Man is charged with making death threat against Moray MP Douglas Ross
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A man has been charged with making an online death threat against Moray MP Douglas Ross.
Police Scotland have confirmed that a 63-year-old man has been arrested and charged with threatening to shoot Mr Ross in the head.
The same man has also been charged with issuing a death threat to the former MP George Galloway.
The Moray politician, who leads the Scottish Conservative party, said he had not intended to make the incident public.
However, he was led to mention his own personal experience during a parliamentary debate on Scottish independence.
This happened after another MP talked of how two members of the public who had started a petition wished to remain anonymous because they were afraid of reprisals.
Speaking this morning, Mr Ross said: "My wife is a police officer and, although heavily pregnant, she was on duty on Saturday night.
"I was in bed asleep when my mobile began to ring.
"When I realised it was a police officer on the other end of the line my first reaction was that something must have happened to Krystle."
Mr Ross had read about Mr Galloway's experiences in the newspapers.
However, he was unaware he'd also been targeted until receiving the phone call on Saturday night.
Mr Ross added: "The police stated that a man from the Borders had been arrested for making a death threat against George Galloway.
"Officers had then checked back through his online activity and also found a similar threat against myself.
"Do I take it seriously? Well, not in the sense that I think he was going to travel up to Moray to kill me.
"But when I heard in Parliament about people wanting to stay anonymous because they were scared, it triggered something in me.
"We still need to do so much better.
"It is possible to strongly disagree with someone and have very robust discussions without things having to descend to this level."
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "A 63-year-old man has been arrested and charged for offensive communication.
"He has been released on an undertaking to appear in court at a later date."
During the debate, Mr Ross stated: "I must say it hit home to me when the member [Labour MP Chris Evans] opening this debate said that the petitioner and the lead petitioner wish to remain anonymous because of the state of the debate of Scottish politics right now, on a day I found out from police that someone has been charged with making a very graphic death threat against myself and another Scottish politician.
"This is the state of politics in Scotland right now."
