Man who shot 'good Samaritan' parish councillor 'had paranoia and thought he was a spy'

A man suspected of shooting a parish councillor in the head before being killed in a police chase had been suffering from paranoia and mistakenly believed his good Samaritan neighbour had been a “Government spy”, locals have claimed.

James Nash, 42, an artist and children’s author, remains in a critical condition in hospital after he was gunned down outside his thatched cottage in the village of Upper Enham near Andover.

One of his neighbours, 34-year-old Alex Sartain, who was suspected of carrying out the attack, using a home-made shotgun, died a short time later after his motorcycle crashed while it was being chased by police.

Locals described Mr Nash, a former aerospace worker, as a model citizen and a Good Samaritan, who may have been trying to help Mr Sartain, who had been suffering from mental health problems and had been sectioned on a number of occasions previously.

His wife, Sarah, is a leading space scientist, who was also injured in the incident, which took place on Wednesday afternoon.

Tony Bennett, 55, who owns a bodyshop and restoration business on the same road as Mr Nash said: “I saw Alex the day before and he pointed at Mr Nash’s house and said ‘they are trying to get me sectioned.’

“Because Mr Nash used to work in aerospace Alex got it in his head that this guy works for the government. He had it in his head that he was being spied on.

“A week ago Alex’s dad, John, had been trying to get him sectioned. Alex had been sectioned three times.

“On the day it happened John didn’t hear Alex go out or anything like that. His dad told me today that Alex always said he wanted to die on his motorbike."

On the day of the shooting, staff at Mr Bennett's garage heard Mr Sartain driving up and down the road before they heard a muffled ‘bang, bang’.

He said:  “Some of my guys who were working heard some sort of muffled bang bang, it didn’t really sound like a gunshot.

“They had heard Alex driving up and down on his motorbike. He went past James’s - must have seen him in the garden and came back up.

“The next thing they knew the ambulance had turned up.”

Mr Sartain is understood to have lived with his father, who runs a motorcycle repair business, and another brother.

His mother, Christine moved to Spain a number of years ago with two of his other siblings, but she passed away in 2012 following a battle with cancer.

Mr Nash’s mother, Gillian, last night said her son is a kind and gentle person who always went out of his way to help others.

Speaking at her home in Sherborne, Dorset, she said he had never mentioned any sort of dispute with anyone in his village.

She said: “I don’t know anything about him (Sartain). James never mentioned him. He’s not the sort of person he would know.

“He’s helped a lot of people with a lot of difficulties so it might be someone he tried to help but he never mentioned him.

“He’s still fighting for his life, we haven’t heard anything yet. My husband is not well so my daughter has gone to the hospital today but she doesn’t know anything more yet.

“There’s no words basically. He’s a kind, gentle person. I can’t imagine why this would happen.“

A biography for Mr Nash - who is originally from Dorset - states that in 2012 he 'returned to the countryside to follow his heart and become a full time wildlife artist' following 'a successful career in the aerospace industry'.

His wife, Dr Nash, works as a senior space scientist in a research lab in Didcot, Oxfordshire.