A man has been jailed and a woman electronically tagged after the pair set fire to a block of flats in Aberdeen.
David Tosh, 35, and Elizabeth Milne, 29, admitted filling a jerry can with petrol before taking it to the flats and deliberately starting the blaze.
Firefighters had to evacuate residents from their homes at Ash-Hill Drive, Aberdeen, as smoke began to fill the communal area of the building in the early hours of the morning.
Several people were later treated at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for smoke inhalation, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
A sheriff told the couple they were “lucky” the blaze they started hadn’t caused more serious damage or loss of life.
Fiscal depute David Rogers told the court that at around 1am on March 20 last year the couple had been picked up by a friend of a friend.
The driver was asked to take them to a petrol station on North Esplanade West before heading on to Ash-Hill Drive.
At the petrol station the driver saw Tosh purchase a coffee and a jerry can, which he filled with fuel.
“He was told the petrol was for a dirt bike and drove on towards the locus,” Mr Rogers said.
“As soon as they reached Ash-Hill Drive, the couple exited the vehicle while he stayed inside the vehicle.”
Residents awoke to landing filled with smoke
Around this time, another witness whose flat overlooked the block recalled seeing Tosh and Milne exit the vehicle and remembered the woman throwing the coffee cup away before going into the block of flats.
Two other witnesses who lived within the block of flats also heard a banging coming from the communal landing before Milne shouted “Fire! Fire!” as the fire alarm began to sound.
The man opened his front door and found the communal landing filled with smoke and called the fire brigade.
Other neighbours within the block were awoken by the sound of an alarm and found the landing full of smoke.
Still waiting outside, the driver saw Tosh and Milne run from the building and panicked – throwing the couples belonging from his vehicle and driving off.
Firefighters arrived and began evacuating the residents of the flats and extinguishing the fire.
A number of people were taken to ARI where they were treated for smoke inhalation.
An investigator for Scottish Fire and Rescue Service determined that the fire had been started outside the flats and found the remnants of a green plastic five-litre petrol can.
He deemed the fire had been started deliberately.
‘She doesn’t understand why she did it’
Police used the CCTV footage from the petrol station to trace Tosh and Milne.
During her police interview, Milne admitted that she knew one of the residents in the building and her children, adding that she and the woman “did not get along”.
Tosh and Milne both pleaded guilty to one charge of wilfully setting fire to the door of a block of flats which caused danger to life.
Milne’s defence solicitor, Tony Burgess, told the court that his client was initially in denial that she could have carried out such a scheme until she saw the CCTV footage.
He said: “Ms Milne did not believe she could have done such a thing, but when she saw what she saw she couldn’t deny it.
“She doesn’t understand why she did it.”
Mr Burgess went on to state that due to his client’s low intellectual ability, she is “open to influence due to her difficulties”.
“She said to me ‘It’s something I would never do, I still can’t believe I did it’,” he added.
John Hardie, defence solicitor for Tosh, said his client had been under the influence of non-prescription diazepam that night.
“The position is that the two parties had done this together – it seems to have been a decision made jointly but it’s not at all clear what the genesis was,” he said.
“Mr Tosh accepts his responsibility and it seems without him it’s unlikely it would have occurred.”
‘This is a very, very serious matter’
Sheriff Morag McLaughlin told the couple: “I do not think I have to tell you how lucky you are this did not end up more serious and the terrible circumstances fire can cause – this is a very, very serious matter.”
She sentenced Tosh, of Sunnyside Road, Aberdeen, to 18 months imprisonment.
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff McLaughlin made Milne subject to a community payback order with supervision for three years and ordered her to carry out 225 hours of unpaid work.
She also made Milne, of Ruthrieston Circle, Aberdeen, subject to an electronic tag via a restriction of liberty order.
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