True crime fans, get ready for another gripping episode! In Season 2, Episode 3 of True Crime Presents, we dive deep into a case that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
This episode unravels the intricate details of a complex investigation. We explore the clues, the suspects, and the motivations that led to the crime. Prepare for a journey through the darker side of human nature.
Join us as we examine the forensic evidence and witness testimonies that were crucial in piecing together the truth. You'll gain insights into the investigative process and the challenges faced by law enforcement.
Don’t miss this compelling installment. It’s a story filled with unexpected twists and turns, offering a unique perspective on a real-life mystery.
#TrueCrime #UnsolvedMysteries #CrimeDocumentary
This episode unravels the intricate details of a complex investigation. We explore the clues, the suspects, and the motivations that led to the crime. Prepare for a journey through the darker side of human nature.
Join us as we examine the forensic evidence and witness testimonies that were crucial in piecing together the truth. You'll gain insights into the investigative process and the challenges faced by law enforcement.
Don’t miss this compelling installment. It’s a story filled with unexpected twists and turns, offering a unique perspective on a real-life mystery.
#TrueCrime #UnsolvedMysteries #CrimeDocumentary
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Short filmTranscript
00:01A 27-year-old sex worker goes missing from the streets of Glasgow.
00:06There have been six murders of sex workers within the Glasgow area in the preceding years.
00:13This is a very, very dangerous trade because you don't know who you're going to meet,
00:17you don't know the individual and you don't know what may happen.
00:20When her body turns up in a remote part of Scotland, a major investigation gets underway.
00:26They took about 8,000 statements and hundreds of DNA samples.
00:31It was probably at that point the biggest murder investigation in the history of Strathclythe police.
00:36The decision was made to conduct 24-hour surveillance.
00:41This surveillance is massively expensive and is a very complicated and complex procedure.
00:48You have to be very sure that you're on the right track, that these are the people involved.
00:58Right now.
01:24This is an absolute target.
01:33Limefield Woods, located near Biggar, South Lanarkshire in Scotland, is a peaceful woodland
01:39known for its picturesque walking trails.
01:44Limefield Woods is a huge rural location.
01:47It's about an hour's drive away from Glasgow, about 43 miles, close to the villages of Roberton
01:54and the town of Biggar.
02:00You can go in there at daylight and the light can just disappear, because of the size of
02:05the trees and the denseness of the forest.
02:09The only people that will go there, people who live in the area, or are walkers, or go
02:14there for a specific reason.
02:15It's not somewhere you'll find just by chance, by driving past.
02:18This is somewhere you would go to, to have a look at the wonderful area that it is.
02:24It is a place that contrasts between day and night.
02:29During the day, it's peaceful.
02:30There's a feeling of serenity.
02:32It's tranquil.
02:33It's popular with dog walkers.
02:34It's beautiful scenery.
02:37At night, however, it's completely different.
02:39It becomes somewhere that's isolated and remote and quite frightening.
02:44It's beautiful.
02:46It's beautiful.
02:49It's beautiful.
02:5030 miles away in the city of Glasgow, parents of a local woman become concerned when they
02:56are unable to reach their daughter in April 2005.
03:04Emma Caldwell was the daughter of Willie and Margaret Caldwell.
03:09Emma comes from a family of two girls.
03:12Emma, her sister, and her parents were very close and would stay in regular contact.
03:17Emma had a really tragic thing happen to her when she was young, and that was that her
03:22older sister got cancer and sadly died.
03:25And it had a huge impact on Emma for the rest of her life.
03:31Life had been fine up until then, whether that's through education or family life.
03:35Everything was great.
03:36Everything was what we would say, I suppose, that awful word, normal, but it was.
03:40But losing her older sister really did change her.
03:45Clearly, Emma found this such a traumatic time in her life that she turned to drugs, and subsequently
03:51she had a drug habit to fund.
03:56Now, if you're not working, in the sense of having a regular salary, you've got to have
04:01this ready cash available.
04:03And that's going to be done in really a number of couple of ways.
04:06One, it's either through crime, or two, in the case of many, many unfortunate women,
04:11they turn to prostitution.
