The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Waverley Hotel fire: Charge against pair not proven.
COURT: Perth men had denied starting blaze which destroyed former hotel in city centre
A pair of Perth youths accused of burning down a hotel owned by businesswoman Ann Gloag have been acquitted.
A jury at Perth Sheriff Court took around 90 minutes to find the charge against James McCrory, 20, of Greyfriars Hostel, and Liam Gall, 18, of Ochil Cottage, not proven.
The pair had denied setting fire to pieces of paper, furniture and other flammable items in a second-floor room of the Waverley Hotel.
The venue, which was not being used after latterly serving as homeless accommodation, was gutted in a devastating blaze on the evening of November 17 2015.
During a two-day trial, the court heard Shirley Chin, a forensic chemist brought in as part of a fire investigations team to look into the cause of the blaze, concluded it had been caused by a human, but she could not establish whether it had been deliberate or was an accident.
It was also confirmed both McCrory and Gall had attended Perth police headquarters voluntarily, when the latter told detectives how the pair smoked cigarettes inside the hotel and then threw them away on to some napkins in a “living room area” of the former hotel.
Simon Guyan, 46, a fire investigations officer with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, had told the court that following observations within the building, he identified a former private staff living quarters on the second floor as being the “room of origin” of the blaze.
However he stated it was “unlikely” the fire had been caused by a cigarette.
The blaze took firefighters around five hours to extinguish, with units being called from Dundee and Dunkeld to assist Perth fire crews.
Ms Gloag’s £3.6 million plan to demolish the derelict building and build a multi-use hall and gym has been passed by Perth and Kinross Council.
A spokesperson for Ms Gloag said she did not wish to comment on the outcome of the legal trial.