Court hears Emma Caldwell murder suspect had woman "running for life"
The witness told jurors she had been a sex worker in the early 2000s when she claimed to have been picked up by Iain Packer in Glasgow city centre.
A woman recalled "running for her life" after allegedly being attacked in a van by the Emma Caldwell murder suspect.
The witness told jurors she had been a sex worker in the early 2000s when she claimed to have been picked up by Iain Packer in Glasgow city centre.
She alleged being choked during the incident and it only coming to an end when a security guard shone a torch into the vehicle.
The woman fled and was stopped by police in the street - but she claimed they were not interested in helping her.
Packer, 51, faces a total of 46 charges involving multiple women and includes the murder of 27 year-old Emma Caldwell at Limefield Woods in Biggar, South Lanarkshire on April 5 2005.
The witness - now in her 40s - knew Miss Caldwell as a fellow sex worker and had been friends with her. She described her as "lovely".
The woman today/yesterday told the High Court in Glasgow that she was aware of Packer from him driving about the city's red-light zone known as 'The Drag'.
She recalled an occasion being picked up by him in the city's Broomielaw and heading to a side street next to a nearby casino.
Packer is accused of indecently assaulting the woman sometime between August 2003 and March 2005.
Prosecutor Richard Goddard KC asked the woman: "Did something happen that you did not agree to?"
She replied: "Yes, he started to get rough, pulling at my head. He tried to strangle me."
She remembered attempting to push him away as she struggled to breathe.
The witness went on: "A security guard came and shone his torch in the window. He let go and I managed to get away."
She ran back up the Broomielaw and encountered two police officers.
Mr Goddard: "What sort of response did you get?"
She replied: "Not a good one."
The prosecutor: "The reaction you got all those years ago was that you should not be there in the first place?"
The witness agreed that was "common" back then. She claimed being told that if she wanted to complain, she would end up being arrested for prostitution.
Ronnie Renucci, defending, later put to the woman that Packer was not the man who picked her up that night. She insisted it was.
The KC asked at one stage why she had not stopped the person who shone the torch in the van for help.
The woman: "I was running for my life. I ran past him."
Mr Renucci said she had spoken to police in 2005, 2006 and 2007 during the probe into Miss Caldwell's death.
She made no mention of this alleged incident with Packer.
The witness said police had been more interested in a Turkish cafe and men who went there.
Mr Renucci stated "something changed" in 2019 when the woman was approached by "someone from a TV programme" about Miss Caldwell's death.
The witness was shown a photo of Packer and was said to have remarked she "kind of" recognised him.
It eventually lead to the woman and the person from the documentary going to police in 2019 to give a statement.
Mr Renucci: "It was only then that you recount the story that you have told the jury today?"
The woman agreed, but the court was later reminded that she had spoke to police in the street shortly after the alleged attack.
Packer denies the charges.
The trial, before judge Lord Beckett, continues.
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