04:17For young women doing sex work on the street, it's extremely dangerous.
04:22They are extremely vulnerable.
04:23They leave themselves open to physical attack, to rape, even murder.
04:29They are targeted, and they are abused.
04:35The majority of the time, these women will have something that has happened to them in
04:41their past, whether it's their childhood, or, you know, in their teenage years.
04:46Quite often, if you actually go to an area where there are on-street sex workers, you
04:51will see a pimp in the background.
04:52You might not realise that's who he is, but there will be a pimp in the background somewhere.
04:55And they're working them, and they're taking the money from them.
04:58They're giving them enough so they can fund their drug habit.
05:02But then they're sending them back out on the streets again to fund their next hit of
05:07drugs, and it's a brutal, hard, cruel life.
05:14The fact that a prostitute works on the street, the fact that it's illegal means it's undercover.
05:20The fact is that they don't have the protection that other countries offer, then this is a
05:25very, very dangerous trade, because you don't know who you're going to meet, you don't know
05:29the individual, and you don't know what may happen.
05:31Yeah.
05:34Yeah.
05:34Struggling with drug addiction, and wanting to protect her parents from its impact,
05:3927-year-old Emma Caldwell left her family home, and had been living in a woman's hostel
05:44in central Glasgow.
05:48on monday the fourth of april 2005 emma colwell leaves the hostel as he was living in on inglefield
05:56street to go to the streets to do her job as a sex worker this is the last time she's
06:09seen alive
06:14the first people to really think there's something amiss within emma's life were her parents about two
06:20days after she was last seen a mother was phoning her there was no response which was unusual because
06:25they would speak on the phone every day even though emma had left home and emma was working
06:31as a prostitute she was still in regular contact with her parents emma made a point of seeing her
06:37parents at least twice a week but she would have spoken to her mother margaret two or three times
06:44every single day on wednesday the sixth of april emma's father attempted to phone her but she did
06:53not pick up and he made a remark to his wife margaret that maybe emma was unwell the mother was
07:01so
07:01concerned regarding this that she attended the following saturday the hostel where she lived she
07:09made inquiries there she knocked on the door but uh she wasn't there the next day the sunday they made
07:16the decision to contact the police and report emma as a missing person of course we've now got the
07:27situation that one emma is an adult two she is a prostitute now even in those days many police
07:35forces around the whole of the uk may not take that seriously because of what they would say at the
07:42time was well that's the life she's chosen i'm sure she'll turn up so a lot of the time these
07:47reports
07:47would be taken or taken down and be shown as reported but there won't be too much that the police
07:53would have been doing at that stage one of the things that the police would be particularly
08:00interested in and it were again it was set alarm bells and elevate this investigation is that she
08:06didn't collect a methadone a lot of drug addicts particularly heroin addicts will have methadone
08:12which is a substitute which is when they're trying to wean them off drugs or when they're trying to
08:17you know themselves realize they have an issue and they want to be weaned off drugs
08:21and part of that is that they have a methadone prescription to get that methadone prescription
08:27they have to go to a chemist and it's a specific chemist they have a certain time of day they
08:32have
08:32to turn up for this methadone they have to take the methadone there and then in front of the chemist
08:38and if somebody doesn't turn up for the methadone something's not right emma's family friends and the
08:45police become increasingly concerned for her welfare there was a lot of things that weren't
08:51adding up emma's routine was different because she hadn't been out in the streets none of her
08:57colleagues had seen her obviously her family had never heard anything from her in those days no phone
09:02calls no meetings nothing so everything had stopped her her life just seemed to stop completely so police
09:11worse suspicious that she had come to some harm as time went on days turned into weeks of emma being
09:28missing the police really then started to become more and more concerned so much so that they warned
09:35of parents that they might have to prepare themselves for the worst five weeks after her disappearance
09:42emma's parents worst fears come true on Sunday the 8th of May a dog walker in limefield woods
09:51discovered the body of Emma Caldwell the police found Emma's body in a shallow ditch within limefield woods
10:04as she was naked and of course we've now got the situation she's 43 miles from Glasgow last spotted
10:14on CCTV going to work there is absolutely no reason for her to be there why was she there in
10:20the first
