UK NEWS

I HAD TO CHOOSE BETWEEN VICTIM AND MY MONKEYS

Police informed them that Mr Rose was missing

Friday February 5,2010

By Wilma Riley

A MAN accused of murdering a love rival on a tiny Orkney island once threatened to shoot him, a court heard yesterday.

Margaret Johnston said her former partner, John Campbell, also hurled tiles at the alleged victim, Robert Rose.

Ms Johnston told the High Court in Glasgow that Campbell with whom she had a child, kept a replica pistol, which he referred to as “Browny” or “Mr Brownie”, under his bed but no one knew it was an imitation.

But she denied that nude photographs taken on a mobile phone were ever sent to Campbell, who was known as “Monkey Man” after re-homing animals used for medical research.

The witness admitted sending intimate snaps of herself to the dead man after she moved from Sanday to the mainland but maintained they were not intended to goad Mr Campbell.

Giving evidence, Ms Johnston, 34, said she began seeing Mr Rose, 54, known as “Black Bob”, after her relationship with Campbell ended.

The mother-of-three moved to the isolated spot with Campbell to care for their animals, five monkeys and two marmosets.

The jury heard that she spent a couple of nights at Mr Rose’s home before returning to Campbell because she missed the monkeys. She said: “I made a choice between Bob and the monkeys.”

She was asked by Campbell’s defence counsel, Donald Findlay QC, about a clash between Campbell and Mr Rose.

She said: “Mr Campbell kept a replica gun under the mattress which he threatened to go after Mr Rose with. No one knew it was a replica gun.”

The witness added that in another incident, Campbell threw ceramic floor tiles at Mr Rose in the bathroom of his property, Telegraph Cottage.

She said her “volatile” relationship with Campbell was over.

Before leaving Sanday in February or March last year Ms Johnston said she took out a loan of £10,000 to buy the monkeys from Campbell and made arrangements for them to be transported down south but had to sell them when she could not find suitable accommodation.

She told Alex Prentice QC, prosecuting, that Campbell drove her and her children to the ferry as she left Sanday.

Later, she got a phone message from police saying that Mr Rose was missing.

Campbell, 59, and Stephen Crummack, 51, deny murder, stealing the deceased’s wallet and burying his remains in dunes.

Father-of-three, Mr Rose, a construction industry worker, was originally from Rotherham, Yorkshire.

The trial continues.

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