The lawyer for Emma Caldwell’s family and a retired detective whose work ‘solved’ the 2005 murder have called on police to refocus on the murders of four other vulnerable victims.
Calls to review the unsolved cases of a string of murdered sex workers, including one whose body was dumped at a bus stop near the switchback between Bowling and Old Kilpatrick, have been made after Emma Caldwell’s killer was finally brought to justice.
Aamer Anwar, the lawyer for Emma’s family, and retired detective Gerry Gallagher, whose work ‘solved’ the Caldwell murder have called on police to refocus on the murders of four other vulnerable victims whose killers have never been traced.
The bodies of Diane McInally, Karen McGregor, Leona McGovern and Jacqueline Gallagher, pictured at top of page, were all discovered within five years of each other in the 1990s.
Lawyer Aamer Anwar and former detective Gerry Gallagher said they all deserve a fresh chance at justice following the long-overdue conviction of Emma’s killer Iain Packer.
“It was a toxic mix of corruption, criminality, and sexism that meant sex workers were not treated as human beings.
Emma Caldwell, 27, vanished from Glasgow city centre in April 2005 and her body was found in woods near Biggar, South Lanarkshire, more than five weeks later.
In 2007 detectives arrested and charged four Turkish men but the case against them collapsed the following year.
Eight years later the Sunday Mail newspaper named Iain Packer as a “forgotten suspect” in the case.
Packer, 51, pictured above right, was finally convicted of Emma’s murder after a six-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow last week – along with a catalogue of other charges against 22 women, including more than a dozen sex workers.
Sentencing him to a minimum of 36 years in prison, Judge Lord Beckett said the father-of-three had “pursued a campaign of violence and appalling sexual mistreatment” to satisfy his “pathologically selfish and brutal sexual desires”.
Police Scotland apologised for how the original inquiry into Emma’s killing was handled by what was then Strathclyde Police, saying “her family and many other victims, were let down by policing in 2005”.
Now attention has turned to the cold cases of four other vulnerable victims still awaiting justice.
Jaqueline Gallagher’s body was discovered near a bus stop in Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, in June 1996. The 26-year-old, of Paisley, had suffered more than 100 injuries. Her battered body was found in bushes wrapped in a carpet near the turn off the A82 Glasgow-Loch Lomondside road.
A 55-year-old man who had been a frequent client of the sex worker stood trial for her murder but was found not guilty.
The other victims of murder whose cases Mr Anwar and Mr Gallagher have advocated should be re-opened are those of Diane McInally, Karen McGregor and, Leona McGovern who was throttled and stabbed.
The 25-year-old’s body was found near Glasgow’s red light district in Anderston. A 51-year-old man went on trial for her murder but was found not guilty.
Police Scotland yesterday said it remains committed to catching their killers and the cases will never be closed.
But former detective Gerry Gallagher, who launched his own probe into Emma Caldwell’s death which led to her family being informed about Iain Packer as a potential suspect, said fresh scientific evidence in the case – and a soil sample linking the murderer’s van to the scene where Emma’s body was found – could spell new hope for the four unsolved cases.
“The soil sample analysis at the time in 2005 when Packer’s van was examined and his footwear taken wasn’t sophisticated enough to provide the result that was subsequently given in court by the dirt expert.
“Given there has been a tremendous leap forward in various aspects of forensic science then that may well be worth a consideration.
“In a similar way to how the soil sample analysis was a crucial part of the Crown’s case in pinpointing Packer to the deposition site, we may just be able to identify new possibilities.”
Detective Superintendent Graeme Lanigan said unresolved murders are “never closed” and Police Scotland is “fully committed to identifying those people responsible for all such cases”.
“Any new information received on any of our unresolved cases will be fully investigated.”