A GONG SHOW OF AN INQUIRY

Detective who cracked case hits out at Police Scotland for years of incompetence. Gerry Gallacher says inquiry was a farce while Caldwell family were denied justice 

- MARK MCGIVERN

A RETIRED detective who cracked the Emma Caldwell murder case nine years ago has slammed Police Scotland for years of bungles and incompetence.

As killer Iain Packer looks forward to life behind bars, Gerry Gallacher said senior officers should be ashamed of their roles in denying Emma's family justice for 19 years.

In an explosive interview with the Daily Record, the former detective outlines how the case against Packer was laid on a plate - but ignored for years.

The inquiry team had obtained six statements from Packer that should have identified him as the prime suspect and destroyed the case against four falsely accused Turkish men.

Gallacher, who was 30 years in the force, also rages over the way huge time and resource was wasted on finding any police mole who may have supplied him with information on the case instead of bringing Packer to justice.

Now an author, Gallacher said: "To put it bluntly, there are officers from this case who should be utterly ashamed of themselves.

"They were happy to take the promotions and their fat police pensions and allow Emma's family to live in ignorance while they were denied justice.

He added: "This was the Gong Show of all police inquiries, a farce.

"In all, the first murder team wasted more than £4million, they took two-and-a-half years, they projected Emma's image on to high flats and used screens at Ibrox to ask witnesses to come forward.

"All those efforts were a collapsed case against men who had nothing to do with the crime." Gallacher said major bungles took place as police refused to shift their focus.

He said: "The investigating team committed the cardinal sin. They adopted a tunnel vision, they focused solely on the Turks as perpetrators, to the exclusion of every other possibility.

"But the answer and the killer was staring them in the face all along.