Alexander Pacteau admits murdering Karen Buckley

Alexander Pacteau has pleaded guilty to the murder of Irish student Karen Buckley. 

The 21-year-old admitted killing the trainee nurse from Glasgow Caledonian.

Pacteau, from Glasgow, appeared at the High Court today and admitted repeatedly hitting Karen Buckley with a spanner and strangling her in his car on Kelvin Way in the West End.

His sentence was deferred but he faces a mandatory life-term.

Alexander Pacteau who picked up Karen Buckley in the Sanctuary nightclub in Glasgow

Karen Buckley, 24, who was brutally murdered by Pacteau

Karen, who was in her first year studying Occupational Therapy, went missing after a night out on April 11.

The 24-year-old from Cork in Ireland was last seen in Sanctuary, Dumbarton Road, before she left the club with Pacteau around 1am.

Pacteau previously told police she came back to his flat, where they were “intimate”, and she left alone at 4am.

Her remains were found four days later on a farm near Milngavie after being covered in “corrosive substances.”

The parents of murdered Irish student Karen Buckley, 24, John Buckley, 62 and Marian Buckley, 61, arrive at Glasgow High Court

A spokeswoman from Glasgow Caledonian University said at the time of her death: “The GCU community is deeply saddened by the police reports in the media regarding Karen Buckley.

“Our thoughts are with Karen’s family, friends and classmates at this very difficult time.”

Floral tributes at High Craighton Farm near Bearsden, outside Glasgow, April 16, 2015, where body parts said to be from Karen Buckley, 24, were found

Tributes were paid when Karen’s body was found and Sanctuary nightclub shut its doors out of respect.

At a vigil, business student Jessica Dradge, 22, from Melrose, said: “It’s terrible. It’s terrible for it to happen to anyone but someone so close — I don’t know her — but because we go to the same school it’s just terrible.

“I’ve been out in Glasgow but you just never think that will happen that close to home.

“It makes you question whether it’s even worth going out. I tend not to go out alone but I know when you get a couple of drinks in you, you think ‘Oh I’ll just walk it’, but your life is worth so much more than a taxi.”