A TEENAGER is accused of setting fire to a truck and endangering the lives of travellers at a site in Derby after making threats of arson to his estranged wife.
Martin Maughan, who separated from his wife, Elizabeth Doherty, only weeks after their wedding last year, is alleged to have threatened that if she did not go back to him he would "burn" her sister and husband and three babies, who lived at Imari Park travellers' site in Russell Street.
Derby Crown Court was told yesterday on the first day of the trial that Maughan had been a passenger in a car which drove into the site in the early hours of February 8.
The driver was seen to get out of the car and smash the window of a Ford Transit pick-up truck belonging to Miss Doherty's brother-in-law, Ernie Maloney, before throwing something inside, after which the vehicle caught fire.
He then jumped back into the car and the passenger, alleged to be Maughan, is believed to have said "go, go, go" and the car sped off.
The teenage driver, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was convicted after a trial of arson, being reckless as to whether life was endangered.
Maughan, 19, of no fixed address, denies the offence.
James Thomas, prosecuting, told a jury that the police and fire service were called and the flames were extinguished but the truck was "very seriously damaged". An investigation found "the most likely cause of the fire was deliberate ignition by applying a naked flame to ignitable liquid".
The fire spread to a utility building and damaged plastic flues close to gas pipes. Mr Thomas said: "The danger is clear. The prosecution say starting a fire deliberately in that environment is reckless as to whether lives of others are endangered."
Maughan was arrested on April 22. He prepared a statement which said he did not cause damage to the vehicle and that he would answer 'no comment' to any questions put to him by officers.
Miss Doherty told the court she married Maughan on June 20 last year and following the wedding they remained together for up to six weeks.
She said following their break-up he had started making threats. "He said if I didn't go back with him that he was going to terrorise my family and would burn (my sister) Kelly, Ernie and their three babies," said Miss Doherty.
The jury was played a recording that Miss Doherty had made of one of her phone calls with Maughan. She said it was shortly after she had received a similar threat from the other defendant.
In the recording, Miss Doherty asks Maughan why the other teenager was making threats against her family.
Maughan is heard to say: "Because you're starting (provoking) me and I know it's how to get to you."
The trial continues.
