Man tried to buy gun after Dunblane research

James Maxwell was jailed for five years at the High Court in Edinburgh

A man who carried out an online search on the Dunblane school shooting and tried to buy a handgun and bullets from the USA has been jailed for five years.

James Maxwell, 28, from Fife, paid £1,000 in cryptocurrency to buy the pistol and 100 rounds of ammunition.

His plans were thwarted when US law enforcement officers intercepted the package and alerted Police Scotland.

Officers arrested Maxwell in January after he took possession of a dummy package at his home in Fife.

Maxwell was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh after he admitted purchasing and attempting to acquire and possess a prohibited weapon between 1 December 2022 and 11 January 2023.

He also admitted buying and attempting to acquire and possess the ammunition and attempting to import the firearm and bullets without lawful authority.

The court heard Maxwell, who lived in Leven, had tried to purchase a Glock 17 handgun and 100 rounds of 9mm, hollow-pointed bullets.

But a package containing the weapon and bullets was intercepted on 9 January by US authorities examining outbound mail.

It was addressed to Maxwell and contained a household electronic device. The gun, a magazine and two boxes of ammunition were found hidden inside the device.

Maxwell tried to purchase a Glock handgun, similar the one pictured.

The US officers contacted Police Scotland and the ordered item was delivered to his home address two days later after the pistol and bullets were removed.

When police officers arrived they found Maxwell was using a laptop with an instruction manual for a Glock firearm.

Maxwell claimed to be suffering from poor mental health and said he had researched how to source a gun and bullets while feeling suicidal.

Prosecuting, Advocate Depute Richard Goddard KC said Maxwell had stopped feeling suicidal but did not think he was able to cancel the order.

Mr Goddard said the laptop was examined and searches were found including "best suicide method" and "suicide by gunshot UK".

He added: "However, other searches included the words 'primary school in Glasgow', 'Dunblane school massacre', 'when do schools break up for Christmas 2022?'."

The Dunblane massacre in 1996 saw lone gunman Thomas Hamilton murder 16 children and a teacher in the gym of their primary school. He then turned the gun on himself.

Child pornography

Police later discovered Maxwell had used his phone to search for and access child pornography.

He had accessed almost 200 files with names referencing child sexual abuse and extreme pornography. He admitted making an indecent image of a child and possession of extreme pornography.

Defence counsel Jonathan Crowe said Maxwell had a "troubled upbringing" and there was a significant life-changing event for him when he was aged 13 when his father took his own life.

He said Maxwell stopped going to school and added: "He did not return to secondary school and as a result missed out on most, if not all, of his secondary education.

"He has never attended college. He has never been in employment. He has sustained this very odd and isolated existence with extremely limited contact with the outside world," he added.

Maxwell was sentenced to five years in prison followed by a further four-year period when he will be on licence and can be returned to prison if he breaches its conditions.

The Judge, Lord Ericht, said: "The ammunition you ordered was far in excess of the amount necessary to kill yourself. You ordered 100 rounds.

"The ammunition you ordered was of a specific type which was not necessary to kill yourself. It was hollow point, live ammunition. Hollow point ammunition is designed to cause greater injury than standard ammunition.

"One hundred rounds of that kind of ammunition used against school pupils would have been an unimaginable horror," he added.

Maxwell, who followed the sentencing proceedings via a live link to prison, was told he will be on the sex offenders register for seven years.