A vigilante mother who abducted, bound and gagged a suspected drug dealer has been shown mercy by a sheriff after claiming it was a citizen's arrest. Linda Gowers was told she could have been sent to prison for bundling Michael Graham into a van before strapping him to a chair and binding him with duct tape.
But Sheriff Alistair Carmichael told Gowers that he was prepared to let her walk free because he had taken "the full circumstances of the case into account." He said: "This was a course of events you feel were justified morally, but perhaps not legally, and it has led to the regretful outcome that you are now in the dock.
"It's a serious crime, but there is mitigation here. Whether you feel it was justified morally or not, your actions were certainly not legally justified. It is in the custodial zone because of its seriousness, but I think I can deal with it in a non-custodial way."
