Dubbed the UK's “worst intercourse offender,” Scottish rapist and assassin Iain Packer is at present serving the second-longest jail time period within the nation's historical past.
However he very almost bought away with it.
That was, till investigative journalist Sam Poling started a relentless investigation — now a podcast and documentary — into the 2005 unsolved homicide of Glasgow girl Emma Caldwell, whose bare physique was found in remoted woods.
Whereas Packer had been on the police radar for the reason that starting, Poling says officers had been initially shut down once they named him as a suspect.
“The cops had been shouting quietly that it was Iain Packer again in 2005,” she tells Gary Jubelin on this week's episode of his podcast, I Catch Killers.
“After which Iain Packer … simply goes on offending.”
It wasn't till 2018, when Packer contacted Poling – a multi-award-winning reporter with the BBC recognized for her impactful documentaries on programmes like Panorama and Disclosure – with a request to attempt to “clear his title” after media experiences in 2015 linked him to the case.
Poling agreed to satisfy Packer for a espresso.
“He got here together with his girlfriend,” she says, “he was unusual. He was very nervous. He was very anxious. I've by no means been within the presence of any person who has been so offended, consistently. [There was] simply this seething rage that might sit beneath, and he would stare at me. I simply bear in mind taking a look at him and simply considering, God, , you're an odd man. However he was open.”
Poling shortly started speaking with Packer as a way to perceive his story.
“I'd sit there and spend hours with him,” she explains.
“I'm into motorbikes and he's into motorbikes, so we'd go off for half an hour speaking about motorbikes or canine and we'd speak about stuff.”
Over time, nevertheless, Poling describes that within the means of attempting to “clear his title,” Packer had in truth incriminated himself in Emma's homicide.
“I'll always remember sitting there, taking a look at these things and studying about his jewellery, and studying the placement and studying issues that he was describing to the police that I knew as a result of I'd spoken to the ladies concerned,” she says.
“I had all of the items of the jigsaw at that time. And I simply bear in mind sitting there in utter disbelief, considering. You will have been mendacity to me this complete time.”
“It was Iain Packer who'd raped Emma within the months earlier than she was lacking. I then realised that this man was additionally answerable for a lot of rapes of girls. I then realised he was additionally answerable for a lot of abductions of girls, he was answerable for a lot of girls being taken to a distant, wooded location, which sounded similar to the one the place Emma's physique was discovered, after which I found in truth that he had taken Emma to these exact same woods on six events previous to her homicide.”
“In a break up second,” Poling continues, “I realised that the person that I'd been assembly for months was a violent, aggressive man who had raped and murdered Emma Caldwell. And that's a second that you just don't neglect.”
It was a filmed confrontation between Poling and Packer – whereas making a documentary on the homicide – that finally introduced in regards to the killer's downfall.
Poling, who had at this stage maintained a civil relationship with Packer, had been planning to confront him over her realizations about his guilt.
“He had been away on vacation,” she recollects.
“I bought a textual content on Christmas Day saying, ‘Merry Christmas, sweetie. I hope you get all you would like for.' I began to understand there was a little bit of a fascination that he had with me.”
“I met him outdoors the constructing and I mentioned, ‘are you OK?' And he mentioned, ‘yeah, I'm so excited, I can't wait to listen to what you came upon.' I took him into the room, sat him down, and I simply mentioned: ‘you've not been telling me the reality. I feel you're a violent man. I feel you're a sexually violent man and I feel you're a rapist. I feel you killed Emma.' And in that second, the oxygen simply left the room.”
On account of the documentary airing, a lot of different girls got here ahead to report assaults at Packer's fingers. Finally, after a six-week trial wherein Poling was one of many star witneses, Iain Packer was convicted of 33 prices towards 22 girls, together with the homicide of Emma Caldwell, and 11 counts of rape, spanning a interval of over 25 years.
His sample of sexual violence was described by the sentencing decide as an “extraordinary marketing campaign” carried out in a “single-minded pursuit of your sexual needs,” leaving “no room for the desires or wellbeing of the ladies.”
And whereas she says she is relieved to see Packer behind bars, and Emma's homicide solved, the load of accountability nonetheless sits closely on Poling.
“I knew all the ladies,” Poling says.
“I imply, you don't simply get to know girls. You actually get to know the ladies. I knew their households, I knew their youngsters' names, their youngsters' birthdays. I'd drop off Easter eggs. I'd take them to go and choose up hospital appointments. And also you simply actually make investments. You've bought an obligation of look after all of those girls. And in order that was such a weight of accountability that I felt that if this case failed and if he didn't get a responsible verdict, even on one of many prices, that might be on me. And the rationale I felt that was as a result of all through the trial, my title got here up again and again and over.”
“Not [every woman who came forward] bought a responsible verdict for his or her prices, and that's on me,” says Poling.
“One of many girls who I used to be extremely shut with, who was wonderful, she took half. She's Yvonne within the documentary, she's simply completely unbelievable. Me coming into her life and asking her to inform me her story has destroyed her. She slept the night time earlier than giving proof in a parking lot as a result of she's now homeless. And she or he'd bought her life collectively. She had somewhat boy, , and he or she's misplaced all the things, and to know that's on me… that's a very troublesome place to take a seat right here right now. And that's why I don't like speaking about this case as a result of I really feel the load of all people's lives and the injury that they're going by way of.”
