THE mother of murdered Emma Caldwell took her demands for an independent inquiry to Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf today following allegations of police cover-ups in the case.

Iain Packer was sentenced to a minimum of 36 years last week for Ms Caldwell’s murder in 2005 as well as 11 rapes and 21 further charges including sexual assaults and abduction involving multiple women.

Judge Lord Beckett called Mr Packer’s actions a “campaign of violence and appalling sexual mistreatment of a very large number of women.”

But the Crown Office, Police Scotland and its predecessor Strathclyde Police face allegations of a cover-up after it took almost 19 years for Margaret Caldwell to see her daughter’s murderer face justice.

Mr Packer was seen as a suspect at the beginning of the inquiry almost two decades ago.

Allegations persist that police officers pursuing the case were not only dissuaded from doing so but also faced victimisation — and journalists doing similar found themselves subjects of police surveillance.

While the Crown Office has stated that there was “insufficient evidence of criminality on the part of any police officer involved in the investigation of Emma Caldwell’s murder” to warrant prosecution, it also faces allegations that it intervened to prevent any prosecution of Mr Packer years earlier.

The reports have prompted calls for any inquiry to be conducted by counsel from outside Scotland.

The Caldwell family will meet the Lord Advocate and Police Scotland’s Chief Constable later this week, but after today’s meeting with the First Minister in Bute House, they said they were reassured that Mr Yousaf would make an announcement within days.

Thanking Mr Yousaf for the meeting, the family’s representative, rights lawyer Aamer Anwar, said: “We know that evidence exists that the abduction, rape and murder of Emma Caldwell and the subsequent rapes of women might have been prevented or at least disrupted had allegations against Packer been properly investigated.