Gunman who spent 19 years on the run remanded in custody

A farmer’s son who spent 19 years hiding in plain sight after a shooting incident outside a village pub was behind bars last night.

Paul Hill, 32, fled to England, Ireland and the Channel Islands after the incident outside the Falls of Dochart Inn, Killin, and even returned to Scotland while on the run to nurse his mother who was dying of cancer.

In all that time he never came to the attention of police, and finally handed himself in last year when it became clear his father, too, was old and ailing.

He was released on Lord Advocate’s bail in February and immediately got a job – managing the Falls of Dochart Inn.

Ashley Edwards QC, prosecuting, said the incident occurred in Gray Street, Killin, on January 14 1996.

Hill, of Killin, Perthshire, pleaded guilty to struggling with Crichton Davies, and recklessly discharging a gun, to public endangerment.

He had originally been charged with placing the loaded gun against Mr Davies’s forehead and firing it at him to his injury, permanent disfigurement, and the danger of his life, but the Crown accepted his plea to the lesser charge.

He also admitted failing to appear for a hearing at the High Court in Glasgow in February 1997, and fleeing from home, all to evade and avoid detection and arrest and with intent to pervert the course of justice.

Judge Lord Ericht revoked bail and remanded Hill in custody to the High Court in Edinburgh on November 30.

He said: “Given the nature of the offence, involving a firearm, and your failure to appear, I refuse the application for bail.”