Former detectives say senior police have questions to answer in Emma Caldwell case
Davie Barr and Stuart Hall believe their old bosses have a lot to answer for.
Former detectives ignored by bosses during an inquiry into the murder of a woman left dead in Lanarkshire in 2005 are telling us senior officers have serious questions to answer.
Emma Caldwell's family searched high and low for a month around Glasgow while she lay dead in Limefield Woods around 40 miles away before being found by a dog walker.
Davie Barr questioned Iain Packer as part of the inquiry into her murder before being told not to treat him as a suspect by the Senior Investigating Officer.
He has been speaking exclusively to the new Beware Book podcast on a trip back to the very spot where Emma was discovered.
"I wouldn't like to be down here in the dark"
"Packer pointed out the exact location where he would come down with prostitutes and go into the trees with them, it was pitch black
"I wouldn't like to be down here in the dark.
"The same night I contacted my SIO on his home phone and he said it didn't matter, Packer was not to be treated as an accused."
He became emotional while speaking to Collette McGonigle and Callum McQuade as he recalled the stress of trying to persuade senior figures Packer was guilty.
He added: "His status should've changed from a witness to a suspect at the point when he admitted to bringing Emma Caldwell to the very location where her body was found having been murdered."
Packer roamed free for almost 20 years before an investigation by a newspaper put pressure on the authorities to re-open the investigation into her death.
He was eventually arrested in February 2022.
Stuart Hall had also questioned Packer as part of the original inquiry and was suspicious because of his over-friendly nature.
"He had a lot of bravado and the vibes he was giving me made me think we've got him.
"You know when people are lying to you pretty quickly when they start to talk to you, Iain Packer was using our names too much and acting like he'd known us for years.
"Alarm bells were ringing."
"It was corruption"
Stuart also flagged his concerns about Packer to his bosses and was instead told to try to prosecute a group of Turkish men for Emma's murder.
He added: "One day I was taken into a room by the acting Detective Inspector who told me I wasn't to do any more work on him - that was a blow.
"Up until that point I felt I had Packer and he was the guy, it was corruption."
We've contacted the senior officers involved in the inquiry but they declined to comment and said they will take part in the public inquiry into the way Emma's murder was handled.
Police Scotland also told us it cannot comment before the inquiry.
New podcast investigates the murders and the list of dangerous men known as the Beware Book
Emma's murder and the way it was handled is explored further in the new Beware Book podcast which looks into the murders of women involved in prostitution in Glasgow.
Many of these women were left defenceless in a harsher city than the one we know today - a city grappling with unemployment, crime and the growing grip of heroin.
Distrustful of authorities and fearing for their safety, they turned to each other for protection.
They shared warnings about their most dangerous clients in a tattered leather journal they called the “Beware Book.”
Now, journalists Collette McGonigle and Callum McQuade of KISS XTRA revisit the cases that devastated families and left lasting scars across the city.
The first three episodes of Beware Book are available on the Rayo app, Apple, Amazon Music, Spotify... or wherever you get your podcasts.
Listen here: https://www.hellorayo.co.uk/podcasts/beware-book