A Perthshire landowner accused of shooting and killing two protected wild birds had the charges against him dropped.
Michael Smith, who owns the Burnmouth Fishings, by Stanley, on the River Tay, said he had been through a year of hell, culminating in a trial at Perth Sheriff Court.
The 62-year-old Kinross man stood accused of killing two cormorants by repeatedly firing a shotgun at them.
However, depute fiscal Rebecca Kynaston brought day three of evidence to an early close, telling Sheriff Robert McCreadie she no longer sought a conviction.
Ms Kynaston admitted the Crown had been “struggling with the issue of identification,” as witnesses were unable to corroborate Mr Smith was responsible.
During the first day of evidence, the court heard from plumber Stuart Miller, who was working near the River Tay when he heard a gunshot.
He heard a second shot around five minutes later and saw what he thought looked like a shotgun being discharged from a small boat on the river.
He told the court he saw an injured bird in the water and looked on as a man in the boat pointed the gun at the bird before firing for a third time.
However, he was unable to identify Mr Smith as the gunman.Bad bloodThe Crown’s case foundered on the fact that the sole witness to do so was ex-gamekeeper Anthony James (25), forced to defend himself from accusations his evidence was coloured by bad blood between himself and Mr Smith.
He told the court he had been working outside his parents’ home at Stanley when he heard a shot from the riverbank.
Mr James claimed he had gone to investigate and had seen Mr Smith shoot a bird from the air.
He later admitted that Mr Smith had once reported him to the authorities for shooting wild ducks, though he had not committed any offence, but denied this had influenced his evidence.
Sheriff McCreadie acquitted Mr Smith, commenting that in addition to issues with “identification,” he believed there were “serious problems with the reliability of two witnesses.”
Speaking outside the court yesterday a delighted Mr Smith said, “I am very relieved that this is all over. I have maintained my innocence throughout and the judgement has finally been correct.
“I’ve had a horrible year because of this and I am glad it is now behind me.”
Though he has consistently denied shooting the birds, Mr Smith did say that cormorants were a significant issue for businesses such as his.
“Cormorants are a marine predator that we are now seeing cause significant damage to most of Scotland’s inland fisheries,” he said. “This is a problem that has been recognised by the European Union.
“There have been major problems on Loch Leven, for example, where a survey carried out (over) 10 years revealed that while anglers were catching around 8000 trout each year, cormorants were consuming around 80,000.”