Human rights expert named chair of Emma Caldwell public inquiry
Human rights expert Lord Scott KC will lead the independent public inquiry into the investigation of Emma Caldwell's murder. Justice Secretary Angela Constance announced the appointment of Lord Scott, a Senator of the College of Justice, in an update to the Scottish Parliament this morning. He will be tasked with looking into the initial investigation into Emma's murder in 2005 when police repeatedly dismissed her killer, Iain Packer, as a person of interest despite significant evidence. He was eventually convicted some 19 years later in which time he continued his campaign of terror, rape and sexual assault against several other women. Emma's mother Margaret – who initially called for a judge from outwith Scotland to chair the inquiry – said she was content with the appointment of a judge who has a track record of scrutinizing Police Scotland practice. In a statement issued on behalf of Margaret, from Erskine , solicitor Aamer Anwar said: 'Today for a mother, the Emma Caldwell Public Inquiry is a chance of a legacy and of hope for all the victims of sexual violence and misogyny. 'The family wanted a judge who could be trusted to act without fear or favour and shine a glaring spotlight into the heart of policing and the crown office in Scotland. 'Margaret Caldwell hopes that Lord Scott will be that judge.' The family had sought a judge from outwith Scotland as they feared police and the Crown Office could not be trusted to investigate themselves or their former superiors. Those authorities should also have no say in the remit of the inquiry, they argue. Mr Anwar added: 'A toxic culture of misogyny and police corruption freed a killer to rape and rape again, the many women who spoke up during the trial and those who were unable to, also deserve the truth and justice. 'I want to pay tribute to Margaret Caldwell, who as a grieving mother refused to be silenced, had it not been for her, the case of Emma would have been buried forever.' Speaking in the Scottish Parliament today, Ms Constance said she would work with Emma's family, Packer's other victims and Lord Scott to set out the terms of reference for the inquiry and also the time scale going forward. She said: 'In March last year, I announced that there would be a public inquiry into the investigation of Emma's murder in 2005 to provide answers to the victims and survivors involved and ensure that lessons are learned for the future. The other victims, as well as Emma's mother Margaret and the rest of the family, deserve nothing less after the unbearable loss, pain and grief they have suffered. 'Lord Scott has a strong track record on human rights and I am pleased that someone of his experience, expertise and legal standing will lead this inquiry. Importantly, Emma's family support his appointment.' Packer was convicted of strangling Emma, who was a sex worker, and concealing her body in Limefield Woods, South Lanarkshire, on May 8, 2005. He was also found guilty of a further 32 crimes including 11 rapes and 21 charges, including sexual assaults, against other women. In the days following his conviction several former police officers revealed they had witnesses citing Packer as a sexually violent man who had repeatedly used prostitutes in Glasgow. Shockingly, senior police officers repeatedly eliminated him as a suspect and instead focused their efforts on four Turkish men. That case fell apart in 2008. Lord Scott said: 'I am aware of the significant public interest in this inquiry and the importance it holds for Emma Caldwell's family. I will discharge my duties as chair independently, thoroughly and to the best of my ability. 'I come to this role with three years of experience as a judge of the Court of Session and High Court of Justiciary. This followed over 20 years in the voluntary sector, primarily in the area of human rights, as well as over 30 years in private practice as a criminal defence lawyer and work in several reviews which scrutinised the use of various powers by the Police Service of Scotland. 'I look forward to discussing the terms of reference with the Cabinet Secretary and to establishing and working with an inquiry team to start our work as soon as possible.' Lord Scott chaired the Scottish Human Rights Centre from 1997 to 2005; convened the Howard League for Penal Reform in Scotland from 2006 until 2018; and chaired Justice Scotland in 2014. In 2015, Lord Scott chaired an Independent Advisory Group on police 'stop and search' powers and chaired a group providing independent scrutiny on Police Scotland's use of emergency powers under Coronavirus legislation in 2020.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scottish Sun
3 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Gangsters ‘would be treated like terrorists' and face up to 14 years in jail under Tory plans
