Ex-head gamekeeper goes on trial accused of shotgun murder

A former head gamekeeper has gone on trial accused of murdering a former estate groundsman by shooting him with a shotgun on a country lane.

It is alleged David Campbell, 77, shot Brian Low, 65, on February 16, 2024 near Aberfeldy having previously disabled CCTV cameras at an address in the town in an attempt to conceal his whereabouts.

He is accused of shooting Mr Low at Leafy Lane near Pitilie track “having previously evinced malice and ill-will towards him”, leaving him so severely injured that he died at the scene.

Campbell, who denies all charges against him in the trial at the High Court in Glasgow, is also charged with possessing an air weapon without a certificate and discharging it on various occasions between May 2017 and February 2024.

He is also accused of attempting to defeat the ends of justice between February 16 2024 and May 24 that year by disposing of the shotgun used to commit the alleged murder at an unknown location.

It is also alleged that he had two replacement tyres fitted on an electric bicycle used in committing the alleged crime and in addition that he disposed of a box, a cartridge bag and bicycle tyres at Aberfeldy Recycling Centre or elsewhere and of the air weapon at an unknown location

Campbell also faces five separate breach of the peace charges, the earliest dating to July 1995 and the latest to September 2012.

These include allegations that he threatened to shoot a number of people and threatened another man.

The first witness in the case was Alan Stewart, who Campbell is accused of threatening and placing in a state of fear and alarm at Scone Palace in July 1995.

The court heard that Mr Stewart was a police officer in the Tayside area between 1966 and 1997, and was then a wildlife crime officer until 2011.

Mr Stewart said he encountered Campbell, who was head gamekeeper at Edradynate Estate near Aberfeldy, as part of investigations into allegations of birds being poisoned on the estate.

Prosecutor Greg Farrell asked whether there was a “certain amount of tension” between them, to which Mr Stewart replied “yes”.

Mr Stewart also described a chance meeting with Campbell at Scone Palace in July 1995 when he was attending a game fair along with his wife and granddaughter.

Mr Farrell asked: “Did David Campbell say anything to you?”

Mr Stewart replied: “He looked across and he said: ‘It’s great what vermin you see when you’ve not got a gun.'”

Mr Farrell asked what he understood Campbell to mean by that to which Mr Stewart answered: “I was the vermin, and it was not said as a joke, it was said with a bit of venom.

“He didn’t shout, he spoke fairly loudly.”

Mr Stewart said that he was reasonably used to these kind of remarks due to his job and did not report it at the time, though said his wife was left upset by the incident.

Campbell has denied all eight charges against him, and has lodged a notice of alibi in respect of the murder charge saying that he was at home in Aberfeldy at the time of the alleged crime.

The court also heard a joint minute of agreement as the trial got under way on Wednesday.

It heard that Campbell was employed as the head gamekeeper at the Edradynate Estate between May 1984 and February 2018, and that Brian Low was employed as a groundsman there between August 2000 and February 2023.

Mr Low was pronounced dead at Leafy Lane by a paramedic at 9am on February 17.

On February 23 2024 a post-mortem examination was carried out at West Bell Street mortuary in Dundee and it was established that the cause of death was gunshot wounds to the neck and chest.

In the afternoon, the court heard from Richard Wright, who Campbell is accused of threatening to shoot in the summer of 1999.

Mr Wright, who at that time worked in grounds maintenance at Edradynate Estate, said that Campbell accused him of stealing fuel and an arrangement ensued where Campbell himself would get fuel if it was needed.

Mr Farrell asked whether matters came to a head, to which Mr Wright replied: “At one point I needed fuel and he was busy. He just said I will f****** shoot you one of these days for making me go and get fuel.”

He told the court he was not bothered by the remark, and said it was “water off a duck’s back”.

During cross examination Tony Lenehan KC, representing Campbell, asked whether the comment was neither here nor there to him.

Mr Wright said: “It was neither here nor there to me, it didn’t bother me one little bit.”

The court also heard from Leona Forrest who lived in a cottage on the estate with her husband, who worked on the estate, and her children.

She described an incident in the spring of 1997 when she told the court Campbell threatened to kill or shoot her husband.

Mr Farrell asked whether Campbell said kill or shoot, to which she replied “I’m not 100% sure”.

The trial at the High Court in Glasgow continues before Lord Scott.