Neighbour denies causing shed fire

A MAN insisted he did not start the fire that destroyed his neighbour's shed.

Geoffrey Vaughan, 62, accepted he left his flat in West Road, South Ockendon, and went downstairs carrying newspapers and a bottle of liquid shortly before Margaret Barker's shed was set alight on June 24.

Vaughan also admitted that when he went back outside in his dressing gown just eight minutes before the blaze, which destroyed the plastic shed, he could hear or see noone.

But he said he was not responsible for the fire, nor was he responsible for an earlier arson attack on Mrs Barker's first shed, which was burned down in July last year.

Vaughan, whose glasses lens was recovered near the scene, was arrested and questioned about the incident but later released without charge.

The defendant, who has a conviction for assaulting a neighbour and a caution for verbally abusing another resident at the sheltered housing complex, denies arson, being reckless as to whether life is endangered.

The trial continues.