Ex-gamekeeper who murdered former colleague with shotgun jailed

An ex-head gamekeeper has been jailed for a minimum of 19 years after murdering a former colleague with a shotgun on a country track in Perth and Kinross.

David Campbell, 77, killed Brian Low, 65, on February 16 2024, having previously disabled CCTV cameras at his home in Aberfeldy 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 carried out the attack on 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.

Mr Low was shot at about 4.52pm on February 16 and his body was found by a local man at about 8.30am the following day.

Campbell was found guilty on Wednesday following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow, and was sentenced at the same court shortly afterwards.

Jailing Campbell for life with a minimum term of 19 years, judge Lord Scott described the killing as an “appalling and senseless act of extreme wickedness”.

He told Campbell: “You didn’t encounter Brian Low by chance that day, and you didn’t happen to have a shotgun with you.

“On the evidence, the jury decided that it was proved beyond reasonable doubt that in a carefully premeditated act, you murdered an unarmed and defenceless man by discharging a shotgun at him, causing him such severe injury that he died where he fell.”

Lord Scott also referred to victim impact statements from Mr Low’s partner Pam Curran and brother Douglas Low, and said his murder had had a “profound and lasting” impact on his family.

He told Campbell he had “robbed” Ms Curran of the chance to say goodbye to Mr Low, and that a friend had told her that since his death “the spark has gone out of her eyes”.

The judge added: “Brian Low’s family are left with only questions, not least why anyone would want to murder him so callously.”

Campbell, who appeared in court dressed in a dark-coloured suit, showed no reaction as the sentence was handed down, and blew a kiss to the public gallery as he was being led away.

During the nearly three-week trial, the court heard Campbell had harboured a “festering grievance” against Mr Low, believing him to have planted evidence on the estate to frame him for the alleged illegal poisoning of birds of prey.

On the day of the murder, after disabling the CCTV cameras at his home, Campbell travelled to the scene of the killing on his wife’s e-bike, wearing a “hooded jacket” and armed with a shotgun carried in a bag slung on his back.

In his closing speech on Friday, prosecutor Greg Farrell told the jury: “There, using his shotgun he shot Brian Low, hitting him on the face, chest and neck, and left him for dead.

“Brian Low was out with his dog Millie, going about his ordinary peaceful life. He was left to die on that track alone.

“That shotgun blast killed him within minutes or perhaps seconds. Brian Low had no chance. He was unarmed and unaware.

“This was a brazen, brutal and planned execution at a rural spot, a cowardly ambush motivated by nothing more than sheer malice.”

He added: “David Campbell was an expert shot. He hunted Brian Low down like he was quarry.”

Mr Low’s death was initially deemed non-suspicious – which one police witness accepted had been a “glaring mistake” – and it was not until five days later that police began treating it as murder.

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

Campbell initially faced a total of eight charges but on Friday seven of these were withdrawn, leaving just the single charge of murder.

Campbell had denied murder, claiming he was at home in Aberfeldy at the time of the murder, but this was rejected by the jury.