A MAN has been found guilty of threatening the assassination of Scotland’s First Minister on social media.
William Curtis, 70, sent threatening messages to Nicola Sturgeon on various occasions between February 27 and March 6, 2019.
Jurors began deliberating at about midday at the High Court in Glasgow on Thursday before reaching a verdict at 12.40pm on Friday.
Jurors also ruled that Curtis and another man, Philip Mitchell, 60, assaulted and abducted a sheriff in a car park in Banff, Aberdeenshire, in June 2021.
And on March 9, 2019, Curtis also sent a threatening or abusive message to former MSP Stewart Stevenson.
His special defence of incrimination, claiming someone else committed the offence against Stevenson, was rejected by jurors.
During the trial, advocate depute Chris McKenna read out a Facebook post from an account in the name of “William Patrick Curtis” that was flagged to Sturgeon’s office manager John Skinner on March 6, 2019.
It read: “We have reason to believe while it is my intention to citizens (sic) arrest her [Sturgeon] to answer her treason, over the last three years, serious people who reel the abuse to the electorate by her criminal activities warrants assassination of her and sevreal (sic) of her ministers, on down to even civilians who work in all agenices (sic) who have repeatedly lied to the electorate and conspired with the First Minister.”