Scotland's turf war shows no sign of slowing down GANG DEMAND Gangsters 'would be treated like terrorists' and face up to 14 years in jail under Tory plans Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) CRIME gang members would be treated like terrorists and face up to 14 years in jail under crackdown plans from the Scottish Tories. It would see them behind bars if they are part of gangs identified by Police Scotland. Sign up for the Politics newsletter Sign up 2 A hitman stormed a bar and assassinated Eddie Lyons Jr and Ross Monaghan And the Tories would rewrite the law to stop fraudsters and rich criminals getting away with paying back a fraction of their ill-gained wealth. Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: 'Organised crime gangs are causing misery in our communities, but the SNP still fail to act. Find out what's really going on Register now for our free weekly politics newsletter for an insightful and irreverent look at the (sometimes excruciating) world of Scottish Politics. Every Thursday our hotshot politics team goes behind the headlines to bring you a rundown of key events - plus insights and gossip from the corridors of power, including a 'Plonker' and 'Star' of the Week. Sign up now and make sure you don't miss a beat. The politicians would hate that. SIGN UP FOR FREE NOW 'We'll get tough on these individuals by making it a criminal offence to be a member of gangs. 'It will be in a similar vein to it being illegal to be a member of a terrorist organisation. 'It's also time to overhaul the SNP's Proceeds Of Crime laws which too often let criminals off repaying their debts.' Gang membership would lead to the same jail sentence as being part of a terrorist group such as Hamas. It would also see Police Scotland paid by criminals ordered to pay back their ill-gotten gains. The DOWNFALL of Scotland's biggest gangster - Jamie 'The Iceman' Stevenson Part Two The party says this will encourage cops to investigate organised crime gangs by giving them a cash incentive. John Swinney was last week blasted for failing to act on organised crime amid a raging underworld turf war in Scotland and the double murder of two Scots drug lords in Spain. We told last week how a hitman stormed a bar in Fuengirola on the Costa Del Sol and assassinated Lyons gang kingpins Eddie Lyons Jr, 46, and pub owner Ross Monaghan, 43. Justice Secretary Angela Constance said: 'The Scottish Government made it an offence for an individual to be involved in serious organised crime in 2010. 'Since 2008 over £156 million of ill-gotten gains has been recovered through the UK-wide Proceeds Of Crime Act.'
Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Telegraph
Why the wrong memorial will water down the Holocaust
On Wednesday, the Holocaust Memorial Bill returns to the House of Lords. What a waste of energy over seven and more years this project has been. The motives are good. Unfortunately, the idea is not. In the great battle against growing anti-Semitism in our society, precious weapons are being mistargeted. There are strong second-order objections to the memorial and its accompanying 'learning centre'. They include the vast cost, over £200 million; the lack of room in Victoria Tower Gardens and the loss of green space; the security risk at the heart of government and Parliament which the police and parliamentary authorities increasingly fail to control; and the fact that the gardens will soon be overcrowded by the overspill for the coming 30-year project to restore the fabric of the Houses of Parliament next door. There will be parliamentary amendments tomorrow to address these last two points. Most of the Bill's opponents, many of whom are Jewish, do want a memorial, but a much smaller and more beautiful one. The present design is a grandiose hand-me-down, by the somewhat discredited architect David Adjaye, already used elsewhere. Opponents also do not want the learning centre. Tristram Hunt, the distinguished director of the V&A, thinks it could be much better managed at the Imperial War Museum. The key objection relates to what is really being commemorated. If you track the history of Holocaust Memorial Day since it was instituted a quarter of a century ago, you will find increasing pressure to water down the concept. There have been several occasions – ITV's Good Morning Britain this year, for example – in which coverage has entirely failed to mention the Jews at all, let alone the fact that the Holocaust killed six million of them. People such as the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, unfailingly hostile to Israel and previously friendly to murderous Hamas, have thus found it possible to take part in Holocaust Memorial Day without having to confront the grim truth of history. Over time, the uniqueness of the Jewish experience thus slips away. A process begins in which the word 'Holocaust' is taken to stand for any persecution of any group by any other group. From there, it is a short step to suggesting, as pro-Gaza mobs always do, that Israel itself is committing genocide against Palestinians. This is not an isolated outbreak of a few fanatics, but a deliberate plan to strip the Jewish state – and all Jews – of their moral authority. The ultimate aim is to preach the equation 'Jews = Israel = Nazis'. This libel is so widespread as to have become one of the main tropes of anti-Semitism. The danger is that the wrong sort of commemoration will facilitate this. Delegations from anti-Israel countries and 'humanitarian' organisations emerging from Parliament will stroll into Victoria Tower Gardens, pose outside the Holocaust Memorial and deliver their piece to camera about alleged war crimes, starvation of children etc. You can just imagine the ineffable Greta Thunberg doing exactly