Portmahomack hotelier "petrified" by alleged arson attacks
AN Easter Ross hotelier broke down in tears yesterday as she told a court she was left "petrified" after a string of suspicious fires at her premises.
Elizabeth Morris who runs Portmahomack’s Castle Hotel said she believed the lives of her family and guests were endangered by the series of alleged arson attacks outside her hotel in the summer of 2012.
Mrs Morris gave evidence at the Tain Sheriff Court trial of a former neighbour, Alistair Duncan, accused of torching her BMW car and setting fire to a wheelie bin and wood store at the rear of her premises.
Duncan (44) now of Seaforth Road, Tain, denies on various occasions between July and August 2012 willfully setting fire to a wheelie bin, a metal bin, logs and kindling at the castle Hotel and on August 3 setting a fire with two firelighters on the bonnet of Mrs Morris’s car, causing damage to the vehicle.
Sheriff David Sutherland also heard evidence from Mrs Morris’s stepson and her barman who told the trial they saw a man on CCTV trying to ignite the wheelie bin one night in August. When they caught up with him they found it was Duncan.
Duncan has lodged a special defence of alibi.
The court has heard there is agreed evidence that there were a series of fires started in the bins and Mrs Morris’s car was damaged between July 22 and August 19 of 2012.
Mrs Morris, who has owned the hotel for six years, said the bins had been set on fire 10 or 11 times then her car was set alight.
She described in evidence how, one night in August a CCTV camera had been installed targeting the bin which had already been torched that night.
She said they suspected after the police and fire brigade left it could be targeted again. About 1am a man in a hooded top was seen crouching beside the bin trying to ignite it with either a lighter or matches.
Mrs Morris said although Duncan was a neighbour she had never spoken to him during her time at the hotel.
She could not say it was him that she saw on the CCTV that night because the person was wearing a hooded top.
However, she said her stepson Lee and barman Craig Wightman left the premises to pursue the man after they saw him trying to ignite the bin for a second time that night.
Breaking down in tears when cross-examined by Duncan’s solicitor Ken Ferguson, Mrs Morris said: "We even had the letter box taped up because we were petrified. I had three children staying with me and an elderly couple who were guests. I have lost a lot of business over this."
She said after the fire brigade left that night they ‘had a feeling’ something else was going to happen.
The CCTV was set up and with her barman, her stepson and others and they watched the TV screen in the darkened bar.
She said she got the "shock of her life" when she was told it was Duncan.
On one occasion she told Sheriff David Sutherland her 15-year-old son’s bedroom was filled with smoke from a fire set among logs at the rear of the premises.
Mrs Morris’s stepson Lee (37) and barman Craig Wightman (32) told the court they ran out separate doors at the hotel and caught the man nearby at the entrance to a local swing park.
Lee Morris, cross-examined by Mr Ferguson, admitted to having convictions for shoplifting, drug dealing and perjury. He also admitted he had been convicted of assaulting Duncan that night.
Mr Wightman described in evidence how he had gone out of the front door of the hotel after seeing the man attempting to light the bin again.
He said the man ran away when he opened the hotel door and he pursued him and rugby tackled him.
Lee Morris had gone out the kitchen door of the hotel and they all met up at the entrance to the swing park where he said he rugby tackled Duncan and removed the hood.
The trial continues.
