Murder trial jurors rewatch CCTV clips of cyclist as deliberations continue

A jury has asked to rewatch CCTV footage as it continues its deliberations in the trial of an ex-head gamekeeper accused of gunning down a former colleague on a country track near Aberfeldy.

David Campbell, 77, is accused of murdering Brian Low, 65, on February 16, 2024, having allegedly previously disabled CCTV cameras at his home in the Perthshire town in an attempt to conceal his whereabouts.

Both men had worked at Edradynate Estate, where Campbell was head gamekeeper between May 1984 and February 2018, and Mr Low was a groundsman between August 2000 and February 2023.

Campbell is accused of shooting Mr Low at Leafy Lane near Pitilie “having previously evinced malice and ill-will towards him”, leaving him so severely injured that he died at the scene.

His body was found by a local man at about 8.30am on February 17, 2024.

Campbell denies murder, saying he was at home in Aberfeldy at the time of the alleged crime.

At the start of its third day of deliberations on Wednesday, the jury was again shown CCTV clips taken on the afternoon and evening of February 16, 2024, from the area near where the murder is alleged to have taken place.

It appears to show a hooded cyclist with a bag slung over their back, travelling along a road towards the site of the alleged murder, in the minutes before it is said to have taken place at 4.52pm.

Further footage then appears to show the same cyclist heading back the other way shortly after 5pm, with the last clip taken after it had got dark.

The footage, which was previously shown to the jury during the trial, was often grainy, and the cyclist was just visible at the very edge of the shot in a number of the clips.

During the trial, the prosecution argued the bicycle in the clips matched the e-bike belonging to Campbell’s wife, based on it appearing to have the same wing mirror, water bottle, tyres and lights.

In his closing speech on Friday, prosecutor Greg Farrell said the journey shown in the CCTV clips started and ended close to Campbell’s home.

“If this isn’t the accused, it just so happens this cyclist was (caught on camera) at the beginning of his journey, right around the corner from the accused’s house, and is last seen right around the corner from the accused’s house,” he said.

Campbell’s defence lawyer Tony Lenehan KC had disputed it was the same bike, putting it to the jury that there are many like it with many of the same features.

Addressing the jurors as they began their deliberations on Monday, judge Lord Scott instructed them to “try this case dispassionately, and (try) the case on the evidence and the evidence alone”.

He added: “It is not in dispute that Brian Low was killed, and that the killing was murder.

“What is in dispute concerns identification, and whether the Crown has proved that it was the accused who murdered Brian Low.”

During a near three-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow, the jury heard police initially treated Mr Low’s death as non-suspicious, and only began treating it as murder five days later.

This was despite the fact Mr Low had around 30 injuries from shotgun pellets, and that pellets fell from his body bag when it was brought to a mortuary.

Campbell had originally faced eight charges, including murder, breaches of the peace and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

However, on Friday, all but the murder charge were dropped.

Campbell denies the charge.