10:21place was she her body taken there or was she led there when in which case she must have been
10:26driven
10:26there by somebody who knows the area quite well the investigation into Emma Caldwell's murder
10:33quickly becomes a high-profile case for the police there have been six murders of sex workers within the
10:40Glasgow area in the preceding years so it was probably at that point the biggest murder investigation in the
10:47history of Strathclyde police what investigators didn't know at the time was that disagreements over suspects and
10:55internal politics within the Strathclyde task force would significantly complicate the search for the killer
11:20five weeks after 27 year old Emma Caldwell disappeared in Glasgow her naked body is discovered on May 8th 2005
11:29in limefield woods a woodland area 30 miles south of Glasgow near big arse Scotland
11:38police were now faced with a difficult task of informing her next of kin
11:45as a police officer whether in uniform was a detective to give a death message is probably the hardest thing
11:52you'll ever have to do and in many cases by turning up when it's a missing person case you turn
11:57up at the
11:57door and you knock on it the minute they see you they know it's bad news Emma's parents happy and
12:04fortunate
12:05task of identifying Emma's body in the mortuary they were devastated because they had already lost one
12:12daughter and now they were losing their other daughter in such a cruel way the natural landscape of where Emma's
12:21body was found poses difficulties for crime scene investigators it is a forest is full of trees it's not
12:29going to be the easiest place to search there are a number of steps that you need to go through
12:35firstly you
12:36obviously have to forensically examine as best you can under the circumstances the body whilst it's in
12:43situ you would obviously conduct a search of the surrounding areas and this is especially police search teams on their
12:52hands and knees shoulder to shoulder and literally fingertips searching until they find anything unusual
13:02and of course in this instance one thing that was discovered around her neck was a piece of wire which
13:07becomes very crucial in the investigation the post-mortem revealed that Emma had been the victim of
13:14strangulation and there were markings on her neck consistent with the length of cable that had been
13:21found underneath her neck with the murder investigation underway Strathclyde police assemble a task force each
13:35investigation in the UK is given an operation in this instance Emma's murder the investigation into
13:42it was known as operation grail and that consisted of about 50 officers they took about 8,000 statements and
13:49hundreds of DNA samples so this was a huge inquiry the nature of Emma's work makes lines of inquiry difficult
13:59to establish they come in contact with very very many people that don't really want to be identified and
14:09so even the sex worker themselves probably doesn't know these people doesn't know their names doesn't know
14:16where they live and that's why it becomes really problematic police begin their search with the
14:23people closest to Emma well first of all the police obviously spoke to Emma's family they try to get as
14:28much information from her family as possible what kind of person Emma was and basically her whole back
14:34story as a human being they then spoke to people in the hostel who knew Emma and then they obviously
14:40made
14:41their way to speaking to other sex workers on the streets of Glasgow's red light district who would
14:46have knew Emma and would have knew her her habits her movements and things like that so they were
14:51basically casting as big a net as possible to speak to as many people as possible to get as much
14:58information about Emma and her movements to try and find out who killed her the senior investigating
15:05officer Willie Johnston makes a number of public appeals for information on Emma's murder they
15:12were appealing to the public they were appealing to punters who may well have remembered Emma who may
15:19well have you know been with Emma they wanted as many people to come forward and give as much of
15:25a detailed description about Emma and her life as possible they also had billboards with Emma
15:32Coldwell's face on it saying that they were looking for any information this was really because a lot
15:39of people would have seen Emma as a sex worker and that's all they would have seen they wouldn't have
15:43seen beyond that they wouldn't have seen that she was somebody's daughter she had a sister who died of
15:49cancer you know she was a human being and this was trying to make and help people to see her
15:55as a
15:55human being and not just a sex worker through speaking with Emma's colleagues police get their
16:05first significant lead the police had a very interesting conversation with a sex worker who knew Emma quite
16:16well this woman told police that there was one particular client who in her words was obsessed with
16:23Emma this client would hide out behind some billboards and if another client tried to talk to Emma or engage
16:31with Emma he would drive his van at full speed past him to try and intimidate them to try and
16:37scare
