Aberdeenshire pensioner found guilty of threatening to assasinate the First Minister.
The jury took just 40 minutes to reach their verdict
Last updated 3rd Feb 2023
A man has been found guilty of making a social media post threatening the assassination of Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
William Curtis, 70, sent threatening messages to Ms Sturgeon on various occasions between February 27 and March 6, 2019.
Jurors at the High Court in Glasgow also ruled that Curtis and another man, Philip Mitchell, 60, assaulted and abducted a sheriff in a car park in Banff, Aberdeenshire, in June 2021.
Curtis was also found guilty of sending or causing a threatening message to be sent to former MSP Stewart Stevenson on March 9, 2019.
His special defence of incrimination, claiming someone else committed the offence against Mr Stevenson, was rejected by jurors.
The jury began deliberating at about midday on Thursday before reaching a verdict at 12.40pm on Friday.
During the trial, advocate depute Chris McKenna read out a Facebook post from an account in the name of "William Patrick Curtis" that was flagged to Ms Sturgeon's office manager John Skinner on March 6, 2019.
It read: "We have reason to believe while it is my intention to citizens (sic) arrest her (Ms Sturgeon) to answer her treason, over the last three years, serious people who reel the abuse to the electorate by her criminal activities warrants assassination of her and sevreal (sic) of her ministers, on down to even civilians who work in all agenices (sic) who have repeatedly lied to the electorate and conspired with the First Minister."