An Italian tourist who fatally shot a childhood friend in Perthshire has told jurors he had to be persuaded by the victim to join the fateful hunting trip.
Reluctant gunman Franco Moroni said his passion had been picking porcini mushrooms with Marco Cavola, who he killed on a pigeon hunting trip near Dundee in 2019.
He told jurors the men, both from Lariano in the province of Rome, had been friends since childhood and when seasons permitted, he would forage for mushrooms and Mr Cavola would hunt during the same trips.
Moroni has admitted firing the shot which killed his friend on March 24 2019 but denies culpable homicide.
Father-of-four Moroni, who works in a family paint shop in his home town which he opened in 1984, said his marriage had broken down since the tragedy.
He told jurors he had not cut his hair since the shooting four years ago as he is ashamed to show his face in his hometown.
Reluctant hunter
In the witness box, Moroni said: “I like to go and collect porcini mushrooms. It’s my passion.”
He said he’d done so since he was a child with various people.
“Marco was one of these people.
“I’ve always known him since we were young, since we were children.
“Marco was passionate about hunting and mushrooms. I was never passionate about hunting.”
Moroni said Onorio Galoni – the third man on the fateful trip to Scotland – was more a friend of Mr Cavola’s.
He confirmed the two had travelled abroad to hunt before, in both Scotland and Spain.
Moroni, 62, told jurors he had never been to Scotland before the tragic visit in 2019.
He only committed to the trip 15 days before.
“Marco convinced me to go with him for these four or five days.
“Because I’m not very passionate about hunting, I didn’t want to come very much.
“But Marco is very good at involving people and persuading people so I agreed to go along with him.”
Moroni said he had shot two or three times before, with moving, non-living targets, similar to clay pigeon shooting but it had been between 15 and 20 years before the trip.
He explained after getting a taxi to their cottage accommodation near Kirriemuir on the morning they arrived in Scotland, shooting agent Peter Bruce drove them to another field that afternoon to shoot.
Moroni said he only took two or three shots and did not hit anything.
The next morning, the men were picked up by Mr Bruce and taken to the field at Rossie Estate, near Inchture.
He said he only took four or five shots, again failing to strike any pigeons.
The fatal shot
He said: “We were in the hide and I was sitting down because I didn’t feel comfortable with the situation.
“Marco told me to stand up and to shoot.
“I didn’t like the situation there. I said ‘you enjoy yourself and shoot’ but I wasn’t comfortable with the situation.
“At a certain point, a bird came across from left to right and Marco shot three times.
“He told me ‘shoot, shoot, shoot’ and he got down.
“At that point I rose to move forward and shoot and then he also got up at that point.
“He did the movement so quick, lowering himself and getting up again. I’m not sure how many cartridges he loaded.
“At that stage he’d got up.
“I turned around to shoot and then at than point it happened, what happened.”
Single gun claim
Moroni said: “I was screaming for Onorio.
“When this incident happened, Peter… told us to say there had just been one rifle at the shoot, before the police arrived.
“He said to say one rifle, he said it to everyone.
“On the 25th, I said a lie, that I said there was only one rifle.
“I was in such a state of shock that I would have said anything that they told me to say.”
He will be cross-examined by advocate depute Michael Meehan on Thursday morning.
The trial, before Lord Clark, continues.
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