Jury finds arson charge proved

Press, 4 December 1985, Page 26

Jury finds arson charge proved

A jury in the High Court late yesterday found a sickness beneficiary guilty of arson involving the lighting of rubbish in and alongside a jumbo bin in a service alley of the United Service Hotel. The accused, Colin William Nicholl, aged 50, had denied the charge that, with reckless disregard for the safety of others, he set fire to cartons and the contents of a jumbo bin, at the hotel. The offence related to the early evening, after darkness, on August 10. Crown evidence was that the fires had been lit near a wooden portion of the hotel Upon the jury’s verdict, reached at 5.15 p.m. after a retirement of 30 minutes, Judge Heron remanded Nicholl in custody to December 6 for sentence. Miss K. P. McDonald, who prosecuted for the Crown, told his Honour that Nicholl had four previous convictions for arson. Nicholl was not represented by counsel and con ducted his own. defence. The trial took the full day. Prosecution evidence was that a bar patron noticed a fire outside a bar in the early evening, in cartons jammed behind a rubbish bin. This was extinguished by him and other patrons. About 20 minutes later he noticed a second fire, burning in three different places — behind the bin where the earlier fire had been, inside the bin, and on the bin lid. A woman gave evidence

that while she was in her car outside the hotel waiting for her husband, she saw Nicholl pick up a sheet of newspaper from the footpath, walk into the alleyway, and come out three or four minutes later, without the newspaper. Allan Lester Lawson, a duty manager at the hotel, gave evidence of being notified of the fires. He checked that the first fire was completely extinguished. After the second call he saw Nicholl across from the service alley, looking towards the scene of the fire. Nicholl fitted the description of the man who had been described as earlier having been seen going into the alleyway. Cross-examined, Mr Lawson said he recalled saying at the preliminary Court hearing that fires could sometimes smoulder for hours. He could not say whether there were cigarette butts in a Kleensak in the alleyway. Constable M. W. Clement, said he interviewed Nicholl, who said he had been in the area looking for a restaurant, but had not entered the alleyway. The constable noticed that a cigarette lighter found on Nicholl was warm. Asked about the cigarette lighter he said he carried it because he smoked cigarettes. It was warm because he held on to it. Cross-examined, the constable agreed that the cigarette lighter exhibited had a metal case and possibly would be likely to be warm, if held in the hand, in a pocket. The accused, in evidence, detailed his movements that evening and said that, opposite the service lane, he saw on the footpath a piece of paper, which he found to be a brewery delivery docket, with the United Service Hotel’s name on it. He took

it to the hotel’s reception desk. Passing the same area later he saw men throwing burning cartons on to the street and stamping them out He stopped to look and a man called to him to come across the road. Somebody suggested the police be called and he said it would be a good idea, as he was being accused of lighting the fire. The accused said he did not light the fires or go into the service alley into the hotel. In his final address to the jury Nicholl said the Crown had not called a fire safety officer. In cases of suspected arson a fire safety officer was “routinely called” to investigate, and give evidence, he said. Nicholl said the fire could have started accidentally and he just happened to be in the area. He said he had been falsely accused of lighting the fire.