A former head gamekeeper found guilty of the shotgun murder of an ex-colleague intends to appeal against his conviction.
David Campbell, 77, gunned down Brian Low, 65, on a remote track near Aberfeldy, Perthshire, in February 2024 and used his wife’s e-bike to flee the scene.
Campbell was last week handed a life sentence with at least 19 years in jail at the High Court in Glasgow.
Judge Lord Scott branded it an “appalling and senseless act of extreme wickedness” as he accused the killer of murdering an “unarmed and defenceless man”.
Advocate Depute Greg Farrell also described it as a “brazen, brutal and planned execution”, adding: “David Campbell was an expert shot.
“He hunted Brian Low down like he was quarry.”
On Wednesday, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) told Sky News it had received an intimation of intention to appeal (IIA) against Campbell’s conviction.
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Mr Low was shot dead on Leafy Lane, near to the Pitilie Track, on 16 February 2024. His body was discovered the following day.
During Campbell’s trial, jurors were told of how he disabled his home CCTV system and placed duct tape over his doorbell camera in a bid to conceal his whereabouts on the day of the murder.
He also got rid of the shotgun, which has never been found, and changed the tyres on the getaway bike in an attempt to cover his tracks.
Both men had previously worked at Edradynate Estate, where Campbell was head gamekeeper and Mr Low was a groundsman.
When asked about his relationship with Mr Low, Campbell denied killing his ex-colleague, but said: “We just didn’t get on. He didn’t like me and I didn’t like him.”
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The beginning of the inquiry was mired in controversy after Police Scotland initially treated the death as a “medical event”, with Mr Low’s bloody injuries suspected to have been caused by a fall.
The court heard that Mr Low’s face had around 30 shotgun pellet injuries and when his remains reached a mortuary, shotgun pellets fell out of the bag.
A post-mortem examination revealed the cause of death to be gunshot wounds to the neck and chest.
The force’s blunder meant the crime scene was not sealed off and forensically examined until days after Mr Low’s body was found.
Following his arrest three months later, Campbell told detectives they were “desperate” with their accusations and said they were “just trying to save face” due to their mistake at the start of the probe.
While on the stand, he stated: “They made a monumental shambles of the whole investigation.”
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Detective Chief Superintendent Lorna Ferguson, the senior investigating officer for the case, accepted the initial response to the incident “fell short of what Police Scotland and the public rightly expects” as she apologised to Mr Low’s family following the guilty verdict.
