Killer of falcon to pay for training

A PENSIONER who killed the Scottish Parliament’s “guard” falcon has been ordered by a sheriff to stump up the cost of training a new one.

Pigeon fancier Andrew Hutchison was found guilty before Christmas of shooting the bird with an air rifle.

Yesterday, when he appeared for sentence at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, Hutchison, a 67-year-old retired miner with chronic lung disease, claimed he had felled it with a single blow after hurling a hammer at it as it attacked one of his racing birds.

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He then stuffed the falcon’s corpse into a bin bag and drove away with it. Its transmitter, and one severed leg, was eventually found dumped four miles from the scene of the crime.

Sheriff Craig McSherry fined Hutchison £350, and ordered him to pay £1,500 compensation to the bird’s owners, NBC Bird and Pest Solutions.