Arson attack accused ‘had issued threats to victims’
Residents lucky to escape blaze, court is told
AN alleged Christmas Day arsonist told his intended victims he would “burn them like rats and cut their throats”, a court heard yesterday.
Ballymena Magistrates Court, sitting in Antrim, was also told that a man had to leap from a first floor window as the property was “completely burnt-out” and the front door had been barred shut on the outside.
The case against the 31-yearold accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was dealt with in his absence.
He was charged with two offences arising from the incident — arson at a property on Charles Street in Ballymoney with intent to endanger life, and making a threat to kill.
Giving evidence to the court, a detective constable said he believed he could connect the defendant to the charges.
He added that police were objecting to bail amid fears that he would commit further offences, interfere with the “petrified witnesses”, or would abscond.
Just before 9.30pm on Friday the NI Fire and Rescue Service alerted police to the blaze, saying that a male “had to jump out of the window to escape” as the front door had been locked and barred from the outside, “trapping the male inside”.
Four men lived in the house, but one of them had left before the fire was started.
That resident saw smoke and heard “shouting coming from upstairs” when he came back a short time later.
‘He said he’d burn them like rats and cut their throats’
“NIFRS have confirmed that it was a deliberate ignition and the house was completely gutted,” said the officer.
He added that four days after the incident one of the residents told police the defendant had “made threats” against them on social media and in phone calls on Christmas Eve and on the day of the fire.
“He threatened that he was ‘going to burn them like rats and cut their throats’,” claimed the detective, adding that the defendant was arrested on Wednesday.
In relation to the investigation, a detective constable said police had seized CCTV footage from the Charles Street area that showed a figure entering the property and running away around the time the fire was started.
However, he conceded that the defendant had not been formally identified from the footage yet.
Defence solicitor Derwin Harvey argued that the defendant had put forward two alibis — his mother and brother-in-law — but that due to issues with Covid the police have not been able to check them.
He added that his client had requested an identification parade.
District Judge Alan White told the solicitor he had put the case for bail “very eloquently”, and that while he accepted “there are issues around these alibis”, he was refusing bail due to the risk of further offences.
Remanding the alleged arsonist into custody, Mr White adjourned the case to January 18 in Coleraine by video-link.