Ex-Selkirk councillor Nikolaus Wirsten threatened to shoot colleagues

Published on Wednesday 25 November 2009 20:47

A FORMER community councillor who threatened to buy a gun and storm a meeting to shoot three former colleagues has been jailed for a total of 16 months.

Nikolaus Wirsten was awaiting sentence for desecrating the grave of a councillor's teenage son when he made the startling claims to social workers.

They were so concerned for the safety of the three members of Selkirk Community Council in the Borders that they telephoned the police immediately.

Wirsten, 56, who lives with his elderly parents in Selkirk and recently failed to be re-elected to the community council, denied making the threats but was found guilty after trial at Selkirk Sheriff Court.

Social worker Morag Campbell, 38, said Wirsten told her he had suicidal thoughts and also that he intended obtaining a gun and shooting people during an interview in Scottish Borders Council offices on 28 October.

He told her that he would go along to the next meeting of Selkirk Community Council and shoot councillors Wilma Gunn, Alistair Pattullo and John Munro before turning the gun on himself.

He also said he would pay 800 for a second-hand gun and six bullets, or more than 1,000 for a new gun with seven bullets, but would need to purchase it in Edinburgh.

And he insisted he would not waste any bullets in the attack.

A police officer told the trial that Wirsten was found in possession of 700 in cash when searched and said he intended to shoot the three councillors because they hated him. He was already on bail for sending offensive emails to Kenneth Gunn, who represents Selkirk on Scottish Borders Council, when he spray-painted his 19-year-old son Cameron's grave in Shawfield Cemetery sometime between 16 September and 16 October.

Wirsten also admitted vandalising councillor Mr Gunn's car, which was parked outside his home, by spray-painting its windows on 14 September.

During the trial, his lawyer Mark Harrower put it to the witnesses that Wirsten had been "winding up" the social workers and that, as the threats were made during a private meeting behind closed doors, they did not constitute a breach of the peace.

But Wirsten was jailed for 12 months for the threats and offensive emails, and was given another four months to run consecutively for spray-painting the gravestone.

In addition, Sheriff Kevin Drummond imposed a sentence of 12 months' supervised release, a two-year criminal anti-social behaviour order and put Wirsten's name on the sex offenders' register for 10 years.