A local woman is to stand trial accused of setting a fire at her own home – then trying to have her ex-partner prosecuted for it.
Donna Morrell today denied charges of wilful fireraising and wasting police time over the incident on February 2 last year.
It is alleged that she started a blaze at her flat in Newbigging Drive, Arbroath, by torching the front door and a door mat.
Morrell is then said to have told PC Lynn Burns at Arbroath Police Station that her ex, Mark Smith, had started the fire and “rendered him liable to suspicion of wilful fireraising”.
Morrell, 43, a prisoner at HMP Cornton Vale, further denies two other charges of wilful fireraising at an address in Forfar in September last year.
Her solicitor, Grant Bruce, entered not guilty pleas on her behalf during a pre-trial hearing at Dundee Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Alastair Brown set a trial date for February.
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our
new combined website.
Local woman accused of setting fire to her own home – then blaming her ex-partner
