Emma Caldwell murder trial jury to visit woods where her body was found

The jury in the trial of a man accused of murdering Emma Caldwell 18 years ago will be taken to see the place where her body was found, a court has heard.

Iain Packer will stand trial at the High Court in Glasgow next year charged with murdering Ms Caldwell by strangling her on April 5, 2005 in Limefield Woods, South Lanarkshire.

He is further charged with attempting to defeat the ends of justice by disposing of her naked body and possessions “by means to the prosecutor unknown” and cleaning the inside of a vehicle.

The 50-year-old faces 46 charges in total, including 11 alleged rapes and charges of alleged abduction, indecent assault and sexual assault involving a number of women, all of which he denies.

At a hearing at the High Court in Glasgow on Thursday, prosecutor Richard Goddard KC said it would be an “extremely valuable use of court time” for jurors to be taken on a site visit.

They will leave the court building on Saltmarket in Glasgow, near where Ms Caldwell was last seen, and travel to the site in South Lanarkshire, around a 50-minute drive away.

He told the court: “The Crown position is that one of the most significant circumstances in relation to charge 45 (the murder charge) is the locus itself and the fact that the body of the deceased was found in a remote wood in South Lanarkshire just a short way from a single track road.

“My submission is that there is absolutely no substitute for the jury themselves being taken to the locus and appreciating the distance from the Saltmarket to the locus.

“The best way of the jury appreciating all of this would be by visiting the area itself, and in this particular case the starting point of this particular building would be this building and that’s geographically close to the last area where the deceased is said to have been.”

Judge Lord Beckett gave his consent to the proposed site visit, having heard there is no objection in principal from the defence, and that a health and safety risk assessment has been carried out.

A number of the alleged crimes involving other women are also said to have taken place at Limefield Woods.

The alleged offences are said to have taken place between 1990 and 2016.

A number of the alleged victims are now dead and Mr Goddard told the court one of the women died in March this year.

He lodged an application for her evidence to be heard by way of a statement which she gave previously.

Among the other charges Packer faces is an accusation of lewd or libidinous practice towards a girl who was aged 14 or 15 at the time.

Three men and one boy aged 15 at the time are listed in the charges as victims of alleged assaults.

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

Lord Beckett continued the case to a further preliminary hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh on November 6.

The trial is expected to last around nine weeks.

Ms Caldwell was last seen between 12.30am and 1.30am on April 5, 2005 on London Road, Glasgow, and was reported missing by her family five days later.

The body of the 27-year-old, who had been working as a sex worker in the city, was discovered in the woods on May 8 the same year.