A chef yesterday told a jury that murder accused Barry Henderson confessed to setting the fire that killed a north-east dad.
Henderson, 42, is on trial at the High Court in Glasgow accused of killing Gordon Graham and attempting to kill his wife Anne by setting a fire at a flat on High Street, Fraserburgh, in May 1998.
The Graham family, who moved to the town from Glenrothes about three years before the fatal fire, were dubbed the “family from hell”.
Yesterday, Malcolm Chalmers said he was with some friends when he came across Henderson at some point between 2003 and 2009.
Mr Chalmers – who said he was not friends with Henderson, but sold him drugs – told the court: “Barry said he and PeeWee got rid of the family from hell by killing the dad. He said they lit the fire and killed Gordon Graham.”
He said he could not remember the context of the conversation, but insisted Henderson had taken responsibility for the fire.
When asked if he went to the police with this information, Mr Chalmers said: “No, it was none of my concern if somebody is stupid enough to brag about something – whether guilty or not.”
Kareen Fraser, 44, also gave evidence in the trial yesterday and said Henderson had boasted to her about getting away with the fire.
In a police statement given in November 2009, she told officers Henderson spoke to her when they were both in a rehab clinic in Oldmeldrum in January 2008.
She told detectives: “Barry told me it was him that started the fire that killed the father of the Graham family. He was always boasting that he got away with it.
“Barry said he had done it because the Graham loons had given him a hiding the week before.”
She said she did not remember going to the police station to give the statement, but insisted it was the truth.
At the close of the Crown case, the advocate depute withdrew three charges of assaulting a woman in a nightclub, committing a breach of the peace and behaving in a threatening manner on a bus.
Henderson now only faces the murder and attempted murder charge. The trial, before Lord Ericht, continues.
