Vicious killer Iain Packer is “best mates” with the East Kilbride predator who raped OAP

Emma Caldwell’s killer Iain Packer became close friends with an East Kilbride sex offender who was jailed for raping a pensioner.

Former soldier Scott Forrest has sent letters to the Sunday Mail on behalf of Packer, Scotland’s most prolific sex offender, claiming he is innocent of murder.

Forrest, 55, was sentenced to six years in prison after raping a vulnerable 77-year-old. In the letter he states that Packer is “sorry” for Emma’s death and tries to claim that the police framed him.

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The letter from his HMP Barlinnie cell read: “Iain Packer, who I speak to every day. He says I can tell you certain things.

“Iain is not happy that she died, but not by him. The police had to catch everyone to look better.”

A source said: “Packer and Forrest appear to be best friends. Both are very serious sex offenders who claim to be innocent, so it’s hardly surprising that they get along.”

Packer has withdrawn a court challenge to his conviction, but the 51-year-old is continuing to appeal his 36-year prison sentence, one of the longest handed down by a court.

The perpetrator was found guilty 19 years after Emma’s murder. He was also convicted of 11 rapes and multiple sexual assaults against 22 women following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow in February.

Forrest was handed a life-long restriction order and six years in prison in 2022 for the OAP rape, which a judge described as a “shocking depravity”.

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The ex-soldier forced the pensioner into his home in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, in July 2020 and told her: “You love it” during the horror attack.

The victim eventually escaped and appeared at a police station sobbing and bleeding. Forrest then lied and claimed that he would be paid to have sex with the woman.

But in prison letters, Forrest dismisses key forensic evidence linking Packer to the site of Emma’s death and the accounts of other women he attacked.

Dr. Stefan Uitdehaag, an expert at the Netherlands Forensic Institute, compared soil samples from the ditch where Emma’s body was found with samples from Packer’s van.

He said it was “much more likely” that the samples came from the same location than from somewhere else.

Forrest said: “Police did not come out of his van to take soil samples. So there were a lot of girls there and not just with Iain.” Packer was found guilty of strangling the 27-year-old sex worker after picking her up in Glasgow city center in April 2005 and driving 41 miles to Limefield Woods in Biggar, Lanarkshire. had driven.

Her body was found by a dog handler the following month.

Officers interviewed Packer six times in connection with Emma’s murder, but as a witness, not a suspect.

Instead the force focused on four Turkish men and after a botched operation by Strathclyde Police costing £4 million, the case failed.

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The 51-year-old was eventually found guilty of murder 19 years later and was able to go on to commit a series of sexual assaults and violence against other women.

He was sentenced to life in prison and given a minimum term of 36 years before being considered for parole.

In March he instructed his legal team to challenge his convictions and sentence and a “notice of intent to appeal” was lodged with the Supreme Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.

Earlier this month, Packer abandoned plans to appeal his conviction, but will challenge the length of his sentence and an appeal hearing will be held at a later date.

Forrest is sentenced to a minimum of six years and three months in prison.

High Court Judge Graham Buchanan, who also imposed a life restriction order, told him: “You have been convicted of an offense of shocking depravity towards a vulnerable elderly lady.”

“Given your risk, it is possible that you will never be released.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service said: “We do not comment on individuals.”