The former skip of Team GB’s gold medal winning Olympic curling team has told a court how she cried after her precious medal was stolen from a museum.
Rhona Martin, 50, was giving evidence as two men sat in the dock at Dumfries Sheriff Court accused of the theft of the prestigious prize, which has never been recovered.
She had won the medal after her own performance, with the last stone, in the 2002 Salt Lake City Games against Switzerland, clinched the team’s victory in the final.
The medal later formed part of a display at Dumfries Museum dedicated to the all-Scots-based British team’s achievement in becoming the first British gold medallists at the Winter Games since ice skaters Torvill and Dean in 1984.
Stewart Pettigrew, 34, who lives in a caravan park in Dumfries, and Charles Walker, 25, a prisoner at HMP Barlinnie, are on trial accused of breaking in and stealing a quantity of sporting medals, including the Olympic gold, a chain of office and a casket containing a historical scroll.
Another man has also been charged but was not in court with the others.
Ms Martin, who was referred to in court under her maiden name of Howie, told a jury she was “gutted” at the medal theft in April 2014.
She added: “In all my years of playing that was a special one ... I just went into tears [after the theft].”
The former sportswoman, of Dunlop, Ayrshire, told the jury how the medal represented all the years, hard work and practice she had put into curling.
Ms Martin skipped Scotland at both the World and European championships during the 23 years she was involved in competition.
She told the court: “I used to take it to schools and let the kids have a go at wearing it ... I can’t do that now and it feels quite hard.”
Ms Martin loaned the medal along with other items from her career for an exhibition that coincided with a local curling event.
In court she was shown an image of the medal.
She said: “It is irreplaceable.”
The court was told that entry to the museum was gained by jemmying a door and a shutter.
Both men deny the charges of theft.
Walker also denies stealing a car in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in March 2014.
The trial before Sheriff Brian Mohan continues.
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 here