A man accused of trying to murder 11 people in a house fire told his brother-in-law that he wanted to “get rid” of his female relatives, a court heard.
Businessman Mark Sainsbury, 49, told a jury yesterday that Kieran Ridley made the remark while the two men chopped wood, hours before he started a blaze at his family’s Highland holiday home last October.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard that Mr Ridley, 32, also said: “I don’t want to go to Hell. I want to go to Heaven – I feel my time is up.”
Mr Sainsbury, from Worcester, told prosecution lawyer Geoff Forbes that Mr Ridley said he hated his mum Ann and his sister Leann.
He added: “Basically he wanted to get Leann, Ann and the girls in the family.
“He said ‘I hate my mum and I hate the girls.’ “He put the axe back in the shed because he was having these thoughts.”
Prosecutors and Mr Ridley’s defence team have agreed that he switched on a kitchen cooker before pouring petrol onto a refuse bin causing the flames to “take effect” in the kitchen of his family’s holiday home near Mallaig.
However, Mr Ridley’s lawyers have entered as plea of not guilty on their client’s behalf. They have lodged a special defence which states that he wasn’t criminally responsible for his actions due to him having a “mental disorder.”
Yesterday, Mr Sainsbury said that on the morning of the fire, he thought that Kieran appeared to be unwell.
He said: “He was not quite himself. He was having suicidal thoughts. He was very up and down emotionally.
“He appeared to be talking to himself.”
Mr Sainsbury said that after Mr Ridley made the admissions about wanting to hurt his relatives, he told his wife, Kieran’s mum and his brother about it.
When asked what they said when told about Kieran’s remarks, Mr Sainsbury said: “They said ‘yes we are going to get him help when we get back.”
The court heard that hours later, Kieran then started a fire at the property. Mr Ridley is standing trial on one charge of attempted murder at the property which is called Mallaig Mhor and is located on the outskirts of the Highland town.
Mr Ridley’s alleged adult victims are named in the document as being his mother Ann Ridley, his brother Duncan Ridley, Heidi Fernandez Saenz, Leann Sainsbury, Mark Sainsbury, Callam Chapman and Thomas Robinson.
Four children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were also in the property at the time of the fire.
The trial, before judge Craig Scott QC, continues today.
