Murder accused admits indecently assaulting Emma Caldwell

The man accused of murdering Emma Caldwell has admitted under cross examination that he previously indecently assaulted her.

Iain Packer, 51, was asked about an incident involving the sex worker in Glasgow eight months before her death.

He said he was ashamed he continued to have sex with her after she asked him to stop.

But he denies strangling the 27-year-old and dumping her body in woods in South Lanarkshire the following year.

Mr Packer was facing questioning for a second day at the High Court in Glasgow as he gave evidence in his defence.

He denies a total of 36 charges of physical and sexual violence involving multiple women.

On Tuesday, he had described how he paid Emma Caldwell for sex in August 2004 behind billboards in Glasgow's east end, and how he continued despite her asking him to stop.

On Wednesday, Advocate Depute Richard Goddard KC questioned him further about the incident, reading police statements in which Mr Packer said she had managed to pull away from him and was upset.

Mr Goddard said: "Do you accept your guilt of indecently assaulting Emma Caldwell?".

Mr Packer replied: "Yes".

He said he was "ashamed", adding it was "not something I'm proud of".

Mr Packer was also shown a transcript and clip from a BBC interview he did with journalist Samantha Poling in 2018 where he was asked if he had "raped" Emma Caldwell and he replied "no".

He was asked if he had been truthful in the interview and he agreed he had not been.

Earlier, Mr Goddard had asked him about alleged assaults on women which the lawyer claimed showed a "pattern of behaviour".

The KC said 11 women had claimed that Mr Packer had put his hands around their throat and asked him: "Are these women all liars?".

He replied: "Yes".

Asked about accounts of him seizing women's wrists or pulling their hair, he denied he liked causing young women pain during sexual encounters.

He dismissed as "rubbish" a statement from a friend of Emma Caldwell who had said he was obsessed with her.

Iain Packer was also asked about women who he admits he took to Limefield Woods near Biggar.

Emma Caldwell's body was found in those woods a few weeks after her disappearance in April 2005.

Mr Packer said he had been to the woods on six occasions with six women, including once with Ms Caldwell but he could not remember all the names of the others.

When asked why of all the places in Scotland he had chosen those remote woods 40 miles from Glasgow, he said he did not know.

"I was just driving," he said, adding it was not planned and that he "just went there".

The jury was later shown another part of the BBC interview in which Mr Packer claimed he had never been to the woods.

He said he had lied to the journalist, alleging it was because she had lied to him

The trial before Lord Beckett continues.