THE beast who murdered an Irish student has been “keeping his head down” in prison some ten years after his shocking crime.
Alexander Pacteau was caged for at least 23 years in 2015 after admitting he murdered Karen Buckley, 24, in Scotland — then tried to dissolve her body in a barrel.
The Cork woman was studying occupational therapy when she was killed by the brute during a night out in Glasgow’s West End ten years ago yesterday.
It is understood the family marked her anniversary privately at home in Cork.
Meanwhile, the killer, 31, spends his days in a Scottish prison, “keeping his head down” after previously being targeted by other lags.
In 2019, he moved prisons after he had allegedly caused chaos in a row over staff checking mail for drugs.
Two years earlier, the fiend had moaned to bosses that other lags were urinating in his soup.
A source said: “There were issues with Pacteau during his first few years behind bars, where other inmates were giving him a hard time.
“He was hated by other cons as he was in protection, and they are mainly killers or serious sex offenders. He had to switch prisons a couple of times.
“But over the last number of years, there has been no talk around him.
“He’s just been keeping his head down and not causing any trouble.”
Pacteau brutally murdered Irish student Karen after meeting her at a Glasgow nightclub.
The former private schoolboy, then 21, took her to his car where he strangled her and repeatedly hit the young woman on the head with a foot-long wrench.
He carried her body into his flat in Kelvindale and tried to dissolve her body in a bath of caustic soda before dumping Karen’s remains in a barrel at a farm near Milngavie, just outside Glasgow.
Pacteau had his car professionally cleaned by a valet service after the killing in a bid to destroy evidence.
MYSTERY WOMAN
But some soil which remained on the car’s tyres proved crucial in nailing him.
An analysis of the soil proved the car had been at Dawsholm Park in Glasgow where Karen’s handbag was dumped.
In 2022, it emerged that Pacteau followed a mystery woman the night he murdered Karen.
The woman was unaware she was being followed by Pacteau near Glasgow’s Sanctuary nightclub in April 2015.
Retired Detective Superintendent Jim Kerr, who led the investigation into her murder, called her the “luckiest woman alive” and believes she was the intended victim on the night.
He added: “The CCTV showed him ducking in and out of parked cars as if he was surveilling her.”
In 2016, Karen’s dad John picked up her posthumous degree from Glasgow Caledonian University during an emotional ceremony.