16:37them off almost that he was the only one that was allowed to engage with Emma and not only that
16:45she
16:46had told the other ladies that he'd raped her so investigators now started to build up potentially a
16:53suspect is someone who's fixating on Emma has used violence sexual violence against her and he's
17:00described as driving a van that's been seen in that area so police now had somebody they could start to
17:05focus in on investigators quickly locate the distinct vehicle described by the sex workers detectives
17:14were able to identify a van that was likely to be being used by this man and it had some
17:18writing down
17:19the side that said alpha beta sign services the police were suspicious of this individual one of
17:27the reasons why it was because one of the detectives on the case he used to work as a repairman
17:32for neon
17:33signs he noticed that the cable that was found under Emma's neck the one end of it was damaged almost
17:40as if it had been
17:41burnt and from his experiences he thought that's the kind of thing that could have happened through repairing a sign
17:47and
17:48he thought could there be a connection between the cable and this man and his line of work
17:53so suddenly you've got an awful lot of information not evidence at this stage but a lot of good
17:59information saying what this individual ever drives or ever owns that van definitely worth questioning on
18:05the 22nd of June 2005 police identified that the man they were looking for was Ian Packer
18:14so a decision would need to be made how do we speak to this person do we speak to them
18:18as a witness
18:19or speak to them as a suspect if they're spoken to as a suspect that we need to be cautioned
18:23and
18:24they would need to be done under certain circumstances the police decided they would speak to him as a
18:29witness they go to this man's house the next morning at 7 30 in the morning he's getting up getting
18:34ready
18:35to go to work he is the director of a of a science company and they ask him you know
18:42have you ever used
18:43prostitutes have you ever been in the red light district things of that nature he denies using
18:49sex workers he denies being a regular in the red light district and he is very much given the impression
18:56that this is nothing to do with him that he is just an ordinary guy fortunately the detective at the
19:03time did take a picture of him in most cases if you deal with somebody as a suspect you take
19:09fingerprints
19:09you take DNA that wasn't the case he's been dealt with as a witness so this detective had the thought
19:16I'll take the picture and just to find out and of course then they had a picture they could take
19:20back
19:20to some of the witnesses who worked with Emma to say is this the individual that you've told us about
19:25so they showed 12 photographs of men to these girls and asked them whether the person who they
19:32described as fixated with Emma is amongst them and he was they identified Ian Packer as being that man
19:42a background check on Packer revealed more incriminating information during this investigation the number of
19:50women who were also sex workers came forward to say that they knew Ian Packer and they described him as
19:56someone that was quite scary they described him as someone who could get very aggressive very angry
20:01someone that was reluctant to use protection someone that would force them to strip off all of their
20:09clothing and if they didn't do that he would get very angry and he would do things like stomp his
20:14feet
20:15and raise his voice and just not a nice guy to the point that they actually had come up with
20:21a book
20:21called the Beware Book and within that they had the names of clients that they were warning other working
20:28girls to stay away from and Ian Packer's name was put in that book quite a few times as well
20:34as an alias he had used
20:36called Peter you've got so much evidence now coming from these wonderful witnesses who said this is the man who
20:43is
20:43sexually violent towards us and we believe he is responsible for the death of Emma we know he's actually goes
20:51to a certain
20:51areas we know what he's like so there's so much evidence being being put together that these
20:57detectives think they've got the right guy they've got the guy that's been driving the van they've got
21:02the guy that has actually possibly been involved with some sort of cable involved with neon lights
21:08and they've got these witnesses say he has previous for being violent towards women on the street
21:13obviously the investigation scene would be quite excited by this and they would take the next logical step and
21:20that is to arrest and take him into custody this would obviously have to be approved by the SIO and
21:28in this
21:28particular case the SIO decided that that was not the course of action that they were going to take
21:35they were instructed by the SIO not to treat this individual as a suspect and of course as a junior
21:45officer you respect the decision of a SIO but it makes you wonder why what they don't know is behind
21:54the scenes there is a separate inquiry into the murder and four suspects have been identified
