Karen Buckley’s murderer appeals against sentence

He’s facing a minimum of 23 years in prison


Alexander Pacteau has appealed against his 23-year sentence for Karen Buckley’s murder.

Pacteau formally lodged an appeal at the Edinburgh court of appeal this week against Lady Rae’s judgement which was announced on September 8th.

At court, Pacteau had pled guilty to bludgeoning with a spanner and strangling the 24-year-old student in his car. After this, he attempted to get rid of the body by hiding it in a vat of chemicals in a farm outside of Glasgow.

Alexander Pacteau has lodged an appeal against his sentence

For this, he was sentenced on the 8th of September to serve a minimum of 23 years. Lady Rae described the murder as “brutal, senseless and motiveless attack on a defenceless young woman”.

The judge also told Pacteau she regretted the fact a previous charge against Pacteau had been dropped as it “tied her hands” in how long she could sentence him for.

He had been charged with attempting to defeat the ends of justice by misleading police and trying to dispose of Miss Buckley’s body. The charges were dropped though, and his actions technically couldn’t be taken into account in sentencing.

Now he has a chance to appeal against the 23 year sentence. A spokesman for the Scottish courts has said: “Alexander Pacteau lodged a notice of intention to appeal against sentence on 16 September 2015”