be done.

The Police and Crown Office presided over years of the misery, that saw multiple women raped and a killer emboldened by a belief that he had lifelong immunity. Whatever the jobs, addictions or vulnerabilities of Emma Caldwell or the 22 women who gave evidence, it should never have been used as a justification for sexual violence or to treat them as a second-class citizen – they mattered.

Packer is now irrelevant to the Caldwell family, and the focus should move to those police officers and Crown officials who betrayed the most fundamental duty of all to protect life. There should be no hiding place for those who perverted the course of justice, the victims of Packer deserve nothing less.”