A detective who charged one of four Turks accused of the murder of Emma Caldwell has told of early doubts over their guilt.
Mick McCarron was family liaison officer to Emma’s family and had the job of informing her mum and dad Margaret and William that the men had been arrested.
However Mick has now revealed he had an “inclination that something was not quite right” after interviewing one of the suspects and charging him with Emma’s murder.
The four men eventually had the charges against them dropped in 2008 when translations of secret recordings claiming to have them discussing Emma’s murder were discredited.
View 5 ImagesMick McCarron
A new probe was launched in 2015 into a forgotten suspect Iain Packer after he was named by our sister paper the Sunday Mail.
Packer was convicted in 2024 of Emma’s murder and the rape and sexual assault of 22 other women and sentenced to life
Now retired, Mick who held the rank of Detective Sergeant, tells of his concerns over the conduct of the murder investigation in a new documentary series on Amazon Prime ‘Did you kill Emma?’
View 5 ImagesEmma Caldwell(Image: PA)
Mick also recalls telling Emma’s family of the arrests of the four Turks.
He said:”It was obviously a huge day for Emma’s mum and dad Margaret and Willie.
“We had detained and arrested and charged four suspects for their daughter’s murder.
“Willie was chuffed as you would be. He had waited long enough.
“But I had an inclination that something wasn’t right.”
Emma had gone missing from a hostel in Glasgow in April 2005 where she lived and her body was found 40 miles away in woods near Biggar in Lanarkshire the following month.
Mick also had the difficult task of telling Emma’s family that their 27-year old-daughter had been involved in prostitution to feed her heroin addiction and later that her body had been found and that she had been murdered.
It was while he was interviewing one of the four Turkish suspects that he began having doubts about their involvement in Emma’s murder.
Early in the inquiry police had discovered a large number of men’s names in her telephone contacts including that of a Turkish man who had been the last to phone her.
The call has been traced close to a Turkish Community centre in Bridge Street, Glasgow, near the city-centre. Detectives had also identified Packer as a suspect after one sex worker revealed that he had taken her to the same remote spot where Emma’s body had been found.
The investigation into Emma’s murder had been codenamed Operation Grail.
View 5 ImagesPolice Scotland search a wooded area in South Lanarkshire(Image: Daily Record)
However Mick then discovered that a separate inquiry, Operation Guard, was ongoing at another police station.
A search of their community centre premises had found a duvet cover with Emma’s blood on it.
Mick said:”During the course of the investigation it became apparent to me that something funny was going on.
“We found there was another inquiry working separate to our investigation.
“Something I had never known before and never heard of since.
“We raised that with the powers to be, what’s going on, who’s investigating this.
“I’m the guy who’s going back to see Emma’s family and giving them updates.
“If I don’t know what going on and stuff is being kept from me then stuff’s being kept from them.”
Mick was told at a briefing that Operation Guard was based around the four Turks.
View 5 ImagesIain Packer(Image: PA)
He was then was given the job of interviewing the Turk who had been the last person to phone Emma.
Mick told him he had been taped discussing Emma’s murder and played the secret recordings and read from a transcript.
He recalled:”On the face of it it looked pretty good evidence. I asked if he was involved in Emma’s murder and he denies it.
“I expected him to be shocked, stunned maybe even admit to the murder.
“The opposite was the case he was as calm as anything. He just said I don’t know what you are talking about
“He was so convincing. I was doubting the authenticity of the translations.
“I went from ‘can’t wait to burst this guy’ to thinking ‘wait a minute has this guy actually done this’.”
When Mick raised concerns with senior officers he was told that the translations had been carried out by experts.
At the end of the interview he was instructed to charge the suspect with Emma’s murder.
Mick says the man’s reply was;”You have made a big mistake. It will come out in the wash.”
By 2010 Mick had been transferred to other duties and hadn’t spoken with the Caldwell family for a number of years.
He said:” I got a message that Willie Caldwell was unwell.
“He was in hospital and wasn’t expected to live much longer and he asked to see me.
“He wanted me to find out what happed to Emma.
“I made arrangements for two Procurator Fiscals from the Homicide Unit to go and visit Willie on his death bed the following day.
“My understanding from that meeting was that Willie was left in no doubt that the Turks did not kill Emma.
“He died a few days after that meeting and did not find out who killed his daughter.”
Mick concluded:”My biggest issue with this whole sorry scenario is this.
“If in 2010 when Willie was told that people in authority were saying that the Turks did not do it what in earth did they do about.
“The answer is not a thing. It is absolutely appalling.
“Had they done so we would have found out that Iain Packer murdered Emma a lot quicker than we did.”
A Public Inquiry has begun into Emma’s murder and is due to hear evidence later this year.
Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs of Police Scotland said: “Emma Caldwell’s family have shown incredible courage and determination following her murder in 2005 and we are absolutely committed to supporting the Inquiry and getting her loved ones the answers they deserve.”
‘Did you kill Emma?’ launches on Prime Video on Sunday 14th June.