Mother of Alexander Pacteau says she’s ‘relieved’ after killer drops bid for early release

THE mother of murderer Alexander Pacteau has spoken of her relief after he dropped his bid for early release from his life sentence.

Pacteau, 21, was jailed for at least 23 years in September after admitting bludgeoning nursing student Karen Buckley to death with a spanner.

He launched an appeal against the sentence in the same month, claiming it was too harsh, but abandoned it last week.

His tearful mum, Noreen Dow, welcomed the legal step as the right thing to do.

“I am so relieved he has done this,” she said.

The 44-year-old’s life has been thrown into turmoil by her son’s crime.

“I’m distraught,” she added. “I feel the world is looking at us and I am so ashamed and embarrassed. I know what people are thinking of us the worst.”

A close friend revealed the mum-of-four had been subjected to a number of terrifying silent calls at her home.

They started after her son was jailed for killing Karen, 24.

The Glasgow Caledonian student was on a night out in Glasgow’s west end when Pacteau struck.

Police found pictures of him on CCTV speaking to her in the street before taking her in his car to nearby Kelvin Way.

It was there he strangled and attacked her with a spanner, striking her around 12 times.

Pacteau then took her body to his flat where he stored it in the bath and made plans to dispose of her body and tried to cover up his crime.

He went on a gruesome shopping spree buying caustic soda and a barrel to place Karen’s body in.

He then left it in a locked storage unit he rented at High Craigton Farm on the outskirts of the city.

Her clothes and a blood-soaked mattress from his bed were burned at the farm.

The heinous murder shocked Scotland.

Karen, from Cork, had been studying for a master’s degree in occupational health therapy when she was murdered.

News of Pacteau’s abandoned appeal came last week with confirmation from the Judiciary of Scotland.

At his sentencing in the High Court in Glasgow in September, Judge Lady Rae described the murder as a “brutal, senseless and motiveless attack on a defenceless young woman”.

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

The Crown withdrew the charge before his plea and his solicitor John Scullion QC, suggested his actions after the killing should not be regarded when considering sentence.

During the sentencing, Lady Rae told the court she regretted that the Crown had withdrawn a charge relating to Pacteau’s actions after the murder, saying it “tied her hands” to some extent in relation to the sentence.

But she added: “I have come to the view that I cannot ignore your conduct after the killing.”