A forensic scientist who specialises in fire investigation today told a court he believed a fatal car blaze was started deliberately.
Andrew Wade, Bachelor of Science, told the jury at the Malcolm Webster trial that he produced two reports after investigations at a North-East crash scene, where Claire Morris died.
Mr Wade, who has investigated several high profile cases including the Windsor Castle blaze and another in Edinburgh which saw a firefighter killed, said he had come to the view the fire had been started intentionally.
Advocate depute Derek Ogg questioned Mr Wade about the conclusions in his reports.
Reading from the report, Mr Ogg said: “In my view the fire has almost certainly originated in the engine compartment of the car, the long delay between the crash and the fire, the inability of Claire Webster to escape, the additional fuel cans in the car, provides strong support to this being a deliberate fire.”
He asked if this was Mr Wade’s conclusion. Wade replied: “Yes.”
The court also heard that, in all of Mr Wade’s experience, he had never come across an example of a crash where a fire had started five minutes after the smash happened.
The jury was also shown a demonstration of how a fire spreads in the direction of where the fuel is provided, by Mr Wade.
He told the court he came to his conclusion after he saw which angle the car had ended up in after the collision – facing downwards on embankment.
Webster denies the charges against him and the trial continues.
Webster denies murdering his first wife Morris Claire by drugging her with temazepam, crashing his car on the Auchenhuive to Tarves road, at Kingoodie, near Oldmeldrum, on May 27 or 28, 1994, and setting it on fire.
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