Share

‘Truly evil’ Alexander Pacteau admits murder of Karen Buckley

Pacteau was prowling outside possibly looking for lone females.

Advertisement

He parked up a short distance away and beat her to death with a spanner.

“All Karen was doing was making her way home when she was randomly targeted and murdered by a cowardly vicious criminal”. Later he claimed that he hit her with the spanner in self-defence. He appeared in court on crutches after he had been involved in a auto crash in August 2012, which led to him being hospitalised for one month and requiring surgery on his hip. He initially stopped off at nearby Dawsholm Park to dump her bag.

He visited a auto valet on his way home and while waiting for the Ford Focus to be cleaned, Pacteau used his phone to create an advert to sell his vehicle.

As the corpse lay in the flat, Pacteau simply went to sleep.

“It took several hours throughout the night to make contact with them”. He also went on to a Poundstretcher retail near his level and purchased more the chemical substance. He then locked his bedroom door and travelled to a B&Q store where he bought six litres of the chemical and masks and gloves.

At 11.19am, images were recorded of his auto driving in the opposite direction from the farm, heading home.

Pacteau’s housemate’s mother was visiting on the night of the murder – both she and Pacteau’s housemate were asleep as he brought Ms Buckley’s body into his bedroom where he kept it for the night.

It was there Pacteau made a lengthy, but failed attempt at trying to dissolve the remains.

Mr Pacteau had claimed that Ms Buckley had come with him to his apartment, injured herself in his room, and then walked home.

“We will never see Karen again in this life”.

The following morning, Pacteau threw the spanner he used to kill Ms Buckley into the nearby Forth and Clyde Canal.

The tool was later recovered by police with traces of the victim’s blood. “He got his kicks from drag racing”.

He then drove to Tesco on Maryhill Road to buy cleaning materials, asking a member of staff to recommend a product for removing blood from a mattress.

He next went to another supermarket to buy white spirit and a lighter, which he then used to set fire to Karen’s clothes.

George’s friend, who owned the retail business rented a lock up at the farm to store fireworks.

He poured more chemicals into the barrel before sealing it. He was seen by a witness struggling to put a large blue barrel in his auto outside his flat at around 2pm.

Pacteau, who is also a convicted forger, pleaded guilty to the post-graduate student’s “senseless and brutal” murder at the High Court in Glasgow.

It was around this time Karen was reported missing having last been seen by friends at the club.

A spokesman for the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service said: “I can confirm that Alexander Pacteau was charged with sections 1 and 3 of the sexual offences (Scotland) Act 2009 on 27 November 2011 in Baliol Lane, Glasgow and that he was found not guilty at the High Court in Paisley in February, 2013″.

Detectives immediately became suspicious because of the overwhelming smell of bleach from the flat – and the fact the bedroom mattress did not fit its frame.

According to the Crown’s barrister, there was “no evidence that the accused and Karen met at the club” – Pacteau left alone at 1am, while Karen left a few minutes later intending to go home.

Advertisement

The Lord Advocate said it was now accepted by the accused that his statements were untrue.

Karen Buckley's mum and dad John and Marian outside court