22:13Strathclyde police are investigating the murder of Emma Caldwell whose body was discovered in the remote
22:19Limefield woods near Biggar Scotland on the 8th of May 2005 authorities have identified a strong suspect
22:28Ian Packer a man known for his violent behavior towards sex workers and is reported to have been
22:34obsessed with Caldwell however detectives are unaware that there is a parallel covert murder
22:41investigation underway some detectives working in Operation Greil went to interview people and when
22:49they went to interview them as witnesses they were told we've already been spoken to you and the
22:55detectives were a bit perplexed at this and goes really he goes oh yeah we've had someone just you
23:00know been here recently and spoken to me and the detectives would ring back to the police station
23:05inquire and be told oh no they haven't been spoken to you but the witnesses were absolutely insistent
23:11they have been spoken to you it then transpires that alongside Operation Greil there is a secret unit
23:17working on the Emma Caldwell investigation called Operation Guard there was a whole different strand
23:22to the investigation that they weren't being told about for me as unprecedented in the sense that I've
23:27not known that if you've got one operation running that's that operation even if it might coincide or
23:35conflict with another one but you're both aware of both operations you don't keep an operation within
23:42an operation secret from police officers because you're gonna get the conflict of interest and the
23:47conflict of evidence you can't do it that way DCI Colin Field holds a briefing in the morning with DS
23:56Willie Johnson and all the detectives from Operation Greil and Operation Guard and he tells all the detectives
24:04what they've been doing what they've been working on we understand that you're interested in Ian Packer but
24:08this this this is where we're heading and this is why we're heading the details of Operation Guard's line
24:15of inquiry was revealed to be in relation to a Turkish man that had called Emma's phone
24:22the last phone call made to Emma's phone on the night of Monday the 4th of April 2005 was a
24:2972nd phone call from a
24:32man called a boop a care uncle he was a Turkish mom and he had Ryan Emma that Nate the
24:39Nate of her murder and
24:41of course in many many murder cases that you deal with the last person that contact with the victim
24:47tends to be the murderer further examination of cell phone data reveals that the night of Emma's disappearance
24:54one of her last known locations was near a Turkish cafe so now there's a lot of circumstantial evidence
25:03not evidence pointing to a murderer or a suspect but the circumstantial evidence that the SIO is taken
25:09aboard thing right it's got to have something to do with that cafe because we've got the phone Emma's
25:15phone near the location and we've got on cue that we've now got we know he was the last person
25:20to make
25:21contact or try to make contact with Emma and we've got the location so let's not concentrate on looking
25:27at the cafe because they know that that's also a cafe that's frequented by women and prostitutes so
25:34that's where the line of inquiry then was strengthened on cue was questioned by detectives and he denied that
25:46he had seen Emma that night he couldn't recall making the phone call he couldn't recall what
25:51they had spoken about but he denied any knowledge of her murder or the events that led up to her
25:56death
25:57but he did concede that he had had a previous intimate encounter with Emma Colwell detectives
26:05on operation guard felt this was enough evidence to focus all their efforts on the Turkish man and his
26:10comrades the decision was made to conduct 24-hour surveillance on the cafe which would include
26:21visual surveillance and also audio surveillance and this would entail putting listening devices or bugs if
26:32you like inside the premises so that they could listen to conversations this surveillance is massively
26:39expensive not only is it time-consuming but finding people to follow people 24 hours a day to fund
26:48the bugging of rooms of people's phones it is a huge undertaking cost-wise but also in terms of
26:58manpower and is a very complicated and complex procedure to get that type of clearance to start that
27:09kind of a surveillance and investigation is a massive step but you have to be very sure that you're on
27:14the
27:14right track you have to be able to demonstrate that these are the people involved we really believe
27:18strongly they're involved and we want to gather more evidence so you have to convince further up the line
27:24that this is why you're doing it that there is a valid reason for doing it and that you're confident
27:29that you
27:29there's some reward at the end to build a case against these people meanwhile detectives on operation
27:39grail continued their investigation into in packer they speak to another of the sex workers who says that
27:50she's been taken to a remote area by one of her customers they then decided to conduct another line-up
28:01with this
28:02particular sex worker and again she picked out ian packer and she said that ian packer was someone who would
28:13have
