A Carlisle man has been convicted of arson after confessing to three people in the aftermath that he’d thrown a cigarette into his “man cave” shed which was engulfed in flames and destroyed.
David Paul Beattie, 47, was said by a prosecutor to have acted in a “drunken rage” on the late afternoon of June 9 last year in the garden of his partner’s Buchanan Place home on the city’s Currock estate following a row.
Firefighters were at the scene within minutes after plumes of black smoke were seen by neighbours, one of whom raised the alarm and desperately used his own hose to try and prevent flames spreading to his own property. Loud “popping” could be heard from an outbuilding which house spray paint cans.
As the blaze was then tackled by Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service crews, intoxicated Beattie drank wine and was said to be been “laughing”. He also told a watch manager he was to blame for the incident having thrown a cigarette into the shed following an argument with his partner, but did apologise.
Beattie then repeated that same account to a relative who was quickly on the scene, and then in custody after police were called and he was arrested.
“I had an argument with my missus and threw a cigarette in the shed,” he told an officer.
“I’ve burned my whole life down. Do you think that I meant to do that?”
Beattie denied arson which caused damaged to property belonging not only to a neighbour but also to fencing and a shed belonging to the Garden Life project and Rock Youth group
He went on trial at Carlisle Crown Court, claiming the fire was merely an “accident” which haunted him every day, and repeated that a “man cave” he built had been his life.
But this afternoon, Beattie, of Margaret Creighton Gardens, Carlisle, was convicted, unanimously, of three arson offences.
Recorder Richard Archer adjourned the case for a probation service pre-sentence report exploring the defendant’s background, and granted him bail. Beattie is due to be sentenced on August 9 but heard Recorder Archer say: “All sentencing options remain open to the court, including an immediate custodial sentence.”
