Police apologise to family over gamekeeper murder case and accept response 'fell short'
Judge condemns ‘senseless act of extreme wickedness’ as David Campbell sentenced to minimum of 19 years in prison
Police Scotland has apologised to the family of a murdered man for initally treating his death as “non-suspicious”, despite the fact he had sustained dozens of injuries from shotgun pellets.
David Campbell, a former head gamekeeper, was sentenced to a minimum of 19 years in prison on Wednesday after being found guilty of murdering his former colleague, Brian Low, with a shotgun on a country track before trying to cover up the crime.
Campbell killed Mr Low on a remote country path in Perthshire, having disabled CCTV cameras at his home in an attempt to conceal his whereabouts.
Judge Lord Scott described Campbell’s crime as an “appalling and senseless act of extreme wickedness.” The 77 year-old who was described by people who knew him as a Jekyll and Hyde character, was convicted at the High Court in Glasgow following a 15-day trial. The jury delivered a non-unanimous verdict after nearly three full days of deliberations.
However, the case raises questions for Police Scotland, which initially treated Mr Low’s death in February 2024 as non-suspicious - a failing that one police witness accepted had been a “glaring mistake”.
It was not until several days later that police began treating the death as murder following a forensic examination. This was despite the fact that 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.
The senior investigating officer for the case accepted yesterday that Police Scotland’s response “fell short” of what the public expected, and said the force had “learned from what happened.”
The body of Mr Low, 65, was discovered on Leafy Lane in Aberfeldy on the morning of 17 February 2024. His faithful black Labrador, Millie, was by his side.
The court heard that Campbell attacked Mr Low on the lane near Pitilie “having previously evinced malice and ill-will towards him,” leaving him so severely injured that he died at the scene.
Both men had worked together for nearly 20 years at the nearby Edradynate Estate, where Campbell was employed as head gamekeeper and Low worked as a groundsman.
The court was told that 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 in Aberfeldy, 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, seen by 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 that the shotgun blast killed Mr Low “within minutes or perhaps seconds.”
He added: “This was a brazen, brutal and planned execution at a rural spot, a cowardly ambush motivated by nothing more than sheer malice.
“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.
Sentencing Campbell, Lord Scott told him: “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.
Giving evidence during the trial, PC Andrew Beattie, the first uniformed officer at the scene, said he could initially see blood on Mr Low’s hands and face, telling the court: “I did not think it looked good.”
The trial also heard from Detective Constable Mark Chance. who arrived at the scene at Leafy Lane at around 10.15am on the morning Mr Low’s body was discovered.
He said he carried out “visual observations” of the body, which was under a blanket, and noted Mr Low had cuts to his face and hands which he thought were “consistent with him having fallen.”
Under questioning from prosecutor Greg Farrell, Det Con Chance said he had never dealt with a firearm-related homicide prior to that day, and that there was nothing initially in his “thought process” that a man had been shot and killed.
A Police Investigations and Review Commissioner spokesperson said: “We investigated the circumstances surrounding the death of a 65-year-old man discovered near Aberfeldy on 17 February 2024. A report of our findings was submitted to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) on 19 August 2024.”
The senior investigating officer for the case, Detective Chief Superintendent Lorna Ferguson, said she had apologised personally to Mr Low’s family, including Ms Curran, for how the force initially dealt with the murder, accepting that it “fell short.”
Speaking outside court on Wednesday, she said: “We acknowledge the initial response wasn't to the standard we would expect from Police Scotland, or indeed, what the public would expect. We have taken steps to learn from that. We've reviewed policies and procedures, particularly around the attendance at unexplained deaths.
“We've acknowledged that there was a five day period where things most definitely could have been better. However, we conducted a thorough and professional investigation over a 14 week period. We captured about 1,000 statements, extensively reviewed CCTV, interviewed a number of witnesses, and we've got this conviction at court today. I take a positive from that.”
Moira Orr, who leads on homicide for the COPFS, said: “Brian Low’s murder was a shooting deliberately carried out by David Campbell, who has shown no remorse for his reprehensible actions. It was an act of malicious intent.”
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.