A MAN who caused £500,000 worth of damage by setting fire to an abattoir after a row with his girlfriend has been jailed.
David Edwards, 24, had gone to the abattoir to sleep for the night after he left his home following a fall out with his partner.
However, he later met up with two men and began drinking in an office at the site in Shotts, North Lanarkshire, before setting it ablaze.
Fire crews rushed to the scene and had to battle for more than six hours to bring the blaze under control.
Edwards, of Shotts, fled the scene but was later arrested after traces of his DNA were found at the abattoir.
At Hamilton Sheriff Court, Edwards was jailed for two years after he admitted recklessly setting fire to the premises on July 17 last year.
Fiscal depute Imran Bashir told the court: "The fire brigade had to fight the fire for several hours to bring it under control.
"CCTV was obtained showing three males approaching and entering the premises in possession of bottles.
"The fire then started and the three males were seen leaving without the bottles.
"Blood samples were taken from around the area as well as footprints and it's from that that the accused was identified as being one of the three males."
Edwards' defence solicitor Archibald Hill said: "he had a minor argument with his partner and left his house with a carry out.
"He met up with two boys from the local area and started drinking with them.
"A fire was started and he is guilty by dent of his association with the other two boys."
Sentencing Edwards, Sheriff Thomas Millar criticised him for refusing to reveal the identity of the other two males who were with him on the night.
He said: "You have not co-operated with the police. If you were drinking with them then surely you knew their names."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here