that. Sad to say, both main political parties are putting on whips to get the memorial Bill through Parliament. This suggests an underlying uncertainty about the rightness of their cause. Traditionally, votes on matters of conscience are not whipped. Surely Holocaust commemoration is a classic conscience issue in which party considerations have no place. I fear that establishment politicians, frightened of being labelled anti-Semitic, have supported this great big project without thinking about it. Yet thought is exactly what is needed to correct the errors of Holocaust education today. By the way, there exists a splendid role model for commemoration in, of all places, Poland. The POLIN museum in Warsaw movingly and expertly relates its country's part of the full story we all need to know – how Jews lived there for a thousand years and how, in the end, and most horribly, they died. Weathering the storm Like many parishes, our village held its annual fete last Saturday. The problem, in advance, was the weather. Nowadays, weather forecasting is so much more accurate that if it says, two or three days before, that it will rain, it probably will. So event-planners must take it seriously. This avoids the occasional spectacular washouts of the past, after which everyone used to say, through gritted teeth, 'Rain failed to dampen the spirits'. Our organisers therefore did the prudent thing and announced that the fete would not be held in the public garden by the church but in the village's two interconnected halls. The trouble was that, on the day, there was virtually no rain during the fete's opening hours. We all felt slightly silly because we could have stuck with the original plan and saved ourselves a lot of trouble. Should we have followed the old way and just held the thing outdoors, rain or shine? I am not sure of the answer. But I do know that everyone enjoyed the make-do atmosphere among the crowded stalls and the noisy Punch-and-Judy show inside, finding community in adversity. Business was brisk. The splash headline in our local paper says, 'Post office to remain open'. My first reaction was to laugh at this non-news. After all, it is in the nature of shops to open. But I quickly realised I was wrong. It was indeed news. The unspoken policy of the modern Post Office is to close itself down. A decision in the opposite direction certainly deserves the front page.
Telegraph
5 hours ago
- Telegraph
State is ‘stifling criticism of Islam over fear of violent mobs', says Tory MP
The state is stifling criticism of Islam because of fears of a violent mob reaction, a senior MP has claimed. Nick Timothy, a front-bench Tory MP, issued the warning ahead of his Bill aimed at protecting free speech and the right to criticise religions, including Islam, being presented before Parliament on Tuesday. It follows the conviction of Hamit Coskun, 50, for setting fire to a Koran outside the Turkish consulate in London earlier this year while declaring that Islam was a 'religion of terrorism'. He was found guilty of committing a racially aggravated public order offence during a peaceful protest. Politicians and free speech campaigners claimed the 'grotesque' prosecution was an attempt to revive long-abolished blasphemy laws. In an attempt to prevent future prosecutions, Mr Timothy, who is a columnist for The Telegraph, is proposing a Freedom of Expression (Religion) Bill that would rewrite the Public Order Act to prevent it being used as a 'de facto' blasphemy law. His bill, which is co-signed by 11 other MPs, would extend legal provisions – which protect the freedom to criticise religion in specific circumstances – to the whole of the Public Order Act. 'The Public Order Act is increasingly being used as a blasphemy law to protect Islam from criticism. The Act was never intended to do this. Parliament never voted for this, and the British people do not want it,' said Mr Timothy. 'To use the Public Order Act in this way is especially perverse, since it makes a protester accountable for the actions of those who respond with violence to criticism of their faith. This is wrong, and it destroys our freedom of speech. 'We should be honest that the law is only being used in this way because the authorities have become afraid of the violent reaction of mobs of people who want to impose their values on the rest of us. 'My Bill will put a stop to this and restore our freedom of speech – and our right to criticise any and all religions, including Islam.' At Westminster magistrates' court, Coskun was found guilty of a religiously aggravated public order offence of using disorderly conduct, which was motivated 'in part by hostility towards members of a religious group, namely followers of Islam'. Coskun, who is an atheist of Armenian-Kurdish descent, attended the Turkish Consulate on Feb 13 while holding a burning copy of the Koran above his head and shouting 'F---- Islam' and 'Islam is religion of terrorism'. He was ordered to pay £240, but despite the conviction he has pledged to continue burning Korans and intends to go on a tour of the UK, visiting Birmingham, Liverpool and Glasgow where he will set fire to the holy book. It is unclear whether he will resist doing so until the case is heard at the Court of Appeal where it will be decided whether he is able to challenge Monday's verdict.