28:13picked her up on a monday wednesday and a friday and she said on one occasion he took her outside
28:21of
28:21glasgow uh to a very remote location at least an hour's drive away and the police asked her could she
28:29retrace that route they were very interested in knowing exactly where ian packer took her and when
28:35they were going on the route she was telling the police things she remembered and lo and behold the more
28:41they went on the route those things came to be true she told them that she noticed a bus stop
28:47that
28:48she took note of because she said that packer was taking her so far that she at one point was
28:52going to
28:52jump out of the bus stop to escape because he was getting very nervous because he was going so far
28:57off
28:57the beaten track she then noticed that at one stage they went over something that made like a
29:03do-do-do-do-do-do type noise well that turned out to be a cattle grid
29:11she eventually took them to the exact spot and she described seeing christmas trees on either side
29:17of the road as she described them and she said she remembers them going up to a silver gate
29:22and she said this was the point that packer stopped the van
29:31just to the left of that spot is where emma colwell's body was found
29:39so now we have a another woman who working as a prostitute has been taken to this area by the
29:46person that she's named as ian packer and it just so happens that that's the same location as emma this
29:52this cannot be a coincidence it can't be a coincidence and yet it still wasn't acted on
29:58they're directed from above to say ian packer is not our man ian packer will never be charged over
30:04this this is not the direction we are heading in you just get the feeling that the sio is thinking
30:10no i want to forget that guy because the more i've got the distraction of people talking about
30:16ian packer i'm losing what i'm trying to gain on the individuals who i believe responsible for it
30:23from the turkish cafe so he tells the officer straight away go and speak to him as a witness
30:29and tell him that is it we don't need him any longer he's free to carry on his own business
30:34but when detectives visit packer to tell him he is eliminated as a suspect
30:38he makes a shocking admission
30:42now he admits to everything yes he does know emma he has met emma um he does use prostitutes
30:49um but he didn't hurt her he's non-violent and he sticks to that type of story
30:54but now we go back and you think these detectives must be sitting there thinking
30:58well hang on you've gone from lying to us
31:02so driving that van being possibly associated with the cable we've got witnesses who've put you
31:10at the location we've got witnesses who say you're a violent individual who's raped some of the
31:15prostitutes and now you're admitting to knowing emma and having been with her
31:23based on packer's confession detectives on operation grail make a tactical decision
31:30now they asked packer to take them to the area where he takes the girls and he took them to
31:37exactly the same area he was within yards of where emma's body was found now for those officers it
31:48would have been almost a surreal moment here's somebody that we suspect has been the killer
31:53and he's actually taken us to the site where the body was dumped
32:00so these detectives now had a decision to make essentially
32:04in their minds they already suspected the packer was the killer
32:08now him taking them to the deposition site that can only firm that up
32:13how can it not be him how can how can all this evidence pointed to him not be right
32:18in their minds they're thinking oh is this are we missing something are we going crazy we need to
32:24take this to the bosses so that's what they did
32:27packer has taken us to the deposition site a deposition site that we ourselves struggle to find
32:34what came back was the same thing no leave him alone it's not him we've got the right people it
32:41is not
32:42packer i can't even begin to imagine the frustrations of those officers good detectives good
32:48experienced officers that in their minds would have been absolutely convinced at this point but
32:53were being told by senior officers no you're wrong the senior investigating officer orders the detectives
33:00pursuing packer to stand down asserting that they have damning evidence from translated audio recordings
33:06captured during the surveillance of the turkish cafe during these conversations a casino was mentioned
33:13and in fact the casino was next door to the premises they searched the casino and in the casino they
33:21found clothing that they believed to be emma's and they also found a little key ring with a horse on
33:28it
33:28which was interesting because emma had previously worked at the stables as a young girl
33:35police were convinced that these clothing and items did belong to emma colwell
33:43their final piece of evidence was found within the cafe
33:49the police when they were searching the turkish community cafe found some bed linen and on that bed linen
33:55they found two specks of blood that blood was found to belong to emma colwell so there were a number
34:01of things that made the police very confident that these turkish men were involved and ordered them to
