Couple helped Real IRA gun runner

The couple appeared at the High Court in Glasgow

A couple have pleaded guilty to hiding a sawn-off shotgun and ammuniton for a Real IRA arms smuggler.

Peter Butchart and his estranged wife Margaret kept the weapon in a child's bedroom in Glasgow for Gerald Donnelly.

Donnelly was jailed for 12 years for having one of Scotland's largest illegal weapons caches. His accomplice Kenneth Murray was jailed for seven years.

Police nicknamed the pair Dumb and Dumber because of the way they drew attention to themselves while staying at the Cameron House Hotel at Loch Lomond.

Donnelly was found with a haul of weapons

At Glasgow Sheriff Court on Wednesday, Peter Butchart, 30, and his 29-year-old estranged wife admitted firearms offences.

Police acting on a tip-off moved in on the man's home in the Easterhouse area of the city and found the gun, ammunition and a boiler suit in a bag.

Margaret Butchart told police that she was hiding the firearm for Donnelly and decided to place it in her husband's house.

Depute fiscal Kay Potter said: "A holdall containing a shotgun, nine shotgun cartridges and a bolier suit was found in a child's bedroom.

"Police checked the sawn-off shotgun to find it was well oiled and perfect working order.

"Mrs Butchart told officers that she was keeping it for a few days for another man who was going to pay her for it."

Stretch limousines

Margaret Butchart's defence solicitor, Vincent Smith, said the man concerned was Donnelly.

Donnelly and Murray were apprehended after police descended on Cameron House Hotel and were convicted last March.

Far from being discreet, the shellsuit-clad pair had been hiring stretch limousines and prostitutes and their behaviour caught the attention of staff.

They were caught with £500,000 worth of heroin, £40,000 in cash and a cache of semi-automatic weapons.

Sheriff Kearney deferred sentence on the Butcharts pending reports.