Iain Packer goes on trial over Emma Caldwell murder

Emma Caldwell's body was found in a remote part of South Lanarkshire five weeks after she went missing

The trial of a man accused of murdering Emma Caldwell nearly 19 years ago has opened in Glasgow.

Iain Packer, 51, denies strangling the 27-year-old in Limefield Woods near Biggar in April 2005 and concealing her body.

He also faces a further 44 charges against 27 other women, three men and a teenage boy, between 1990 and 2016.

The jury was sworn in at the High Court in Glasgow for the trial, which is expected to last until early March.

Ms Caldwell, a sex worker in Glasgow, disappeared in April 2005. Her body was found five weeks later in a remote part of South Lanarkshire.

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A judge confirmed last year that jurors would be taken out of the courtroom to travel more than 40 miles (64km) from Glasgow to the place where her body was found.

The murder charge claims Mr Packer assaulted Ms Caldwell by restraining her, grabbing her wrists and strangling her with his hands and a cable.

Mr Packer is then said to have dumped her naked body in the woods as well as disposing of her clothes, phone and other personal belongings.

He is alleged to have cleaned a car as part of efforts to "conceal and destroy evidence" as well as to "avoid detection, arrest and prosecution".

The court clerk took about 25 minutes to read the lengthy indictment to jurors.

Special defences lodged

Defence KC Ronnie Renucci said Mr Packer pleaded not guilty to a total of 46 charges occurring in Glasgow, Lanarkshire and East Renfrewshire.

Mr Packer has incriminated four other named individuals in the murder of Ms Caldwell, saying if the murder was committed, it was carried out by them.

Among the other charges against women - some of whom have since died - are accusations of 11 counts of rape as well as indecent and sexual assault, and abduction.

Mr Packer has lodged special defences of consent for a number of these.

The earliest alleged sexual offence was against a girl under 16 in Glasgow in 1990, when Mr Packer was 18 or 19-years-old.

It is alleged that Mr Packer indecently assaulted or raped five more women in Limefield Woods, where Ms Caldwell was found.

Cause of death

He is also charged with assaulting three men and a 15-year-old boy.

Mr Packer denies all the charges. His lawyers have lodged special defences of self-defence over two assault charges.

Judge Lord Beckett said it was difficult to predict how long the trial would last, but he expected it to be a minimum of six weeks.

A statement of facts agreed by the prosecution and defence was read to the jury.

They were told the cause of Ms Caldwell's death, listed on her death certificate, was compression of the neck.

The 27-year-old had been a resident at a women's hostel in Inglefield Street in Glasgow from March 2004 to April 2005. She left the hostel at 22:47 on 4 April and never returned.