Alleged arson attack cost £70K in damage, court hears

The house in the Rosemount area of Londonderry was badly damaged in the fire on 16 June

An alleged arson attack on a home in Londonderry in which three dogs were killed has caused £70,000 worth of damage to the property, a court has heard.

Connor Lishman, 37, of Eastway Gardens in Derry, is charged with a number of offences relating to a fire which gutted a house in the Meadowview Crescent area of Derry on 16 June.

Mr Lishman is charged with arson with intent to endanger life, burglary, and criminal damage to the three animals who died. He also faces three counts of assaulting police officers who were called to the scene of the blaze.

At a hearing at Belfast High Court on Monday, Mr Lishman was refused bail.

A number of fire crews tackled the blaze in Derry

The court heard that a woman and her children who had been living in the property were not present at the time the fire started.

A prosecution lawyer said the woman's three dogs were killed in the fire, and said that the cost of damage to the inside of the house was estimated to be in the region of £70,000.

She added that the figure does not include any repairs required for structural damage to neighbouring homes.

CCTV recordings captured a man wearing a white hoodie leaving the address a short time before the fire took hold of the property.

An unidentified witness also claimed to have seen a male in similar clothing and with a distinctive neck tattoo in the area at the time.

The court heard that Mr Lishman was detained by police as he watched on in a crowd of people who had gathered around the property to watch the blaze.

It was alleged that his clothes matched what the man captured on CCTV was wearing and alleged that that he also fit a similar description of the man seen by an eye-witness.

Court hears he became violent on arrest

The prosecution lawyer also told the court that Mr Lishman became violent during the arrest, kicking and trying to spit on two officers and threatening to bite off one of the officer's nose.

He is also accused of breaking into a house on nearby Osborne Street to steal medication on the same evening.

Opposing Mr Lishman’s application for bail, a solicitor argued that Mr Lishman knew the people who had lived in the house and could interfere with the ongoing investigation.

A defence solicitor for Mr Lishman confirmed his client disputes the arson charge.

Mr Justice Humphreys ruled there was no change of circumstances to warrant releasing Mr Lishman on bail.

“This man may well have improved his lifestyle over the last few years, but I’m driven to refuse the application,” the judge said.