A former head gamekeeper has gone on trial charged with the murder of a groundsman from the estate where they once worked.
David Campbell, 77, is accused of shooting Brian Low to death at Leafy Lane near the Pitilie Track in Aberfeldy, Perth and Kinross, on February 16, 2024.
The charge states Campbell had initially disabled CCTV cameras at Tigh Na Caorann in the town’s Crieff Road in an “attempt to conceal” his whereabouts.
He is then alleged to have discharged a shotgun at Mr Low leaving him so severely hurt that he died at the scene.
The 65-year-old passed away from gunshot wounds to the neck and chest.
Prosecutors claim Campbell had previously shown “malice and ill-will” towards Mr Low before the shooting.
Both had previously worked together on the Edradynate Estate in Aberfeldy – Campbell between 1984 and 2018, Mr Low from 2000 to 2023. The men each lived in cottages tied to the estate.
Campbell faces a separate charge of attempting to defeat the ends of justice following the death.
This includes a claim that he got rid of the shotgun at an unknown location.
He is said to have had two replacement tyres fitted on an e-bike that he used during the alleged shooting.
Campbell also allegedly dumped a number of items, including a box and a cartridge bag, at Aberfeldy Recycling Centre.
It is further claimed he disposed of an air gun – also at an unspecified location – that he had often discharged over a seven-year period at Tigh Na Caorann.
Campbell denies the accusations. His legal team – led by KC Tony Lenehan – have lodged a special defence of alibi.
It is said he was not in Leafy Lane at the time of the alleged killing and was instead at home in Aberfeldy.
Campbell also faces five separate breach of the peace charges spanning between July 1995 and September 2012.
He is said to have acted in a disorderly manner, putting three men and two women in a “state of fear and alarm”.
One of them, a retired police inspector, was the first witness in the trial.
The now 78-year-old was latterly a wildlife crime co-ordinator in the Perthshire area after leaving the force.
He met Campbell while investigating alleged bird poisoning on the Edradynate Estate.
Prosecutor Greg Farrell asked the witness if there was “a certain amount of tension” between them due to their respective roles.
He replied: “Yes.”
Mr Farrell asked: “Did you form the impression that David Campbell did not like you much?”
He again replied: “Yes.”
The witness then spoke of a “chance encounter” with Campbell at a summer game fair at Scone Palace in Perth in the summer of 1995.
The former police officer was there with his wife and granddaughter.
The men passed each other in an aisle. Asked if Campbell said anything, the witness told jurors: “He looked across and said: ‘It is great what vermin you see when you have not got a gun’.”
He stated he was “absolutely” sure Campbell made the remark at him.
He added: “It was not said as a joke. It was said with a bit of venom. He was not shouting; he was only five yards away.
“It was not a nice thing to have said. My wife and granddaughter were quite upset.
“I was reasonably used to getting that type of threat, if you want to call it that.
“It upset them, but I was annoyed as it was made in a public place and my wife and granddaughter were there.
“I was off duty, so I just let it lie.”
In cross-examination, Mr Lenehan put to the witness that there is “no dispute” that Campbell said “something unpleasant” that day.
It was also said that Campbell may not have been the only gamekeeper not to be on the witness’s “Christmas card list”.
The trial later heard from farmer who knew both Campbell and Mr Low from her regular visits to the Edradynate Estate when the men worked there.
Prosecutor Mr Farrell asked the 77-year-old how the pair got along.
She stated: “At first it was not noticeable, but, as time went on, there was a coldness.”
She described there was a time when she had been with Mr Low, and Campbell walked past, urging her to come with him.
She then claimed Campbell said to her: “I cannot stand that man, I loathe him.”
The witness recalled being “quite taken aback” at the alleged comment.
She then told jurors of another occasion at the estate when Campbell made another similar remark about Mr Low.
He apparently stated he “could not understand” why she liked Mr Low.
She told the trial: “I explained, but he seemed to find that distasteful.”
The witness said Mr Low was “an easy man to talk to” and “very helpful”.
But, Campbell allegedly said: “I f***ing loathe him.”
Jurors also heard from other people who were apparently threatened by Campbell over the years.
This included a woman who told how she once rented a room at a property Campbell owned in Aberfeldy.
She had bought a black Labrador puppy for her young daughter while staying there.
Campbell was said to have visited and told her dogs were not allowed.
She then claimed: “He was not very pleased with me. He said that he did not care and that if he saw the dog again, he would shoot it and us.”
The witness said this comment happened outside the room in a corridor and claimed she felt “awful” and that her child was “scared”.
She stated her daughter lay across the dog to “cover him up”.
Defence advocate Mr Lenehan later put to the witness that anything said was “not a serious threat”.
She replied: “I did not think I was actually going to get shot, but it is not something someone says every day.”
Mr Lenehan also suggested the witness had told her former partner that any remark was about the dog and not to her or her child.
Another woman told the trial that she lived on the estate in the late 1990s while her husband was a gardener there.
She recalled an alleged occasion where Campbell was “ranting and raving” in her face about her husband calling him “useless”.
This witness said she ended up in tears.
She claimed to be left suffering from panic attacks any time she saw a vehicle in the estate, which she believed was Campbell.
She eventually told her husband that she felt they had to leave Edradynate.
The trial, before Lord Scott, continues and is expected to last three weeks.
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