Man on ‘family from hell’ fire rap
A MAN has gone on trial accused of murdering a 43-year-old man in a fire 19 years ago.
Barry Henderson, 42, is charged with killing Gordon Graham and attempting to murder his wife Anne in a blaze in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire in May 1998.
Prosecutors claim Henderson, from Fraserburgh, wilfully set fire to materials in the ground floor common stair and landing area in High Street and the blaze spread to the two flats occupied by the Graham family.
Jurors at the High Court in Glasgow were read out a joint minute of agreed facts in the case.
They were told that the Graham family were known locally as “the family from hell.”
The jury also heard that Mr Graham died of smoke inhalation and his body was scorched by fire.
At the time of his death he was “substantially under the influence of alcohol and cannabis.”
Henderson is also accused of assaulting a woman in a nightclub in Fraserburgh, by kicking her on the leg and attempting to punch her, and of committing a breach of the peace at a nearby car park on May 3, 1998.
Henderson also faces another charge that he behaved in a threatening manner on a bus between Crimond and Fraserburgh last November.
He denies all the charges against him and has lodged special defences of alibi and incrimination.
The trial continues.