A STUDENT who was caught with an arsenal of illegal weapons planned to kill himself if he failed his exams, a court heard yesterday.
Ramsay Scott, 20, originally claimed his interest in the firearms was in the mechanical challenge of assembling them from scratch.
However, he confessed to the suicide plan during interviews for sentencing background reports, and a judge said he n
ow wanted a full risk assessment on Scott.
Lord Uist had been told at the High Court in Edinburgh that in addition to possessing the weapons, Scott, a former pupil of Merchiston Castle school in Edinburgh, visited websites depicting scenes of extreme violence on about 1,400 occasions. One of his interests had been the 1987 Hungerford massacre in which a gunman shot dead 16 people before turning the gun on himself.
"This case is of great concern to me," Lord Uist told Scott, while remanding him in custody until a further hearing in June.
Previously, Scott, of Gosford Road, Longniddry, East Lothian, admitted a series of offences under the Firearms Act.
Customs officers at East Midlands Airport intercepted a parcel from the United States addressed to Scott's mother. It was found to contain the barrel of a Glock pistol, and Lothian and Borders Police were alerted.
Scott held a firearms licence for a rifle and silencer, but a Glock pistol was a prohibited weapon and the police went to his home to carry out a search. He confirmed he had firearms not listed on his licence, and said there were "a lot of items".
Officers saw firearms, components and ammunition scattered on the floor of his bedroom, where the curtains were pegged shut. Several potentially lethal knives were also recovered.
The court was told that the arsenal included assembled Glock and Sig Sauer pistols, parts of Colt pistols, Heckler & Koch submachine guns and Custom rifles, as well as illegal "dum dum" bullets, which expand on impact.
The dining room had been used to manufacture rifle and shotgun cartridges. Scott explained he had found a way of avoiding regulations which prevented manufacturers in the US sending components to him.
It was discovered Scott had used his mother's credit card to buy items on the internet, amounting to £20,000 in a year.
His mother had allowed her card to be used, believing Scott was making legitimate purchases.
Scott was due to be sentenced yesterday, but the defence solicitor-advocate, David Taylor, told the court that a provisional diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, had been made, and further medical investigations were required.
Mr Taylor accepted Scott had been "economical with the truth" in his motive for having the weapons. He still insisted there had been no intention to cause harm to others.
Lord Uist told Scott: "When you first pleaded guilty, it was stated on your behalf that your sole purpose in assembling the weapons was a mechanical one, because you liked making things.
"It now appears you have admitted… your intention was to commit suicide if you failed your exams, using one of the pistols you had assembled."
The full article contains 525 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
