A LONDON marketing executive who terrified train passengers by pulling out an antique double-barrelled shotgun on a railway station platform yesterday won his legal battle to prevent the #40,000 family heirloom from being destroyed.
But Alexander MacKinnon was fined #5000 and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service after admitting being drunk in charge of the weapon last September.
The gun, a much sought-after Purdey which belonged to MacKinnon's grandfather, is one of a pair.
It was seized by police when MacKinnon, 27, was arrested on the platform of Crianlarich station in west Perthshire after being put off a Glasgow-Fort William train for smoking.
Drunken MacKinnon terrified passengers and crew by demanding to be allowed back on the train, and pulling the stock and barrel of the 12 bore gun out of its leather case.
MacKinnon appeared for sentence Stirling Sheriff Court yesterday after pleading guilty at at earlier hearing to placing people in fear and alarm at Crianlarich railway station on September 16th by pulling the stock and barrel of the weapon out of its leather case.
He also admitted being drunk in charge of the weapon.
Sheriff Alexander Eccles rejected a call from depute fiscal Valerie Barber-Fleming for the weapon to be forfeited.
Sheriff Eccles said he did so ''with some reluctance'' because the high value of the gun would have made fortfeiture and destruction ''a draconian penalty''.
Defence agent Alasdair Murdoch told the court that his client, formerly of Finborough Road, London, now of Clarendon Crescent, Edinburgh, had been at a party the night before the incident and admitted that he was still drunk.
The court heard it claimed in evidence in December that MacKinnon had pointed the gun at the terrified ScotRail guard after being asked to leave a the train at Crianlarich because he wouldn't stop smoking.
The December proceedings were adjourned when the court was told that MacKinnon's father had died suddenly.
The accused later changed his plea.
Outside the court yesterday, MacKinnon said he was pleased that the gun would remain in his family but he described the sentence as ''a bit steep''.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article