34:07be arrested one of the officers who strongly suspected hacker as being emma's killer was given the task of
34:15interviewing onco which essentially involved him playing the recordings from the cafe recordings that he had been
34:23told had been translated by the best in the business but when they played this recording to onco he started
34:32to laugh at them
34:33saying that what you're telling me on there isn't true almost ridiculing the product ridiculing the officer putting them in
34:42a really awkward position
34:44the problem was the quality of the audio recordings weren't great and the detective himself
34:49had to concede that it sounded like a bunch of men sitting around a television
34:53chatting there was just nothing really decipherable there basically he went out and told the
34:59SIO that and told the superiors i'm not convinced this is right and they said well
35:04he's our man go back in and charge him so he did so after four million pounds had been spent
35:12on the
35:12investigation into emma caldwell's murder the most expensive murder inquiry ever in scotland
35:17the four turkish men are charged with the crime the pressure is on to secure a conviction but some
35:24detectives are convinced the killer is still walking free
35:41on may 8 2005 the body of 27 year old emma caldwell was discovered in a remote woodland 30 miles
35:49south of
35:49glasgow five weeks after she disappeared strathclyde police charged four turkish men with her murder
35:56following a major surveillance operation at their cafe making it scotland's most expensive murder
36:03investigation police seek authority to charge the four men with emma's murder and that's granted
36:09so they're now going to stand trial for emma's murder and the defense team would have to look at the
36:17evidence
36:17and essentially question it test it and the main part of the evidence were these recordings from the cafe
36:25worryingly what transpired was the experts that the senior officers had used to transcribe the recordings
36:34were in fact turkish speaking officers whose grasp of turkish actually wasn't fluent
36:39one of the police officers whilst he was of turkish descent he only had an o-level in the subject
36:46of the
36:46turkish language another officer again of turkish descent had to confess that his knowledge of the
36:52language was at best limited so it was far from the best experts in the land
36:59independent translators are brought in to transcribe the recordings in preparation for the trial
37:05the independent experts come in they listen to the recordings and they say
37:12what is alleged to have been said here is not obvious we can't say that this is what is being
37:18said
37:18it's quite clear that none of us is being said
37:21the other situation was that yes emma colzel's blood was found in the turkish cafe but you have to remember
37:28that police knew that sex workers had been taken there in the past that does not necessarily
37:34prove that she was killed there the other issue in regards to the clothing and key ring found at the
37:41casino they were never 100 confirmed to belong to emma colwell the police found them and put two and
37:48two together and thought well these have to be emma's but they were never independently verified as having
37:54the other one belonged to emma colwell at this point obviously that line of inquiry's completely collapsed
37:58which is unusual because generally speaking all the evidence is checked and double checked
38:09to make sure that we've got it right this strand of the inquiry collapsed very very quickly
38:19you've now got the whole situation here that you've got the money being spent the four million pounds
38:25that have been spent on this operation alone not the original operation grail so what do they do
38:31we've got the wrong people we've got no evidence it's fallen through what do we do it's quite an
38:36embarrassment for that sio hindsight is a wonderful thing it's not like this was built on no foundations
38:44this was built on some foundation the problem was that it went further than what it should have if
38:50the police had got the independent experts in at an earlier stage to make the translations and to
38:56transcribe the audio recordings and if they ever turned around and said this is not going to get the
39:01court we can't hear anything this is not what is being said this is inaccurate it may not have went
39:07as far
39:07the situation now was that the evidence they had against these four men was essentially rubbished
39:15meaning that the case against them collapsed they were now to be released
39:19it is strange and questionable as to when the turkish men are eliminated and exonerated as suspects
39:28that they didn't return to the alternative and a very strong suspect in ian packer
39:34that in itself is strange because there was so much pointing to packer
39:43though suspicion remains towards packer nothing happens for almost 15 years
39:51in 2019 ian packer approaches the bbc and he approaches a well-known journalist called samantha poling
39:58and he wants to tell his side of the story he wants to clear his name and he feels her
40:06interviewing
