Pair deny setting fire to derelict Perth hotel

COURT: Men admit being in building but claim they may not have been alone

I noticed therewerea couple of individuals on the gantry on the upper level of the hotel

Two men sat and smoked cigarettes in a derelict Perth hotel, minutes before it was engulfed in flames, a jury has heard.

A Bible study group raised the alarm when they saw smoke billowing from the roof of the Waverley building.

The hotel, which is owned by Anne Gloag, one of Scotland’s richest women, was left extensively damaged.

James McCrory, 20, and Liam Gall, 18, have gone on trial at Perth Sheriff Court accused of setting fire to the York Street venue on November 17 2015.

The pair deny the allegation that they wilfully set fire to pieces of paper and other flammable materials on the second floor, whereby the fire took effect and the hotel and its contents were damaged.

They also deny an alternative charge alleging they culpably and recklessly set fire to pieces of paper, furniture and other flammable items within a secondfloor room, causing a fire that destroyed the hotel and its contents.

Gall, of Ochil Cottage, Perth, told police that he and McCrory had been inside the hotel, having a cigarette.

“After we had finished them, we just threw them away,” he said.

“It looked like they had already burnt out.”

He told Detective Constable Stanley Gilmour that the cigarettes may have dropped on to a box of plastic spoons which had been emptied on to the floor.

Gall claimed there was another person in the hotel.

“You could hear the noises and creaks of people moving,” he said to police.

Mr Gilmour, 31, said that McCrory had earlier said to police: “We didn’t mean to set anything on fire.”

Witness Kenneth Drennan, 18, said he had been at the hotel with friends McCrory and Liam in the early evening, before the fire.

He said they had climbed up steps to get to a skylight, where they could peer inside.

“I’m kind of scared about abandoned buildings, so I stayed outside,” Mr Drennan said.

He said he could see an old sofa and ripped up carpets in a room below.

“There was a big box of plastic spoons which had been tipped out,” he said. “They had been spilt all over the floor.” Mr Drennan said he later heard from Gall that fire investigators cited plastic spoons as the “main reason” the fire had spread.

The court heard the three men had a cigarette as they sat on the hotel roof.

He said the cigarettes were stubbed out and dropped down a drainpipe.

They met Mr Drennan’s girlfriend and, at about 8.30pm, Mr Drennan walked her home.

Mr Drennan said he later heard from Gall that he and McCrory had gone back to the hotel later that evening.

Electrical engineer Calum Jardine, 28, told the court he had attended a Bible study group at the Trinity Church of the Nazarene, next door to the Waverley.

He said he left with his wife and two others at about 9.30pm.

“I noticed there were a couple of individuals on the gantry on the upper level of the hotel,” he said.

Moments after the men climbed down and disappeared, smoke was spotted coming from the building.

McCrory’s mother Jill, 52, said her son had broken down in tears and told her “Kenny” had started the fire.

He said that Gall had tried to extinguish it with a bottle of water.

The trial, before Sheriff Gillian Wade, continues.

Firefighters tackle the blaze at the former Waverley Hotel.