A pair of failed extortionists have been jailed for threatening to abduct a Fife man’s children, rape his wife and calling an undertaker to collect a child’s body at his home.
Scott Colville and David McCallum were found guilty of attempting to extort £20,000 from their victim following a jury trial.
The duo, both from Ayr, were also convicted of trying to obtain £5,000 from another man by threatening to assault him and his family.
At Dunfermline Sheriff Court on Friday, Sheriff Charles Macnair told them: “The threats which were made to the complainers and their families were extreme… including extreme violence including threats to rape.
“You phoned a funeral director to arrange collection of a child’s body from (the victim’s) address.
“You threatened to abduct his children and indicated you had photographs of them and threatened to assault him.”
The sheriff added: “These were high-end threats for the purpose of obtaining significant sums of money.
“I have no idea why you carried out the offences – only you can say that and you have declined to do so.
“You say you did not do it. Well, 15 jurors decided otherwise.”
‘Play stupid games, get stupid prizes’
The sheriff jailed McCallum for three years and Colville for two years and nine months.
The court heard Colville had a drugs supply conviction from 2005 and McCallum, a self-employed roofer, had a previous conviction for assault in 2006.
Speaking outside court after the sentencing, one of the victims said: “Justice has prevailed and we’re so glad the jury saw common sense.
“If they had been given community service, who is to say they would not do it again and make things more watertight next time?
“If you play stupid games, you get stupid prizes”.
‘Three years of hell’
The man, a roofer from West Fife, told The Courier previously he and his wife were given security locks by police to fit under their door handle and on their letterbox after reporting the threatening phone calls.
His wife said she was given a tracker and still looks over her shoulder in fear when out in the streets.
At the time, she also used a security code word on the phone whenever communicating with CID to make sure she knew who she was speaking to.
The couple said at one point they received a phone call from someone at a local funeral director saying they had been told to send a hearse to pick up a child’s body at their address.
They said they received dozens of threatening calls but did not know why they had been targeted.
On Friday, the woman said: “I did not think they would have been jailed for that long.
“I was happy they were found guilty
“This has been three years of hell for us.”
Jury reached verdict in just 45 minutes
Following a four-day trial in October Colville, 43, and McCallum, 39, were found guilty of making phone calls to the man, threatening that unless he paid them £20,000 they would abduct his children and assault him and his family.
The charge stated they had obtained photos of his children and said they would rape his wife and called a funeral director to falsely arrange collection of a child’s body from his address.
The pair were also found guilty of making threatening phone calls to another man, saying unless he paid them £5,000 they would assault him and his family.
The offending took place between July 3 and 8 in 2019.
A jury deliberated for about 45 minutes before returning unanimous guilty verdicts on both charges.
DNA linked to phones
During the trial, the jury heard recordings of phone calls containing the sick threats.
A pair of Fife-based police officers spoke of recovering four mobile phones and a SIM card from a bin store in Ayr’s Churchill Towers – where Colville was living at the time – as part of their enquiries, on July 12 2019.
In his closing submissions to the jury, fiscal depute Alistair McDermid focused on a small Nokia ‘burner’ phone – one of those found by police in the Churchill Towers bin store – which was known to be used in the crime.
A forensic biologist, employed by the Scottish Police Authority, told the trial traces of Colville’s and McCallum’s DNA were found on the buttons.
Mr McDermid said the burner was used to phone a taxi firm to book a taxi on July 2 2019.
The fiscal said there were similarities in the language used by the person in the taxi calls, specifically use of the word ‘poppet,’ to the language made in one of the calls to a victim.
He also referred to another phone recovered from McCallum’s car which showed a deleted contact for one of the victims.
Mr McDermid said: “That, again, is massively incriminating when taken together with the rest of the circumstances in this case”.
‘No blood spilled’
Defence advocate Duncan McPhie, representing Colville, said his client’s last conviction was 14 years ago and that he was given a positive social work report ahead of sentencing which described him as “low risk”.
The lawyer also said, while not wishing to minimise the crimes, there was “no blood spilled” and that no money was paid or threats carried out.
Mr McPhie said Colville maintains his denial of involvement in any of the crimes.
The advocate representing McCallum, pointed out the crime was attempted extortion and no money was ever handed over.