40:06him is the best way to achieve that in the production of this particular documentary ian packer decides
40:14that he will voluntarily appear and openly admits that he knows emma openly admits that he uses prostitutes
40:24but says he is never being violent towards them and he certainly has never raped any of them if
40:29ian packer had been raised as a suspect by detectives originally one of the processes that they would go
40:37through is to build up a picture of his life trying to understand if there's a pattern of behavior
40:44that didn't take place because he wasn't raised as a suspect but those making the documentary
40:50went through that process trying to build up that picture of him
40:54what samantha poling did was samantha poling went and spoke to as many people as she could about
40:59ian packer and far from a man who denied being sexually violent or abusive to women who had never
41:06raped a woman who had never hurt a woman she found a truckload of circumstantial evidence from people
41:12who had had experiences with ian packer very negative experiences one sex worker told her that
41:18ian packer had got her inside his van and had attempted to strangle her and she was only saved when
41:24a
41:24security guard banged on the van and she managed to escape another one told about being taken behind
41:30some shops ian packer had tried to force her onto her knees and she managed to escape and when she
41:36was running down the street packer was running after her shouting threats she was building this picture
41:42of a very very dangerous man someone that was controlling someone that was aggressive and someone that was violent
41:53a woman called magdalene roberts is interviewed as part of the documentary she knew packer when she was a child
42:00ian packer had become a friend to her family and she had a very disturbing
42:06experience with ian packer to tell she said that packer would sexually harass her and she's 14 years of
42:14age at this point he would sexually harass her he would intimidate her she would wake up in the middle
42:21of the night to find him standing by her bed staring at her that then escalates to him sexually assaulting
42:28magdalene and eventually raping her in her own home she told her family what had happened and they
42:38basically said to her you know you know you're making it up but they didn't really believe her
42:42but 10 months after the murder of emma colwell magdalene roberts reports her rape by ian packer
42:50to the police and the police unfortunately do nothing with it
42:57on camera samantha poling confronts ian packer with her findings his decision to participate in
43:04the documentary would be his downfall whilst he's happy to say yes i knew emma yes i visit uh sex
43:11workers what he's not expecting is the fact that hang on a minute we know you're violent we know you're
43:16a rapist we know that you've actually committed rape we know that you actually raped a girl when she
43:20was 14. he is sitting there being hit with everything and that must have taken him by surprise
43:27he was dumbfounded and really taken aback when she told him that she believed he was a dangerous
43:34man and that he was dangerous to women and that he had lied to her and that he had questions
43:39to answer
43:40regarding the death of emma colwell shortly after the documentary is published 13 years after emma's
43:47murder an ex-partner of packer comes forward and tells police that he had attacked her
43:53he actually was jailed for attacking his um his former partner he then subsequently post that is
44:01charged with the murder of emma colwell and the interviews he give to samantha poling uh form part
44:07of the evidence ian can you describe the relationship to me with emma colwell could you provide a
44:14description of emma to me can you confirm when you first met on the 28th of february 2022
44:25ian packer was convicted of emma's murder and he was also convicted of 33 other counts
44:33relating to assaults sexual assaults and over his lifetime he had targeted and attacked 22 women
44:41ian packer was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 36 years it has turned out that he
44:49has become one of the most prolific rapists and sex offenders in modern scottish history he has
44:57put himself in the frame for a murder that he committed some many years ago and i find it astonishing
45:09that he would do such a thing and unbelievable when i look at ian packer i see a sexual predator
45:17who
45:19was driven by his need for power and control over vulnerable women sex workers 14 year old girl
45:26people that he could easily prey on and the fact that he was allowed to keep carrying on his crimes
45:34he
45:34was almost emboldened and i think that's the biggest tragedy here of how many victims
45:40that fell foul of him when they didn't need to for the family they would have undoubtedly mixed feelings
45:49about his conviction they would be that satisfaction that eventually someone has faced justice for emma's
45:55murder but he was allowed to live for that interim period he was allowed out and about to live his
46:02life a
46:03life that emma will never lead
46:29so
46:46you
46:54you
47:05Transcription by CastingWords
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