A man has been charged with the attempted murder of 11 people after a fire at a remote Highlands cottage.
Kieran Ridley is accused of locking the group – including a baby – inside after setting fire to the kitchen floor using petrol and opening the gas valve on the cooker, endangering the life of the occupants who were all asleep.
Fire and ambulance crews had to get the coastguard to help them access the remote property at Mallaig Mhor, near Mallaig, after a fire broke out on October 27.
The coastguard had to drive firefighters to the scene in a 4×4 along a half-mile long hill track, which has a 300ft drop into Loch Nevis.
The 11 people escaped unhurt, although one woman was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.
Now Ridley, of 57 Ombersley Road, Worcester, has appeared at Fort William Sheriff Court accused of trying to kill the group.
The 31-year-old is charged with willfully setting fire to the kitchen floor using petrol, opening the gas valves of the cooker, locking the outside doors and several windows and leaving the property with the keys.
It is alleged the incident happened when the occupants of the house were sleeping.
He made no plea or declaration during the brief private hearing before Sheriff David Young, and was remanded in custody.
Last night a Mallaig woman said that after the fire, she had seen police searching for clues in the remote countryside.
She said: “The house is all on its own, away down Loch Nevis and out of sight apart from the sea when you take a boat down to Knoydart.
“It is reached by a very narrow and dangerous potholed track, little wider than a path.
“You cannot afford to go off the track, even a little, because there is an almost sheer drop of several hundred feet into the sea-loch, Loch Nevis.
“The morning after the fire the police were scouring the ditches and undergrowth looking for somebody.”
The fire was contained to the inside of the house and the only evidence of it yesterday was the smoke-blackened kitchen window.
Further down the loch, multi-millionaire showbiz impresario Sir Cameron McKintosh also became a fire victim when his holiday house at Tarbet was mysteriously burned down in his absence several years ago. He replaced it with a £1million dwelling.