Caldwell family renew calls for non-Scottish judge

The family of Emma Caldwell have renewed their calls for a judge from outside Scotland to chair the public inquiry into her murder after meeting the first minister.

Iain Packer was convicted last year of killing the 27-year-old in woods in South Lanarkshire, 19 years after first being identified as a suspect.

The Scottish government has ordered a public inquiry into the original police investigation but a chair has still to be appointed.

Emma's mother Margaret Caldwell said only a judge from outside Scotland could make a truly independent assessment of what went wrong.

Ms Caldwell met both the first minister John Swinney and Justice Secretary Angela Constance at Bute House.

She said: "I'll go on as long as it takes. I need to be able to trust [in the inquiry], and have truth – that's all I'm asking for.

"As the mother of Emma, I'm appealing to Lord Pentland – please, let it be an independent judge."

Ms Caldwell said she was satisfied with the answers given to her by the first minister, but that it was "very difficult" to be told more patience was required.

She added: "I'm not waiting any longer. I need justice for all those years I've been lied to."

In February last year Packer was convicted of offences against a total of 22 women, including 11 rapes.

He was first interviewed by detectives a month after Emma's body was found in remote woods in South Lanarkshire on 8 May 2005.

The discovery came five weeks after the sex worker was last seen in Glasgow city centre.

However 19 years passed before Packer faced justice, and he sexually assaulted a multiple women in the intervening years.

Former detectives involved in the inquiry told BBC Scotland News senior officers told them not to pursue Packer as a suspect, but to focus on wrongly building a case against four Turkish men.

Aamer Anwar, the Caldwell family's lawyer, said the "vast majority" of High Court judges in Scotland had connections to the Crown Office and that could impede their impartiality.

He said: "Police officers and Crown Office lawyers gave Packer the green light [to commit crimes].

"The whole point of a public inquiry is the glare of public scrutiny.

"For 19 years Iain Packer was able to avoid justice."

"For 19 years we know the family were being lied to, while someone in the Crown Office in a senior position closed the case, marked it protected and told the family for multiple years that they were going after the men who killed Emma Caldwell."

Mr Anwar added that a number of documents that could have been important in the murder investigation may have been lost or destroyed.

First Minister John Swinney said he had expressed his "deepest condolences" to Mrs Caldwell at the meeting, and that her family had shown "immense courage" trying to get justice for Emma.

He said: "I had the opportunity to listen to the family's views on next steps, including the appointment of a chair and ways to progress the investigation of the initial police inquiry.

"We appreciated their time and views, which allows us to move forward with the work to be done ahead of establishing the Inquiry. It is vital that the chair has the confidence of the family and we will continue to engage with them on this."

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "We have been clear that we will fully support any further police investigation into the murder of Emma Caldwell and also the work of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to identify an external force to carry out this significant piece of work."