For more than 20 years, Margaret Caldwell has fought for the truth about her daughter Emma’s murder.
However there is a real danger the public inquiry she campaigned so hard to secure will fail to answer the most important questions.
Emma was just 27 when she was murdered by Iain Packer in 2005.
Despite overwhelming evidence that he was the killer, the sexual predator was overlooked for almost two decades while he continued to rape and abuse women before finally being convicted in 2024.
The Scottish Government ordered a public inquiry after Packer was finally jailed.
But if it examines only the failures of the original Strathclyde Police investigation – as the terms of reference suggest – it will ignore the years from 2013 when Police Scotland also failed to bring Packer to justice, despite the fact he had literally led detectives to the murder scene.
When the Sunday Mail identified Packer as the “Forgotten Suspect” in 2015, police focused on hunting our sources rather than the killer.
Even after the probe was reopened progress was painfully slow.
That is why senior police officers and prosecutors must now give evidence.
They are among those best placed to explain why Packer remained free, why crucial evidence was not acted upon and why Emma’s family waited 19 years for justice.
Margaret has fought not only for Emma but for every woman harmed while Packer remained at liberty. She deserves answers. So does the public.
Packer is serving a 36-year sentence. But securing his conviction was only part of the battle.
Unless the inquiry examines the full 19-year scandal it risks becoming an exercise in looking everywhere except where the hardest questions remain.
Scotland invented football butGianni Infantino wanted to sell itback to us with his dodgy WorldCup cash grab plan.The Fifa president is now facing pressureto resign after Uefa and other governingbodies finally lost patience with his greed.Lets hope the beautiful game can finallyget a boss who puts people and playersbefore profit.Glory Games.
A barnstorming Commonwealth Games draws to a close in Glasgow today. The festival of sport had a slimmed down programme and budget compared to its last visit to the city in 2014.
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But people make Glasgow and they made sure the competition had more heart and soul than ever.
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