Pacteau to appeal sentence for Karen Buckley murder

The man who murdered Irish nurse Karen Buckley in Glasgow has made an appeal against the length of his minimum 23-year life sentence.

Pacteau received a mandatory life sentence in Glasgow High Court last week and was told he would have to serve a minimum of 23 years in prison before he could apply for parole.

Pacteau, who had attempted to dispose of the nurse’s body in a Value-Added Tax of chemicals, was described as carrying out a “brutal, senseless and motiveless attack on a defenceless young woman” when he was sentenced by Judge Lady Rae at the High Court in Glasgow earlier this month.

A court spokesman said: “He lodged a notice of intention to appeal against sentence on 16 September”. They said they hope Pacteau spends the rest of his life behind bars and is “haunted every day” by his crime.

Pacteau originally faced a second charge of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by misleading police and trying to hide Miss Buckley’s body.

But last week Pacteau lodged papers at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh in a bid to reduce his sentence.

Justice Lady Rae imposed a 25-year prison term but reduced it by two years in light of Pacteau’s guilty plea, his age and his lack of previous violent convictions.

Her disappearance sparked a city-wide manhunt which culminated four days after she disappeared when her body was found on a remote farm.

He bludgeoned Karen to death in his Ford Focus vehicle with a heavy spanner.

He then drove her to nearby Kelvin Way, where he grabbed her neck and delivered about a dozen blows with a spanner.

Pacteau purchased caustic soda and a barrel and placed Miss Buckley’s body inside before leaving it in a locked storage unit he rented.

After her murder two candlelit vigils were held; the first in Glasgow’s George Square organised by former Scottish Socialist politician Rosie Kane where Karen’s parents and brothers joined hundreds of Glaswegians.

Her father John Buckley, 62, said at the time: “Marion and I, together with our sons Brendan, Kieran and Damian, are absolutely heartbroken”.

It is understood the challenge will be based on precisely how much consideration the trial judge gave in sentencing to Pacteau’s actions after he had bludgeoned the Irish student to death.