RESIDENTS in a small village spoke of their fear and shock as the area was put into lockdown by police responding to a shooting which left two men dead and one seriously injured.
Families in Auldhouse, South Lanarkshire, were told to stay indoors while dozens of armed officers swooped on the Meadowhead Farm and riding centre after reports that a man had been shot.
All roads leading into the village and the farmhouse, including the A726 Strathaven Road, were closed by police as emergency services rushed to the scene.
They found a 59-year-old man, named locally as Peter Thompson, within the farm. Specialist officers searched the area and a 53-year-old man, understood to be Robert McCormick, was found nearby in a vehicle with fatal injuries.
A 36-year-old man, believed to be Mr Thompson's son, John, was found in Langlands Road with gunshot injuries to his leg. He had apparently managed to flee the scene and raise the alarm.
Mr Thompson, who is believed to be separated from his wife Caron, and his son were granted permission in 2000 to develop their riding school into an international standard equestrian centre.
However the 59-year-old is understood to have been embroiled in a long-running feud with neighbours over an access road leading to his property, damage caused to the road and plans to extend his equestrian centre.
He approached the council 10 years ago to ask that Meadowhead Highway - an access road for his property and seven other properties - be made a private road, giving him and the other property owners responsibility for it.
The council turned him down but the local authority went on to spend £80,000 relaying the road to allow for public access and indicated they would remove the road from the list of public roads, essentially handing ownership of the road to Mr Thompson.
However, it is understood it later decided it was not a feasible option after they received three objections as part of their consultation process.
Last year Mr Thompson was also fined £10,000 for illegal dumping on an infill site despite an enforcement notice in place to prevent tipping.
The sentence was imposed at Hamilton Sheriff Court in April 2012 after he admitted breaching planning regulations.
One local resident said: "He has incensed locals with his illegal dumping at the farm and the damage caused to the roads by his big trucks."
Both Peter and John Thompson are believed to have encountered business difficulties in the past. Peter Thompson was sequestrated at Hamilton Sheriff Court in 2000 while his son was made bankrupt with debts of £256,550 at the same court last year.
John's paintballing business, registered at the family farm in Auldhouse, was hit with legal action last year when he was sued for damages by a man who suffered an injury at paintballing.
Residents of Auldhouse last night spoke of their shock at the fatal shooting.
One local horse owner said: "It was quite dramatic. I saw the helicopter land in the field. I didn't know what had happened.
"There has been a lot of bad blood, particularly over the state of the road with all the lorries going up and down.
"I can think of a long list of people who might have had a grudge against him."
A mother-of-two said: "We heard the police helicopter circling overhead in the morning and found out the roads around the village had been closed. It was pretty scary, as residents had been advised to stay indoors and no-one knew what was going on.
"It's been impossible to get in or out of the village all day, and there are armed police still on the scene.
"Auldhouse is a really lovely, quiet place, so everyone is shocked that something so tragic this has happened on our doorsteps."
Police have said they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.
Local MP Michael McCann said, "This violent event will have rocked the normally tranquil and peaceful community of Auldhouse.
"However, the fact police are not looking for anyone else connected to the deaths will reassure the local and wider community."
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