A former gamekeeper has been jailed for at least 19 years for murdering his old colleague with a shotgun, hunting him down “like quarry”.
David Campbell, 77, killed Brian Low, 65, on 16 February 2024.
Both men had worked at Edradynate Estate. Campbell was head gamekeeper there from May 1984 to February 2018, and Mr Low was a groundsman from August 2000 to February 2023.
Before carrying out the attack, Campbell had disabled CCTV cameras at his home in Aberfeldy, Perth and Kinross, in an attempt to conceal his whereabouts.
Campbell then shot Mr Low at Leafy Lane near Pitilie. His lifeless body was found by a local man about 8.30am the following day.
On Wednesday, a jury at the High Court in Glasgow found Campbell guilty of murder in a majority verdict, after more than two days of deliberations.
Campbell, who appeared in court dressed in a dark suit, showed no reaction as the verdict was read out.
During a 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, 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.
CCTV footage from the afternoon of 16 February, shown to the court during the trial, showed a hooded cyclist at 4.18pm heading down a road towards the track where the shooting occurred, and then coming back the other way shortly after 5pm.
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.”
Campbell changed the bicycle’s tyres in the days following the killing, but soil samples taken from elsewhere on the bike showed it had been at the scene of the murder.
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.
Campbell was sentenced to a minimum of 19 years in prison.
