A GUN-TOTING teacher has been suspended after he pulled a firearm on a man following a beating at the hands of a gang.
Allan Dickson, 32, fired several shots from a gas powered air pistol after he claims he was assaulted outside his Edinburgh home.
Terrified Scott Melvin – who Dickson claims attacked him – had to run to safety before he reported the weapon-wielding man to police.
Dickson has been chucked out of the school where he teaches and will now face disciplinary action after he was arrested over the incident last July.
He claims he only fired the gun to scare a gang off.
But at Edinburgh Sheriff Court he admitted two offences under the Firearms Act.
The court heard how Dickson had been on a boozy day out with workmates and got home just before midnight when he ran into Mr Melvin in Granton Mill Drive.
Beating
Fiscal depute Alasdair MacLeod said: “An altercation took place between Mr Melvin and the accused and it may well be that Dickson was assaulted.
“Mr Melvin went to a friends house where he stayed for a short time before going home, which passed where the accused lived.
“He saw the accused in his garden pointing in a manner which suggested he was holding something.
“Mr Melvin heard a shot fired and realised that the accused had a gun. He then ran to a friend’s house where he stayed for 10 to 15 minutes.
“On the way he stopped a police car and told the officer what had occurred.”
Mr MacLeod said that a friend of Dickson’s had also seen him with gun and had taken it off him before getting him home.
He said: “The accused was crying and saying that he had been beaten up. He fired three or four shots into the ground before he handed the gun over to this witness who put it in her home and took the accused home.
“She said that the accused was very drunk and she had never seen him like that before.”
Police interviewed Dickson and he said he had tried to scare Mr Melvin off after being beaten-up by a gang.
Mr MacLeod said: “He said he had arrived home about midnight and was leaving a taxi when he became aware of about eight males who were approaching him and calling him names.
“He detailed an assault on himself and said he then got the air pistol and admitted discharging a number of shots into the air and into the ground.
“He said in his interview it was his intention just to frighten them.”
Lethal
Mr MacLeod said the 45mm pistol was powered by carbon dioxide and held a cartridge of eight shots.
He added: “The pistol is sufficiently powerful to be described as a firearm. It has the potential to cause lethal injury.”
Dickson’s solicitor, Fiona MacDonald, said her client had been suspended from the school where he teaches and will face disciplinary action when the court case is finished.
Sheriff Derrick McIntyre deferred sentence for reports and Dickson will return to court next month.
He was granted bail.
