Trial for man over arson at former Tele building
A MAN is to stand trial accused of starting a fire that caused an estimated £87,000 worth of damage at the former Belfast Telegraph headquarters in Belfast city centre, a judge has ordered.
Cristian Topiter (33) also allegedly stole digital equipment after breaking into a technology hub in the Royal Avenue building now occupied by technology innovation centre Digital Catapult.
The Romanian national, with an address at Parkmore in Craigavon, Co Armagh, faces burglary and arson charges over the February 21 incident.
Appearing before Belfast Magistrates’ Court in handcuffs for a preliminary enquiry, Topiter declined to call witnesses or give evidence at this stage.
Defence representatives did not contest prosecution submissions that he has a prima facie case to answer.
On that basis District Judge Fiona Bagnall granted an application to have him returned for Crown Court trial on a date to be fixed. With no fresh bid for bail mounted during the hearing, Topiter remains in custody at this stage.
A previous court heard the blaze was allegedly started in a storeroom before spreading to other parts of the offices, with costs estimated to be in excess of £87,000. THOUSANDS of shrouded figures representing soldiers killed in the Battle of the Somme have been laid out for an art installation in London.
Artist Rob Heard hand-stitched and bound the calico covering 72,396 figures now lying on an area about the size of a football pitch at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Each 12in figure represents a named Commonwealth soldier who died on the Somme battlefields between 1916 and 1918 but has no known grave.
Volunteers and members of 1 Royal Anglian Regiment laid out the field of figures in hundreds of rows in the shadow of the London Stadium.
It took Mr Heard 18 months to create the shrouded figures, often working 12 to 14 hours a day.
He said the “absolute key” to his creation was that every figure represented a named fallen soldier.
“I found quite early on that I personally had quite a strong relationship with these men, in that I had huge lists of their names, photographs and physical figures themselves,” Mr Heard said.
“I think the idea that they are still laying out in the fields being turned by the plough each year now, if we could bring them back and lay them on home soil just one more time in a small way, I felt that was really important.”