The Glasgow sex workers whose murders remain unsolved

By Paul O’Hare

BBC Scotland News

A detective has vowed the unsolved murders of four Glasgow sex workers in the 1990s will never be closed.

The conviction of Iain Packer for the 2005 murder of Emma Caldwell has highlighted the dangers facing some of the most vulnerable women in society.

But no-one has ever been convicted of the murders of Diane McInally, Karen McGregor, Leona McGovern and Jacqueline Gallagher.

Police Scotland said it remained committed to catching their killers.

A probe into a possible fifth murder concluded that no criminality was involved.

The body of Diane McInally, 23, was discovered in woodland in Pollok Park, Glasgow, in October 1991.

She had been beaten and strangled.

Two men were later arrested in connection with her death but they were never charged.

A Crown Office spokesman said: “The murder of Diane McInally remains an unresolved homicide.

“As with any unresolved homicide we will continue to work with Police Scotland to explore any new evidential developments.”

Karen McGregor’s body was discovered in bushes in the car park of the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow in April 1993.

A man – who has since died – stood trial for the 26-year-old’s murder but a jury at the High Court in Glasgow returned a verdict of not proven.

In June 1995 Leona McGovern, 25, was throttled and stabbed.

Her body was found in Anderston in Glasgow, near the city’s red light district.

A 51-year-old man later went on trial for her murder but was found not guilty.

Jaqueline Gallagher was found dead near a bus stop in Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, in June 1996.

The 26-year-old, of Paisley, suffered more than 100 injuries.

A 55-year-old man, who was a frequent client of Ms Gallagher, later stood trial for her murder but was found not guilty.

Det Supt Graeme Lannigan said: “Unresolved murders are never closed and Police Scotland is fully committed to identifying those people responsible for all such cases.

“Police Scotland’s Homicide and Governance Review team and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service work together to review outstanding undetected and unresolved homicides to maximise the ability to deliver justice for grieving families, irrespective of the passage of time.

“Any new information received on any of our unresolved cases will be fully investigated.”

The death of a fifth sex worker, Marjorie Roberts, 34, was also investigated by detectives.

The mother-of-three was found in the River Clyde, near Jamaica Bridge, in August 1995.

But in 2015 Police Scotland said “no criminality could be established”.

For more than two decades the unsolved murders included that of Tracey Wylde until a forensic breakthrough finally brought her killer to justice.

Ms Wylde, 21, was choked to death at her flat in Barmulloch, Glasgow, in November 1997.

But Zhi Min Chen, 44, remained at large until he was arrested for an alleged assault in the city’s Cowcaddens area in July 2018.

Officers then discovered he was a match for DNA samples found at the scene of the mother-of-one’s murder.

Chinese-born Chen was later jailed for 20 years.

Emma Caldwell vanished from Glasgow city centre in April 2005 and her body was found in Limefield Woods near Biggar, South Lanarkshire, more than five weeks later.

The murder of the 27-year-old, who was strangled, went on to become one of Scotland’s most high-profile cold cases.

In 2007 detectives arrested and charged four Turkish men but the case against them collapsed the following year.

Eight years later the Sunday Mail newspaper named Iain Packer, 51, as a “forgotten suspect” in the case.

The former sign fitter contacted BBC Scotland’s Sam Poling in 2018 in a bid to clear his name.

But the resulting documentary proved crucial in securing his conviction last month after a six-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

As well as Emma’s murder Packer was also found guilty of 33 charges against 22 women, including offences against more than a dozen sex workers.

Judge Lord Beckett said the father-of-three had “pursued a campaign of violence and appalling sexual mistreatment” to satisfy his “pathologically selfish and brutal sexual desires”.

He added Packer preyed on the vulnerable and caused “extreme and enduring suffering for so many women and their families”.

The killer was told he must spend a minimum of 36 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.

Afterwards, Emma’s family called for a judge-led public inquiry into police failings and lawyer Aamer Anwar said some officers had “blood on their hands”.

Police Scotland apologised for how the original inquiry was handled by what was then Strathclyde Police.

The force said: “Emma Caldwell, her family and many other victims, were let down by policing in 2005. For that we are sorry.

“A significant number of women and girls who showed remarkable courage to speak up at that time also did not get the justice and support they needed and deserved from Strathclyde Police.”

And on Thursday First Minster Humza Yousaf appeared to suggest he would be open to a judge-led public inquiry into how police initially handled the murder.

You can watch Catching a Killer: The Murder of Emma Caldwell on iPlayer now. It will be shown on BBC Scotland on Wednesday at 21:00 and later on BBC Two at 23:15.

You can listen to the podcast series Who Killed Emma? on BBC Sounds.

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