Jury deliberates for second day in trial of ex-gamekeeper accused of murder

The jury has begun its second day of deliberations in the trial of an ex-head gamekeeper accused of gunning down a former colleague on a country track near Aberfeldy.

David Campbell, 77, is accused of murdering Brian Low, 65, on February 16 2024, having allegedly previously disabled CCTV cameras at his home in the Perthshire town in an attempt to conceal his whereabouts.

Both men had worked at Edradynate Estate, where Campbell was head gamekeeper between May 1984 and February 2018 and Mr Low was a groundsman between August 2000 and February 2023.

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

His body was found by a local man at about 8.30am on February 17, 2024.

Campbell denies murder, saying he was at home in Aberfeldy at the time of the alleged crime.

During a near three-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow, the jury heard police initially treated Mr Low’s death as non-suspicious, and only began treating it as murder five days later.

This was despite the fact Mr Low had around 30 injuries from shotgun pellets, and that pellets fell from his body bag when it was brought to a mortuary.

Addressing the jurors ahead of their deliberations on Monday, judge Lord Scott instructed them to “try this case dispassionately, and (try) the case on the evidence and the evidence alone”.

He added: “It is not in dispute that Brian Low was killed, and that the killing was murder.

“What is in dispute concerns identification, and whether the Crown has proved that it was the accused who murdered Brian Low.”

Campbell had originally faced eight charges, including murder, breaches of the peace and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

However on Friday all but the murder charge were dropped.

Campbell denies the charge.