6 hours Ago By Jenni Gee
A teenager has gone on trial accused of starting a fire that engulfed and destroyed Poundland in Elgin. The 17-year-old boy – who cannot be named for legal reasons – is alleged to have set fire to female products on the shelves in the High Street shop on August 12 2022. The teen – who denies a charge of culpable and reckless fireraising – has lodged a special defence of incrimination, claiming that a teenage girl was instead responsible for the catastrophic blaze.
In evidence led by fiscal depute Susan Love, Poundland worker Julie Sherwin told the jury at Inverness Sheriff Court that staff were preparing to close the store when the fire was spotted. She said: “I got called by my supervisor to leave the building because there was a fire.” The jury heard a customer in a wheelchair was also in the store when the evacuation began.
Once outside, Ms Sherwin said: “I just heard the pops and bangs and it exploded.” A teenage witness, who had been in the company of the accused in the moments after the fire, said he overheard the boy, who was 15 at the time, telling another youth “he had set fire to tampons” and “he didn’t think it would catch”. The charge alleges the fire spread to adjacent products, including aerosol canisters, and took effect, ultimately destroying Poundland and causing damage to nearby buildings.
The jury was also played CCTV footage from the store, in which the accused was identified as being one of a number of people in the health and beauty aisle minutes before the fire. Fire investigator Martin Rowland confirmed that the footage showed the accused near to the spot where the fire was believed to have started. Police special constable Kevin Willetts, who had been on patrol that evening, told the court how he saw the female named in the incrimination defence running from the High Street shortly before the blaze became apparent.
Under questioning from defence advocate Bill Adam he said she later returned to the cordon set up around the scene. “She came up to me and said it was her that had run off and said it wasn’t her who started the fire,” Mr Willetts told the jury. He confirmed that it was following this interaction he reported her actions to the sergeant on the scene.
The trial, before Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald, continues..
