A soil professional has informed how she helped catch the killer of Irish pupil Karen Buckley as a result of dust on his automobile had been missed when he had it cleaned.
Alexander Pacteau was jailed for all times in 2015 for brutally murdering 24-year-old Karen after assembly her at a Glasgow nightclub. The previous personal schoolboy, then 21, took Karen to his automobile the place he strangled her and repeatedly hit her on the pinnacle with a foot-long wrench.
He carried her physique into his flat in Kelvindale and tried to dissolve her physique in a shower of caustic soda earlier than dumping her stays in a barrel at a farm close to Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire. Pacteau had his automobile professionally cleaned by a valet service after the killing in a bid to destroy proof.
However Professor Lorna Dawson informed how some soil which remained on the automobile's tyres proved essential within the case. Her evaluation of the soil proved the automobile had been at Dawsholm Park in Glasgow the place Karen's purse was dumped. Evaluation of dust discovered on Pacteau's boots additionally confirmed he had lately been on the farm.
Confronted with the damning forensic proof, Pacteau confessed to Karen's homicide.
Talking on BBC sequence Knowledgeable Witness, Professor Dawson, head of soil forensics on the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, mentioned: "The automobile was very clear however after we seemed beneath it, we have been capable of recuperate some materials. Once we seemed on the automobile tyres we noticed there was a band of soil which had averted being washed off by the automobile wash process.
"We confirmed that profile was very comparable with the turning level at Dawsholm Park. This was fairly vital as a result of it took that car close by the bin on the entrance to Dawsholm Park the place Karen's purse was discovered. The soil proof linked him to the place Karen was discovered and to Dawsholm Park."
She added: "I am very proud that we have been capable of assist on this explicit case. The bodily proof of the soil and the vegetation had completed its job as a result of it had helped Pacteau admit to killing Karen."
On the programme, an Irish charity who supported Karen's household all through their ordeal thanked Professor Dawson for her work on the case.
Sally Hanlon, director of Help After Crime Providers, mentioned: "Because of the glorious work of Lorna Dawson he determined to plead responsible. If that forensic proof wasn't out there perhaps there would not have been such a fast end result or a conviction.
"Homicide trials are very tough for households of the deceased. His early responsible plea was a profit to the household."
Pacteau admitted murdering Karen and hiding her physique and was ordered to serve a minimal of 23 years on the Excessive Court docket in Glasgow in September 2015. Decide Girl Rae described the case as "surprising and disturbing" and mentioned she discovered it "extraordinarily tough" to seek out phrases to explain what he did to Karen.
Karen, who was from Cork, was a nurse and had moved to Glasgow in February 2015 to check occupational remedy at Glasgow Caledonian College. The Knowledgeable Witness episode that includes the case is obtainable on BBC iPlayer.
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