A FORMER colleague of Alexander Pacteau has spoken of how the killer once told him: "The perfect murder would be to kill someone and then get rid of their body in a barrel of acid."

George Taylor, who worked with Pacteau in a furniture shop, said he made the remark five months before he murdered the nursing student.

After the conversation in November, Mr Taylor, 30, did not see Pacteau again.

Mr Taylor, 30, from Partick, said: "We just thought 'that's Alex going again, talking a load of sh**'. We thought it was from (TV series) Breaking Bad. We just changed the subject.

"He has been in my house, he used to give me lifts home. He gave my mother a lift home.

"I felt sick to the bottom of my stomach when I found out. He had every one of us fooled."

Pacteau worked as a shop assistant in Designer Rooms Furniture, in Clydebank, which is owned by Mr Taylor's friend, for four years. The pair bonded over beer and pizza and curry nights.

Mr Taylor said: "We spent four years together, five days a week.

"We called him the gentle giant. He was nothing but polite and courteous with customers. He must be a very good liar.

"He didn't like being told what to do and he was quite controlling. He used to go into little tantrums.

"But he was quite happy-go-lucky. He had quite a good sense of humour. He used to visit prostitutes, he was quite candid about that. He said he enjoyed it and he was in control.

"He was a bit of a Walter Mitty character, a fantasist. He was always saying he was going to become the next millionaire. We just took it that he was a young boy."

Mr Taylor said he looked on Pacteau as a little brother and even organised a surprise 18th birthday for him.

"His relationship with his father was quite turbulent," he said. "The family had owned a business and it went bust. There was a lot of violence. He used to come into the shop and show us the bruises.

"I pitied him."

Pacteau stopped working with Mr Taylor two years ago. He was questioned by police after Pacteau was linked to Miss Buckley's disappearance and he said he had nightmares after his former colleague and friend was arrested.

He said: "If you had asked me to pick five people who were capable of murder from my mobile phone, I would never have pinned that on Alex.

"I was friends with him for four or five years but what he did he did of his own accord.

"What he said to her to get her into the car, we will never know. I'd like to ask him 'why?'"