A retired police inspector who spent decades investigating a murderer over alleged wildlife crimes says he feared he’d be next on his “hit list”.
Alan Stewart, 78, told STV News he knew immediately that David Campbell had murdered Brian Low when he heard the groundsman had been killed.
Campbell, a former head gamekeeper described as a “vindictive” and “evil”, harboured a grudge against Mr Low from their time working on the Edradynate shooting estate in Perthshire.
This culminated in cold-blooded murder.
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“When I heard about the murder at Aberfeldy I was shocked, but I suppose to be honest I wasn’t surprised,” said Mr Stewart.
“I was quite sure that David Campbell was responsible. The link with Edradynate and a gun. I thought about why he’d been murdered, I was quite sure that it would be revenge for something.
“I’d been dealing with David Campbell for years and when I realised that Brian Low had been shot I thought well, I wonder what number I am on the list?
“Am I second or third or fourth, but I did think I was at risk and and I did take some precautions round about the house.”
Alan StewartMr Stewart had repeatedly quizzed Campbell over a catalogue of bird of prey poisonings on the 4000-acre Edradynate Estate over the course of some 20 years, but never secured a conviction.
“Any time I spoke to him he was always very casual. He just knew fine that we were struggling to get evidence,” explained Alan.
Mr Stewart said other employees on the estate were too scared of 77-year-old Campbell to speak out against him.
Adobe Stock“They obviously were very frightened of David Campbell and what might happen if they told the police about anything,” he said.
“As an example, the owner of Cluny Gardens reported dead buzzards in the gardens.
“After one of these incidents she looked out of her window in the morning and found the letters RSPB sprayed in weed-killer on her lawn and when she checked further, plants that had been sprayed as well.
“”It was clear… that if anybody interfered with what he was doing there would be repercussions…”
Retired police inspector Alan Stewart
“It was clear at that time that if anybody interfered with what he was doing there would be repercussions.
“Over the years, my impression was that he was particularly vindictive and bordering on evil. A horrible individual.”
On the contrary, 65-year-old Brian Low, who’d retired from his job as groundsman at Edradynate Estate in 2023, was well-liked and respected.
“By all accounts, Brian was a true gentleman, a lovely guy, a quiet guy, very law abiding,” said local Councillor John Duff.
“Nobody that I’m aware of had a bad word to say about him so the fact that this had happened to him just added to that strangeness as to why this would happen to a man like Brian in a place like Aberfeldy.”
Police watchdog file report on fumbled murder investigation
STV NewsBrian was out walking his dog Millie, a black Labrador, on a tree-lined country path near the cottage he shared with his partner, Pam Curran, when he was shot “face on” at a range of around 19 metres with a shotgun.
His body was discovered the following morning and the police were alerted.
But the officers called to the scene – and a paramedic – failed to notice that he’d been shot. His face, the trial at the High Court in Glasgow heard, had 30 shotgun pellet injuries and was covered in blood.
Police witnesses said they believed Brian had suffered a “medical event” and had then fallen and hit his face.
Mr Low’s family was informed that his death was “non-suspicious” and the crime scene was left open to the elements for some four days.
The police later admitted that crucial evidence may have been lost.
The matter was referred to the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) and an investigation was carried out into how officers dealt with the initial stages of Mr Low’s death.
The PIRC report has now been submitted to the Crown Office.
It took detectives more than three months to build a case against Campbell.
He was arrested at his home in Aberfeldy on May 23, 2024, and his trial started at the High Court in Glasgow on February 4, 2026.
A witness described how Campbell believed Brian had planted evidence against him in his home in relation to alleged bird of prey poisonings. Another woman said Campbell told her that he “loathed” Brian.
In his own evidence, Campbell admitted that he “did not get on” with Brian, and described the police investigation into the murder as a “monumental shambles.”
Campbell was well known to the police. Alongside the investigations carried out by Alan Stewart into alleged wildlife crimes at Edradynate, he stood trial in 2018 accused of poisoning game crops on the estate as an act of revenge.
After more than 30 years as head gamekeeper, he’d fallen out with the estate’s owner, the now deceased Hampshire-based millionaire financier Michael Campbell, and left his job in early 2017.
Giving evidence at the trial at Perth Sheriff Court, Michael Campbell, said he was convinced that the figure captured on CCTV spraying his crops in April 2017 was his former gamekeeper.
But Campbell was cleared after the Sheriff ruled the case against him hadn’t been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Jurors considering the murder case in Glasgow decided otherwise.
After almost three weeks of evidence from some 30 witnesses, they rejected Campbell’s denials and claim that he’d been at home at the time of the fatal shooting and found him guilty of Brian’s murder.
Alan Stewart says justice has finally been done.
“He possibly feels after killing all these birds, and various other wildlife no doubt, that he could extend that to humans and get away with it because he’s got away with everything else so far that I’m convinced he’s carried out on Edradynate,” he said.
“The whole Aberfeldy area is safer now that he’s behind bars.”
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