A consultant psychiatrist has told a court how a man arrested for setting fire to a holiday cottage did not have an “underlying” mental illness in the days following the incident.
Dr Alistair Hay, 57, told jurors that he assessed Kieran Ridley, 32, in the days after he allegedly tried to murder 11 people at a property near Mallaig.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard how Mr Ridley was taken to hospital in Inverness by police officers who were concerned about his behaviour in the hours following his detention on October 28 last year.
The medic told the court that he concluded that his patient was not suffering from a long term mental health problem.
He told prosecution lawyer Geoff Forbes: “I can rule out the fact that he was suffering from a major mental illness at the time.”
Dr Hay was giving evidence on the fourth day of proceedings against Mr Ridley, whose address is given in legal documents as being a prisoner of HMP Inverness.
Prosecutors and Mr Ridley’s defence team have agreed evidence in which it isn’t disputed that Mr Ridley switched on a kitchen cooker at the Mallaig Mhor property on October 27 last year. They have also agreed that Kieran poured petrol onto a refuse bin which caused the flames to “take effect” in the kitchen.
Jurors have also heard that lawyers do not dispute that Kieran then left the property having locked the front and back doors of the house. The court heard that Mr Ridley also locked some of the windows in the property and that he did this whilst being “aware” that there were 11 people inside, including four children.
However, Mr Ridley’s lawyers have a entered a not guilty plea on their client’s behalf.
They have lodged a special defence which states that Mr Ridley wasn’t criminally responsible for his actions due to him having a “mental disorder.”
The court earlier heard that a doctor once diagnosed Mr Ridley from suffering from “drug induced psychosis.”
The jury earlier heard claims that Mr Ridley also once abused cannabis, cocaine and Ketamine.
However, on Wednesday Dr Hay said that his observations in the days following the fire, led him to conclude that he wasn’t suffering from a long term mental illness.
Dr Hay said: “I was able to have perfectly normal, rational conversations with him.”
Mr Ridley is standing trial on one charge of attempted murder at the property which is located on the outskirts of the Highland town.
Mr Ridley’s alleged adult victims include his mother Ann and brother Duncan.
The trial, before judge Craig Scott QC, continues today.
