Emma Caldwell accused begins giving evidence

The Emma Caldwell murder suspect today claimed he was the victim of “lies” from 25 different women. Iain Packer was in the witness box on day 20 of his trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

The 51 year-old now faces a total of 36 charges of physical and sexual violence involving multiple women including the murder of 27 year-old Emma at Limefield Woods in Biggar, South Lanarkshire on April 5 2005.

Prosecutors today withdrew 10 accusations Packer had originally faced as Crown evidence finished and the defence case began.

The charges the ex-sign fitter continues to face - which span between 1990 and 2016 - mainly centre on sex workers and women he had been living with at the time.

In cross examination, prosecutor Richard Goddard KC put to Packer that the case now involved 25 women with 17 being sex workers.

A total of 12 claim they were raped or that Packer attempted to rape them.

Mr Goddard: “So, 25 different women from all these unconnected backgrounds and walks of life…are they all just making it up?”

Packer: “Yes.”

The advocate depute: “Each one of them a liar?”

He replied: “Yes.”

Mr Goddard: “They have picked one man to tell lies about - and that man is you. Just bad luck on your part?”

Packer: “It must be.”

The court heard the women must have made up the same lie then of him being “sexually violent”.

The prosecutor: “What are the chances?”

He answered: “I could not tell you.”

Packer was initially quizzed today by his KC Ronnie Renucci during more than four hours of questioning by the lawyers.

Mr Renucci asked Packer about the killing of Miss Caldwell, whom he previously picked up in Glasgow.

He told the court he had featured in newspaper articles about the death putting him “in the limelight” with “people pointing and shouting” at him.

The defence advocate: “Did you murder Emma Caldwell?”

Packer: “No.”

Mr Renucci: “Were you in any way responsible?”

He replied: “No, I was not.”

The KC: “Yet there were these rumours and gossip. How did that make you feel?”

Packer: “Scared.”

He was also concerned about statements he had given to the police appearing in the Press.

This lead to him contacting BBC Scotland investigative journalist Samantha Poling in a bid to “clear his name”.

A documentary was later broadcast in 2019. Packer was described as “white as a sheet” after being interviewed by the reporter.

He admitted lying to Miss Poling, but only because he feared he was being “set up” which would lead him to “basically getting accused again” for the death.

Packer told jurors he was left “down, miserable and unhappy” by the media coverage about him.

He told the court that he had last seen Miss Caldwell “a few weeks or a month” before she went missing.

Asked about statements he made to detectives up until 2007, he said he was also worried about “getting blamed”.

But, Packer stated: “I wanted to be honest with them and help them as much as possible.”

He was asked by Mr Renucci about one charge which claims he indecently assaulted Miss Caldwell in August 2004 in the city's east end.

Packer - who admitted at one stage using sex workers eight to 10 times a month - had drove there that day, but had not been looking for Miss Caldwell, who he knew.

He said he spotted her in the street, she agreed to a particular sexual request and they went behind nearby billboards.

Mr Renucci: "Did anything happen?"

Packer: "I remember Emma saying something, but what she said, I do not remember.

"I do not know if she said 'enough' or 'stop'."

Asked if he did 'stop', Packer told the court: "Not straight away."

But, he claimed Miss Caldwell appeared "fine" although the trial has earlier heard allegations that she was "upset" after the incident.

Mr Renucci: "Looking back now, she said words to the effect of 'no' or 'enough', but you carried on.

"Should you have carried on?"

Packer: "I should have stopped." He added he now felt "ashamed".

Mr Renucci: "You accept having that encounter in August 2004 - the year before she went missing?"

He replied: "Yes."

Packer also today said he had gone to Limefield Woods with sex workers a total of six times over the years.

He told jurors he went with one of the women twice.

The court heard Packer allegedly got angry with her on one of the occasions after asking her to take her clothes off.

He was said to ended up "frustrated" and was "banging his fists" off his head.

Asked how he felt about that now, Packer stated: "It is wrong and embarrassing."

But, he denied being aware that the woman was apparently "frightened" by him.

Packer refuted a charge that he presented an imitation firearm at another sex worker claiming he did not know her and had never been there with her.

He was also today/yesterday quizzed about an earlier allegation that he raped a teenage girl in the early 1990s at a flat in Glasgow.

This was said to have occurred after he returned from a Halloween party nearby.

Packer told the trial he was "shocked" at the time about the allegation and that there was "absolutely" no truth in it.

He said: "I was fed up at getting accused of something. I said to my mum and dad as I was worried about it.

"I just felt that I was being victimised for something that I had not done. It was not nice."

The trial, before judge Lord Beckett, continues.

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