Axe-attack thug sent packing by hero shopkeeper

Ruari Campbell, 43, was running the grocery shop in Edinburgh with a teenage assistant when serial offender Sean McLoughlin lost the plot over its failure to sell the tonic wine.

The drunken madman then pulled an axe from his sleeve before walking behind the counter and grabbing a bottle of vodka.

Mr Campbell said his first concern was putting his body between the armed robber and a terrified 17-year-old female staff member.

He said: “He grabbed the vodka and some coke and said ‘it’s mine’.

“I took a step towards forward to stop him and he drew the axe from his sleeve and waved it about.

“I wanted him focused on me not my young colleague behind the till. She is only 17 and I didn’t know how she would react so I had to protect her.”

CCTV footage from the store shows McLoughlin swinging the axe wildly, inches from Mr Campbell’s face, before slicing through several juice bottles on his way out and spraying liquid everywhere.

Mr Campbell said: “I decided my life wasn’t worth a bottle of vodka and a six-pack of coke so I let him go but followed him straight out the door.”

The police were called as Mr Campbell gave chase.

McLoughlin was arrested minutes later just 100 yards away – drinking the stolen vodka on a park bench.

He was jailed for 16 months after pleading guilty to the attack. But Mr Campbell last night slammed the sentence as too lenient.

“He should thank his lucky stars he got off so lightly,” he said. “He should have got five years but now he will be out in less than a year.”

“I never want to see his face again but it looks like I will be seeing him a lot sooner than I thought. Justice has not been served.”

McLoughlin had seven previous convictions and had to pay £2,000 compensation to one victim for severe wounding.

His lawyer said he had a history of depression and alcoholism and had been drinking for two days before the attack.

The experience last November left Mr Campbell a nervous wreck, while his teenage co-worker was so shaken she quit a few days later. He said he would wake up screaming in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and was only able to come back to work after the shop’s owners, Londis, offered counselling.

“I was like a meerkat on the shop floor, the store I had worked in for five years no longer felt safe,” he said.

“For six weeks I hid in the office but I knew I had to get back out there if I was ever going to get better,” he said.

Mr Campbell said he still has flashbacks and recurring nightmares that interrupt his sleep,but the trauma is now manageable.

The controversial drink – often referred to as Buckie – was linked to 7,000 crimes in Scotland during the three years leading up to 2013.

Distributors J Chandler and Co said the drink, made by monks in Devon, had been unfairly singled out.

“It is the individual’s choice to commit a crime, it is nothing to do with Buckfast,” a spokesman for the firm has previously said.

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