A MAN who saw his father blasted to death by a gunman who then turned the weapon on himself has said he understands why the killer was driven to his actions.

John Thompson, 38, was shot in the legs during the incident in which his father Peter was murdered by Robert McCormick, 53.

Mr Thompson Snr was killed instantly and McCormick died after shooting himself in the chest at the Thompsons' Meadowhead Farm in Auldhouse, Lanarkshire, in August 2013.

Mr Thompson has now admitted his "greedy" father had blown £300,000 in four years on expensive cars and following Formula 1 across the world and failed to repay McCormick a £156,000 loan.

McCormick's will later revealed he had debts of £147,366.14 and had not paid council tax for four years.

Mr Thompson, who has two children of his own, said: "No matter what my dad or anyone else did, no one deserves what happened to him. It's not the Wild West, you shouldn't be running about shooting people.

"But I can understand why Robert did what he did - he was about to lose everything."

Mr Thompson Snr, 59, had been granted permission for an equestrian centre at the farm in 2000 and set up a landfill business to create a surface for the arenas but was fined £10,000 by South Lanarkshire Council in 2012 for illegally dumping waste.

His son has claimed he has been left to deal with 300,000 tons of debris left at the site that is being probed by officials from environmental watchdog Sepa.

He said: "What was meant to be a good development for the family and earn us a shilling or two has turned out to be anything but.

"I am angry at the amount of money that has been squandered - at least £300,000 between 2008 and 12 - and, if my father hadn't lived beyond his means by buying fancy cars, following the Grand Prix around the world and paying for a huge wedding to his ex-wife, this all could have been very different.

"At the end of the day your dad will always be your dad and you love him no matter what, but there was no excuse for it other than he was greedy and put money in his pocket to the detriment of the local environment and area."

Mr Thompson said he was not involved in the initial licensing applications for the landfill business.

"I thought I was only helping my dad out - if you are told to do something by your dad and it's all properly licensed, you do it," he said.

"Of course I knew there were some materials which shouldn't have been dumped on site but I was completely unaware the extent of it - or how long it went on for. It continued after my dad was fined £10,000 by the council, something I didn't realise at the time.

"That fine was never paid either as my dad put the business into liquidation and formed a new one. Since I took over the operation, everything has been above board and no material has come on site which wasn't properly licensed."

Mr Thompson has said he will be abandoning efforts to set up the equestrian centre.

He added: "I foolishly thought I could turn a bad situation into a good one and get the equestrian centre up and running but it's beyond me and all I can do is now walk away with nothing.

"The 14-acre site, which my dad was fined for, has a colossal amount of waste in it - at least 300,000 tonnes and a smaller five or six acres with fly tipping waste in it.

"I won't walk away and leave it as it is, I will flatten the ground, but for my family's sake I can't do it any more."

A Sepa spokesman said: "Since January 2015, Sepa has received complaints from members of the public which allege that large quantities of unauthorised waste are being deposited at this site and Sepa is currently undertaking enquiries into these allegations."