Deckhand jailed for ship fire

Macneil had been ordered off the ship after a drunken row with the captain

A deckhand has been jailed for two years for setting fire to an offshore supply vessel loaded with fuel as the crew slept on board.

Alastair Macneil had been ordered off the ship after a drunken row with the captain.

As he left the Grampian Guardian, berthed at Aberdeen Harbour, Macneil poured petrol onto the gangway and set it alight.

The crew tackled the fire and no-one was injured.

Macneil, 37, of Lomond Road, Weymss Bay, previously admitted recklessly setting fire to the ship on 14 July last year to the danger of the occupants.

Jailing him, Lord Mackay of Drumadoon said the sentence would have been longer but for his guilty plea, which avoided a trial, and the fact that he was a first offender.

The skipper of the Grampian Guardian had given Macneil two days notice because he was unhappy with his work.

The two argued over Macneil's logbook, the High Court in Edinburgh heard, and the deckhand banged on the captain's door with an axe at 0400.

He was ordered off the ship at which point he started the fire.

Defending, solicitor advocate Gary McAteer said: "When he committed the offence, he was considerably under the influence of alcohol having been on a binge."