Caldwell murder accused and jury visit site where body was found
Iain Packer, 50, denies murdered the sex worker in 2005, and a series of other charges against him.
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A murder accused has been taken to the wood where he is alleged to have killed a woman, during a site visit in his trial.
Iain Packer, 50, is on trial at the High Court in Glasgow accused of murdering sex worker Emma Caldwell, 27, in 2005, and faces 46 charges including rape as well as abduction and assault.
He denies all the charges against him, and has lodged special defences of incrimination, consent, defence of another and self-defence.
Packer is accused of strangling Miss Caldwell with his hands and a cable, assaulting her, compressing her wrists, intending to rape her and murdering her at an area of woodland known as Limefield Woods near Roberton, South Lanarkshire, on April 5 2005.
He is further charged with attempting to defeat the ends of justice by allegedly disposing of Miss Caldwell’s body, her mobile phone, clothing and personal belongings, as well as cleaning the interior of a car which belonged to him.
He denies these charges and has lodged a special defence of incrimination.
On Thursday, Packer was taken to the woodland site where Miss Caldwell’s body was found on May 8, 2005.
He wore a face mask and walked with a stick as he was assisted by two prison guards across boggy ground in a pine forest.
The jury was also taken to the site and stood across a stream which divides the forest, surrounded by police in high-visibility jackets.
They walked around a path of yellow plastic markers to see the area where Miss Caldwell’s body was found.
Judge Lord Beckett attended the visit wearing waterproof trousers and an anorak.
The convoy had earlier left the court, and Packer was taken to the site in an unmarked white Ford van.
The trial continues.