Police Scotland apologise for murder inquiry failings
Police Scotland has apologised to the family of a murdered man for initially failing to treat his death as suspicious, despite evidence of shotgun injuries to his face.
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.
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 said the “targeted assassination” had been “an appalling and senseless act of extreme wickedness”. He added that “serious errors” in the early stages of the police inquiry may have led Campbell to believe “you thought you got away with murder”.
Police were alerted after a 999 call the following morning but the first officers on the scene assumed Mr Low had fallen and hurt himself, opting to treat the death as a medical emergency.
No cordon was put in place. Despite the rural location and visible blood on the victim’s face, there was no sweep for forensics, footprints or tyre marks.
It wasn’t until six days later when the body bag was opened at the mortuary revealing the presence of shotgun pellets that the truth emerged. A post-mortem examination revealed Mr Low had at least 30 wounds to his face, meaning the shotgun had been fired at close range.
Detective Chief Superintendent Lorna Ferguson, Police Scotland’s Head of Local Crime, and the senior investigating officer for the case, said: “I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge that our initial response to this tragic incident fell short of what Police Scotland and the public rightly expects. We have reflected and we have learned from what happened.
“This learning included a complete review of all policies and procedures around attendance at unexplained deaths as we take steps to try and prevent something like this happening again.”