A 50-year-old Inverness man who was “at a low ebb mentally” set fire to his house after being treated in hospital for an amputated finger.
Malcolm MacLeod had severed the digit with a saw at work and had returned home on June 23 last year after hospital treatment.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that he doused his home at Smithton Park with diesel.
He then borrowed a lighter from a neighbour and set the kitchen on fire, fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart said.
“The Fire and Rescue Service broke in and found him sitting on a broken mirror.” Mr Urquhart added.
Defence solicitor Marc Dickson said: “He was at a low ebb mentally due to a number of factors as well as suffering a traumatic amputation.”
Sentence was deferred until May 29 for a background report and bail was continued.
But Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald warned Macleod that he may still be jailed because he had endangered the lives of his neighbours.
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