A former hospitality manager sparked a major incident at a Scottish holiday resort after building a nail bomb – with SUGAR.
Mark Crockett made the explosive device after checking into a chalet at Logierait Pine Lodges complex near Pitlochry in Perthshire in February.
The 53-year-old wrote a suicide note and also penned a letter to police explaining how the nail bomb had been constructed.
But concerned staff called out paramedics before the suicidal 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 out 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.
Crockett, of Falkirk, admitted making an improvised explosive device, known as a nail bomb, with the intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property when he appeared at the High Court in Aberdeen today.
He also pled guilty to being in possession of morphine, cannabis and Tramadol.
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 February 2 he headed off on a pre-booked two-day trip to stay in a chalet at Logierait holiday lodges complex near Pitlochry.
Staff realised that he had not checked out of the lodge on the day he was supposed to leave.
Paramedics were then called out at about 4:30pm when they discovered his head injury on February 4 and the police were later contacted.
Glue, screws and a metal container filled with sugar and a firework substance 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 – because the mixture contained too much sugar.
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.
When Crockett was arrested, he told officers: “It’s a shame I did not get those b******s. It ain’t over yet.”
Yesterday defence lawyer Tony Lenehan said his client, who once worked as the hospitality manager for the Royal Bank of Scotland HQ, 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.”
Mr Lenehan said it was clear from expert examinations that the device would only have burned sporadically and was never likely to be viable.
Sentence was yesterday deferred until January 7 at the High Court in Livingston.
