The mother of Emma Caldwell is to meet the new Lord Advocate, today, in her continuing fight for justice 16 years after her daughter’s murder.
The 27-year-old was working as a prostitute in Glasgow when her body was found in woods near Biggar, South Lanarkshire, in May 2005.
The last recorded sighting of Ms Caldwell was on Butterbiggins Road on the south side around 11pm on April 4, 2005.
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Margaret Caldwell will meet with Dorothy Bain QC who recently took over as Lord Advocate from James Wolffe.
Mrs Caldwell and her lawyer Aamer Anwar have been critical of previous Lord Advocates as no-one has been brought to justice for her daughter’s killing.
The unsolved case was reopened in 2015 following consideration by senior lawyers in the Crown Office and tireless campaigning by her mother, Mrs Caldwell.
Ms Bain, who secured the first murder conviction against serial killer Peter Tobin, agreed to meet Mrs Caldwell and her lawyer, Mr Anwar.
A statement from the lawyer said: “She will not be asking for very much, just real hope and a recognition that justice for Emma can no longer be delayed.
“Emma Caldwell at the age of 27 was brutally murdered in 2005 and her family felt betrayed by the failed original investigation.
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“It is inevitable that other women will have suffered at the hands of this killer.
"When the killer took Emma’s life, he tore apart her family’s lives forever, they were unable to bury Emma for some two years, her mother Margaret has never been able to grieve and when William, Emma’s father, died from cancer in 2011 he made his family promise they would never give up fighting for justice.
“Former lord advocates tried to reassure the family that this was a painstaking complex investigation, but as the years passed by the family became tired of the excuses.
“I had only recently accused the Crown Office under its former Lord Advocate of unbelievable cruelty to a mother who increasingly lost hope.
“The new Lord Advocate is widely regarded for her independence and integrity, but the one quality that gives hope is her absolute compassion and empathy for victims.”
Four Turkish men had been arrested and charged with her murder in 2007, however the case later collapsed and they were all released.
A BBC investigation discovered that at least four sex workers told police they were also taken by a client to the same remote woodland, near Roberton in South Lanarkshire, in the months before Emma was killed.
They identified a man, Iain Packer, 48, who was questioned six times by police and he admitted taking Emma and five other women to the location for sex.
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