Police were called to the Logierait lodges after the bomb was reported
A former hospitality manager sparked a major incident at a Scottish holiday resort after building a nail bomb with sugar, a court has heard.
Mark Crockett made the explosive device after checking into a chalet at Logierait Pine Lodges near Pitlochry, Perthshire, in February.
The 53-year-old wrote a suicide note and a letter to police explaining how the nail bomb had been constructed.
Crockett, of Falkirk, admitted making the device. Sentence was deferred.
The High Court in Aberdeen heard that concerned staff called out paramedics before the caterer carried out his plan to end his own life at the holiday park.
Managers had visited his lodge when he failed to check out of the chalet and discovered he had a head injury and was under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
One of the paramedics called to the property read a note in the lodge which said: "I am dead. Please do not enter.
"There is a nail bomb on the light blue bag. This is for London Borough Barnet social services. You are blessed. Change your ways."
The holiday park was evacuated.
Metal container
Advocate depute Alyson Forbes said Crockett had contacted his local social work department and informed staff that he was not coping well at the end of 2014.
He was involved in a dispute with family and concerns were raised about his mental health. On 2 February he headed off on a two-day trip to stay in the chalet near Pitlochry.
Police were called after he was discovered in the lodge two days later.
Glue, screws and a metal container filled with sugar were recovered during a search of the lodge. The device had a fuse which could be set alight causing it to explode.
However, further examinations showed that the device would have failed to work properly.
More than 400 morphine tablets were recovered during searches of the lodge and his Falkirk home, along with cannabis and Tramadol. Some of the drugs had been prescribed to his late mother before she died in 2011.
'Inept' device
Defence lawyer Tony Lenehan said his client had reached the point of "emotional collapse" when the incident happened.
He said: "He simply went there with the intention of ending his own life with his mother's morphine tablets and he had assembled the device.
"The metal cylinder is an aftershave tin. I think it would be reasonable to describe the construction of it as somewhat inept."
Crockett also pled guilty to being in possession of morphine, cannabis and Tramadol. Sentence was deferred until 7 January.
- Published6 February 2015
