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A retiree found guilty of threatening behavior after posting online about the assassination of Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon must face sentence. William Curtis, 70, was convicted last month of sending threatening messages to Ms Sturgeon and of sending or causing to be sent a threatening message to former MSP Stewart Stevenson in 2019 following a Glasgow High Court trial. Jurors also found that Curtis and another man, Philip Mitchell, 60, assaulted and kidnapped a sheriff in a parking lot in Banff, Aberdeenshire, in June 2021.
Mitchell claimed that he was making a citizen's arrest of Constable Robert McDonald and had the legal authority to do so, but Lord Weir, in his instructions to the jury, said there was no basis to convincingly support this.
Curtis and Mitchell are due to be sentenced in Glasgow High Court on Friday.
During the trial, co-counsel Chris McKenna read a Facebook post from an account in the name "William Patrick Curtis" that was reported to Ms. Sturgeon's office manager, John Skinner, on March 6, 2019.
It read: 'We have reason to believe that I intend for the citizens (sic) to arrest her (Ms Sturgeon) to answer for her betrayal, over the last three years, of serious persons who have abused the electorate for their mandates. of criminal activities assassination of her and several (sic) of her ministers, even civilians working in all the (sic) agencies that repeatedly lied to the electorate and conspired with the Prime Minister.
Curtis' former partner, Alyson Gould, confirmed in court during the trial that she had a Facebook account under the name of the aforementioned social networking profile.
Mr Skinner was asked in court what was made of the phrase 'assassination warrant for her', and he told the jury: 'Assassinate the Prime Minister'.
Curtis was found guilty of engaging in threatening or abusive behavior that was "likely to cause fear or alarm to a reasonable person" by sending emails and posting messages on social media in which he made threatening comments towards Ms Sturgeon on several occasions between on February 27 and March 6, 2019.
He was also found guilty of sending or causing to be sent a threatening message to Mr. Stevenson on March 9, 2019.
There was a link to a video relating to the murder of West Yorkshire MP Jo Cox.
The court heard that a person named 'Carole Curtis' had sent a Facebook direct message to Mr Stevenson which read: 'Your turn (sic) is coming up, rest assured.'
Jurors also found Curtis guilty of a fourth count of "threatening or abusive behavior likely to cause fear or alarm to a reasonable person" by posting "messages of a threatening or abusive nature" in October 2020.
Curtis had put forward a special incrimination defense, alleging that someone else committed the crime against Mr. Stevenson, but the jury dismissed it.
All crimes took place in Aberdeenshire.
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