Doctor kept arms cache in plot to kill ex-colleagues
A FORMER A&E consultant who was caught with a cache of guns and an “assassination list” of colleagues was jailed yesterday for 12 years.
Martin Watt, 62, had three sub-machineguns, two pistols and 1,500 live cartridges, and had written down the names of “bad guys” he blamed for his dismissal from Monklands Hospital in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire.
He made plans to kill dozens of people and his list included addresses and car registrations for some of those he worked with.
The “template” for his plan was said to have been based on Killer Elite,a film about a group of mercenaries, starring Robert De Niro.
Watt admitted having the weapons, and carrying out target practice with a sub-machine gun, but insisted he never had any intention of killing anyone. He was sentenced after being found guilty last month of intent to endanger life.
Alex Prentice QC, prosecuting, told the High Court in Glasgow: “All this was done in preparation for an awful event. There was an intention to endanger life, it was more than mere thinking about it.”
The doctor, who spent nearly 30 years in the National Health Service, lost his job in 2012 after disciplinary hearings, and his marriage broke down around the same time.
John Scott QC, defending, urged the judge to take his client’s age and long public service into account.
Judge Lady Stacey told Watt that while he had served the community and it was “sad” to see a man who held such positions in the dock, nothing had been said to explain why he acquired a stock of weapons and ammunition at his home in Cumbernauld.
She added: “You are a well educated and intelligent man and must appreciate the law in this country around firearms is strict. These are lethal weapons.
“Not only did you have the guns, you had live ammunition. The weapons were all in working order because you reactivated them.
“The jury found you had them with intent to endanger life. I take the view you represent a danger to members of the public.
“You had researched routes to some addresses, you told the jury you practised shooting to make yourself a better marksman.”
Watt was given an extended sentence of 12 years, with a further three years of supervision. A Serious Crime Prevention Order was also granted restricting his internet use, travel and NHS visits for five years after his release from prison.
He claimed in court that he completed the “hit list” as a way of making himself feel better.
He bought decommissioned weapons legally from the Czech Republic and put them back into working order in his workshop, also making his own gun powder. The court heard he was dismissed following disciplinary procedures that he disagreed with, after being absent from work with NHS Lanarkshire when he suffered a heart attack and had surgery.
Following a failed “phased return” to work, during which there were complaints about him, he was subsequently dismissed.
‘All this was done in preparation for an awful event. There was an intention to endanger life’