The baggage handler who earned a lifetime's supply of free beer after helping police foil last year's terror attack on Glasgow Airport has revealed that he is quitting Scotland for a new life in the USA.

John Smeaton - universally known as 'Smeato' - is joining his American girlfriend, Christy MacPhedran, in New York next month and plans to set off on a tour of the States. But the 32-year-old says he will be returning to Scotland in the future.

Speaking from his parents’ home in Erskine, Renfrewshire, Mr Smeaton said today: “I am just taking some time out and having a wee tour to see where I go from here. I am going over to let my hair down, get away from it all and assess my options.

“Scotland hasn’t seen the last of me though - I’ll be back.”

Mr Smeaton was propelled into the public eye after helping police take on a man who was in a blazing jeep which had been driven into the airport terminal on June 30 last year.

It was his comments immediately after the attack, however, that catapulted him to stardom. In a TV interview broadcast around the world, he described his feelings as he ran in and tackled the alleged terrorist: “This is Glasgow, you know - we’ll set about you.”

Quickly nicknamed 'Smeato' by the popular press, the rough and ready Scot became a hero. A website set up in his honour received half a million visits in a couple of days. Another offered the chance to buy him a pint of beer received a thousand pledges in its first 48 hours.

There was even a viral e-mail showing a picture of Osama bin Laden saying: "But I thought you told me Smeato didn't work on Saturdays?"

Mr Smeaton was publicly congratulated by Gordon Brown at last year's Labour Party conference in Bournemouth and won a string of bravery medals including, most notably, the Queen's Gallantry Medal, which he was given at Buckingham Palace in March this year.

Only this week, his name was raised as a possible Labour candidate to take on David Davisin the forthcoming by-election called by the former Shadow Home Secretary to prompt debate on the Government's counter-terror legislation.

On his personal website, Mr Smeaton already sells himself as an after-dinner speaker. He said that he had been approached by a New York agent and there was the possibility of more of the same. “We’ll just have to see what happens,” he said.

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