The teenager who set a fire that engulfed Poundland in Elgin causing an estimated £1m worth of damaged has been placed on supervision for two years.
The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was previously found guilty of cuplable and reckless fireraising following a trial by jury in Inverness.
He had denied the charge, claiming a teenage girl was instead responsible for the blaze, which was captured on CCTV footage.
During the course of the trial, the jurors had heard from Julie Sherwin, a shopworker who was evacuated from the store at around 6pm.
Under questioning from fiscal depute Susan Love, she said: “I just heard the pops and bangs and it exploded.”
A teenage witness, who had been in the company of the accused in the moments after the fire, said he overheard the boy, who was 15 at the time, telling another youth “he had set fire to tampons” and “he didn’t think it would catch”.
The jury was played footage from the store, in which the accused was identified as being one of a number of people in the health and beauty aisle of the Elgin High Street store minutes before the fire.
Fire investigator Martin Rowland said investigations ruled out other possible causes and concluded that the cause of the fire was “deliberate application of a naked flame to items within the store”.
He was shown CCTV with the accused identified and confirmed it showed him near the spot where the fire was believed to have started.
On the final day of the trial, the reporting officer for Police Scotland, Michael McLennan, confirmed that footage from the scene had been checked and did not show the girl named in the incrimination defence in the store in the hour before the fire started.
A jury took less than 40 minutes to return a unanimous guilty verdict to the single charge.
At the sentencing hearing, Bill Adam told the court his client, who has no previous convictions or outstanding matters, was a young man who had “matured a great deal” since the commission of the offence.
He said the boy had been an “immature and feckless” 15-year-old when he set the fire, adding: “He accepts that there is no one to blame but himself for being that way”
Mr Adam continued: “He is no longer keeping the company that he had back then – he is no longer drinking to excess – that was their thing back then, it is no longer his thing, his thing is working.”
After reading a presentencing report prepared by the criminal justice social work department, Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald told the teen: “You are a young man now, you were an even younger man when this incident occurred.
‘Stupid’ actions had ‘shocking’ consequences
”In your own words, your actions were stupid.
“The consequences were shocking, alarming and caused a significant amount of damage.”
She told the teenager: ”I’m sure that you had no idea that your stupid behaviour would have the consequence that it did. I’m sure you got an awful fright.”
She added: “You are just lucky that no one was harmed as as a result of your actions and as a result fo this fire.”
She accepted the boy’s behaviour had been reckless and his actions taken without understanding the possible consequences and told him: “I see that you are a young man who is working hard and has got a future.”
As a direct alternative to custody the sheriff placed the youth on a community payback order with two years supervision, warning him: “If you don’t carry out the work that is asked of you by the social work department you can come back to court and the court can impose a custodial sentence instead.”