Murder victim told son of attempt on his life months before fatal fire

A Fraserburgh mother-of-five who was rescued from her blazing home shouted to police that her husband was still inside, a murder trial was told.

Anne Graham, 58, had to jump onto the roof of a police van to escape the inferno.

She told jurors that firefighters found her husband Gordon 's body lying in bed.

Mrs Graham from Fraserburgh was giving evidence for a second day at the trial of Barry Henderson, 42, who denies attempting to murder her and murdering her 43-year-old husband by torching their Fraserburgh home on May 3, 1998.

The High Court in Glasgow has heard the family rented two flats at 74b and 74c High Street, Fraserburgh.

When Mr Graham had been drinking he would sleep in the upper flat, while his wife slept in the lower flat.

She woke up to find her flat engulfed in choking smoke.

Defence QC Brian McConnachie said: “ A police vehicle drove under your kitchen window and a police officer caught you when you jumped, is that correct,”

Mrs Graham replied:

“Yes. I was shouting to them that my husband was inside.”

Mrs Graham said that she was wakened in the early hours by a noise. Earlier around 1am she had heard footsteps in the flat above and thought it was her husband moving about.

She said: “After the fire I realised it wasn't him walking about. It wasn't Gordon when they found him he was still in his bed.”

The court heard that she never returned to the flat in High Street, Fraserburgh, and now lives in another part of the town.

Mrs Graham was shown a letter written by her husband to her son James when he was in Dumfries prison and dated December 2, 1997.

In it he claimed that two men had tried to torch his flat by pouring petrol on the carpet on the landing outside his flat, but he had chased them away.

Mr McConnachie said: “Your husband is writing to your son James telling him that two people are trying to burn the flat. They poured petrol on the flat,” and Mrs Graham replied: “Not to my knowledge. There was no one tried to set fire to the flat then. I would have smelled the petrol myself. He would have warned us. It's just rubbish.”

Mrs Graham told the court that her husband often told stories which were not true.

She was also asked by the defence counsel about the statement she gave to police just hours after the fatal fire.

In this she said that Neil Robertson, nicknamed Nugs, had threatened her husband in a phone call in March 1998.

In her police statement she claimed that Mr Robertson threatened the whole family and said he would start with her husband and work his way down.

But, when asked about this in the witness box, Mrs Graham said: “I can't remember that.'

She told the court she and her family moved to Fraserburgh in 1996 after leaving Glenrothes, Fife.

Mr McConnachie said: “When you and your family arrived you rightly or wrongly came with a reputation,” and Mrs Graham replied: “Yes.”

The QC then went on: “You were dubbed the family from hell,” and she said: “Yes.”

Henderson is also accused of assaulting a woman in a nightclub in Fraserburgh, by kicking her on the leg and attempting to punch her, and of committing a breach of the peace at a nearby car park on May 3, 1998.

He also faces another charge that he behaved in a threatening manner on a bus between Crimond and Fraserburgh last November.

Henderson denies all the charges against him and has lodged special defences of alibi and incrimination.

The trial before Lord Ericht continues