ALEXANDER Pacteau has lodged an appeal to shave time off his life sentence for the murder of Irish student Karen Buckley.
The 21-year-old was sentenced to 23 years in prison earlier this month, after admitting strangling Cork native Ms Buckley and beating her up to 13 times with a spanner.
Now he has lodged an appeal which could see up to three years taken off his sentence.
Pacteau was handed down the sentence on September 8 after pleading guilty to Ms Buckley’s murder on April 12 of this year.
The pair met outside The Sanctuary nightclub on Dumbarton Road in the city’s west end – and after driving to nearby Kelvin Way, Pacteau parked his car for 12 minutes, where he killed her.
And after his sentencing, Pacteau had a window of 14 days in which to appeal the sentence.
When sentencing him to 23 years, Judge Lady Rae told Pacteau: “In a matter of minutes, for some unknown, inexplicable reason, you destroyed her life.”
It was further revealed in Glasgow High Court that Pacteau had gone to extreme lengths to cover up his tracks.
He had used caustic acid to attempt to dissolve her body in his Dorchester Avenue home before dumping her body in a barrel on a farm just outside of the city centre.
The news of his appeal comes just days after a Scottish politician reacted in anger to news that Shotts Prison, where Pacteau is incarcerated, had recently spent £157,000 on new leisure equipment for its prisoners.
Scottish Conservatives chief whip John Lamont has hit out at news that the refurbished prison is kitted out to a high standard of comfort.
“The impression this creates is that life in jail won’t be all that bad,” he told Mail Online.
“That’s hurtful to the victims and their families, and gives our justice system a bad name.”
