Murder suspect took alleged victim to area where body was found multiple times, trial told

A man accused of murdering a sex worker told police he had taken her to the area where she was ultimately found dead around six times, a court has heard.

Iain Packer, 50, attended Cathcart Police Station on 13 March 2007 to give a voluntary witness statement to detective David Barr.

He had previously given a statement on 4 August 2006 at the same police station.

Now retired, Mr Barr, 58, gave evidence at the High Court in Glasgow on Friday in the trial against Packer.

Packer is accused of murdering Emma Caldwell, 27, in 2005, and faces 46 charges involving a number of women, including rape as well as abduction and assault.

He is accused of strangling Ms Caldwell with his hands and a cable, assaulting her, compressing her wrists, intending to rape her, and murdering her in Limefield Woods, South Lanarkshire, on 5 April 2005.

Packer denies all the charges against him, and has lodged special defences of incrimination, consent, defence of another and self-defence.

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Advocate depute Richard Goddard KC took Mr Barr through the statement that Packer had provided to police in 2007.

He asked Mr Barr if he remembered Packer telling him he got his “kicks” out of taking sex workers to Limefield Woods.

Mr Barr replied: “Yes.”

Packer also admitted to taking Ms Caldwell to the woods.

The court heard that Packer told Mr Barr: “Although I was with her at that location, I wasn’t in any way responsible for her death.

“I had no idea that her body was where I went with the prostitutes.”

Packer told detectives he had been with Ms Caldwell “at most” 15 times.

Mr Goddard said Packer told police: “It is hard to keep track of all the girls.

“At most, I would say six times, when we went down there I would meet Emma in town.

“It was always my idea to go down there, never Emma’s. Emma was the first prostitute I took there.”

He had previously told police he did not know her, but then later admitted he had met with her “10 or 11 times”.

Packer told the detective he used sex workers two to three times per week and it was like an “addiction”.

The court heard Packer had met Ms Caldwell at Glasgow Green for the first time in 2004 or 2005, where he said she approached him and asked if he was “looking for business”.

Packer told the detective he thought Ms Caldwell was “quite pretty” and “presentable”. He paid Ms Caldwell for a sex act, he told the officer.

The court heard he met Ms Caldwell a few months later and made another sexual request, which he said she agreed to.

Packer told the officer he started having sex but said she then told him she did not want to continue.

The court heard Packer told the detective he carried on, and told Ms Caldwell “we agreed before we started” and that he had “paid” and wanted something.

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The court also heard Packer had taken five young women in total to woods near Biggar, South Lanarkshire.

He told police in August 2006 that he “became angry” with one girl because she did not want to take her clothes off and “banged” his fists off his steering wheel.

In the statement, he told police he “loved the thrill” of using prostitutes and “the buzz I got” from doing so.

Packer was also said to have taken out personal loans to fund his use of prostitutes.

The trial, before Lord Beckett, continues.

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