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[1] On 9 November 2012, at the Sheriff Court in Aberdeen, the appellant was convicted by the unanimous verdict of the jury of a charge of wilful fire-raising, whereby on 10 March 2010, at an address in Udny, he set fire to a caravan. He was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment.
Evidence of fact [2] The sheriff reports that the evidence against the appellant was, in his view, overwhelming and that it was therefore no surprise that the jury had returned a unanimous verdict of guilty. Throughout the trial the position of the appellant, who did not give evidence, was to concentrate primarily on the evidence of the three expert witnesses with a view to persuading the jury that the Crown had not proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and, in particular, that the fire had been started deliberately.
[3] The sheriff expands upon this by reporting that the evidence disclosed that the appellant had been approached by an estate agent, who had become involved with the caravan owner's former wife. A witness spoke to having been present when the estate agent had sought to persuade the appellant to destroy the caravan as a punishment for his behaviour in relation to the children of the owner and his former wife. After some persuasion, the appellant had agreed to set fire to the caravan.
[5] Another witness had spoken to seeing a female heading back towards the appellant's car with a petrol can shortly prior to the fire occurring. The owner of the caravan said that, two days after the fire, he had found two Bluebell matchboxes and some matches on the ground under the caravan's burnt-out frame.
[7] The defence expert expressed the view that there was no basis for the conclusion that the fire had been started deliberately. It was not permissible for an expert to try to rely on material beyond the results of his own physical observations. He made criticisms, therefore, of the Crown experts for having not taken samples etc. His conclusion was that the Crown experts' findings were not supported by the physical evidence.
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