A SEX predator has been convicted of strangling Emma Caldwell and dumping her naked body in woods almost 20 years ago.
Beast Iain Packer, 51, has been jailed for 36 years after he was found guilty today of murdering the 27-year-old sex worker in April 2005.
The sexually violent monster had picked up Emma in Glasgow city centre before driving her 40 miles to remote Limefield Woods near Biggar, Lanarkshire.
There he throttled her with his bare hands and garotted her with a cable before dumping her naked body in a ditch.
He denied the murder charge but was convicted at the High Court in Glasgow of the killing and a string of rapes and sex attacks on 22 women over several years.
In total, Packer was convicted of carrying out 10 rapes.
He was also found guilty of a total of 12 sex assaults, including attacking Emma, while three other sex attacks were found not proven.
Packer was further convicted of two indecent assaults, two counts of abduction, two assaults and two attempted rapes. He was also found guilty of one charge of lewd and libidinous behaviour.
Judge Lord Beckett described his offending as an "extraordinary campaign of sexual violence".
On the murder of Emma, he said it was a "truly terrifying" crime and he had been "undone by his arrogance".
Emma's shattered mum Margaret Caldwell broke down as the fiend was finally found guilty of her daughter’s murder.
She huddled into her lawyer Aamer Anwar while weeping relatives reached across and placed their hands on her shoulder.
Survivors who packed out the public gallery to watch the killer face justice also shed tears.
One woman with pleated hair raised a tissue to her eyes.
Packer, dressed in a blue fleece and with his hair long and tied back in a pony tail, looked to the sky as the waves of guilty verdicts poured in.
He showed no emotion as he glanced around the room but didn’t dare look back towards his victims before his head dropped.
He had evaded justice for nearly two decades after a botched police investigation left him free to prowl the streets and adult parties looking for females to attack.
But he was finally snared by evidence from beyond the grave from survivors who died before they could testify against him in person.
He was also convicted of raping a 15-year-old girl when he was only a teenager himself.
1978
January - Emma Caldwell born to parents William and Margaret. They live in Cardross, Dunbartonshire before moving to Erskine, Renfrewshire.
1990
July - Packer assaults the first of his many victims when aged 17. His victim, Magdalene Robertson, is just 14.
1993 - he begins offending against sex workers
1998
May - Emma’s sister Karen dies aged 31. She takes the death very badly and gets hooked on heroin
2000
Packer begins taking women to Limefield Woods
2002 - Emma moves to Glasgow amid a spiralling addiction and eventually moves into Inglefield Street hostel in Govanhill.
2005
April 4 - 10.50pm - Emma leaves hostel to walk into city centre.
April 5 - 1am - Emma is seen by a taxi driver near the Barras market at Glasgow Green.
Packer makes over 100 calls to various saunas and sex workers before and after her death
May 8
Emma’s body is found by a dog walker at Limefield Woods.
June
Packer interviewed by police and denies knowing Emma or leaving Glasgow with sex workers
July
His van is seized with soil in the footwell later found to match the soil at Limefield Woods.
2006
February - Sex worker identifies Packer and takes police on the same route to the woods where the body was found.
August - Packer admits to police he knew Emma and had taken her to Limefield Woods
2007
March - Packer takes detectives to woods. Officers want to charge him but are told to let him go by senior cops
September
Four Turks are charged with Emma’s murder after a bugging operation at a Turkish cafe in Bridge Street, Glasgow.
2008
July - Case collapses after doubts were cast on police translations of what the men actually said
A Grampian police officer, who is of Turkish origin, claimed the men spoke about killing Emma and disposing of her body in a carpet.
But two other specialists said they heard no mention of murder on the tapes
2010
Packer restarts assaults on sex workers
2015
April - Newspaper reveals Packer as ‘the forgotten suspect’.
Police Scotland’s Counter Corruption Unit launch spying probe against own officers and journalists
May - Lord Advocate orders new police investigation into death
2013-2016
Packer carries out assaults at adult parties in and around Glasgow
2016
March - Deputy Chief Constable Neil Richardson forced to stand down over illegal spying probe on officers and journalists
2019
February - BBC Disclosure programme ‘Who Killed Emma’ confronts Packer with murder and abuse allegations
Two days later, he’s charged with attacking current partner.
2020
Packer jailed for two years for throttling a woman in her bed
2022
February - Packer arrested and charged with Emma’s murder and multiple assaults on other women
2024
January
Trial starts
February
Packer convicted
This is a breaking news story, more to follow...
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