By Brian Smith

A DISTRAUGHT Arbroath father yesterday told the High Court in Livingston that his 17-year-old daughter’s last words to him were “I don’t want to die, dad. I love you.”

Jessica McCagh had suffered 90% burns in the fire that engulfed her in the flat where she was staying with Stewart Blackburn, the man accused of pouring petrol over her, setting her alight and murdering her.

Agricultural gangmaster Garry McCagh (50) said he was awakened by banging at 3.45am.

His wife answered the door and he heard her ask Stewart Blackburn what was wrong.

Blackburn, dressed in a T-shirt and boxer shorts, answered, “Jessica, Jessica’s dead.”

Mr McCagh said he “bolted” the hundred yards from his home towards Blackburn’s house and saw a police car drive by as he ran.

By the time he reached the house a policeman was standing outside and thick black smoke was coming from the close.

He went inside it and saw his daughter lying outside the front door of Blackburn’s home.

“I saw my bairn lying there. I put my head down and saw Jessica lying there,” he said.

“I picked her up, put my hands under her and lifted her.

“She fell out, I lost my grip, she was wet,” Mr McCagh, his voice breaking, told the court.

He took her on to the grass outside the block .

Cross-examined by Neil Murray QC, for Blackburn, he agreed that Blackburn was “hysterical” when he arrived at the McCagh family home.

He also accepted that he told police in the aftermath of the fire that Blackburn had said, “She’s over there,” referring to his own house, when he arrived to break the news of the blaze.

Blackburn had said, “I think she’s dead.”

Jessica’s mother Marion McCagh (47) said when Stewart Blackburn arrived at their home, he was calling her name before she opened the door.

When she opened it, he said, “Jessica’s been hurt. She’s dead, I think.”

Prompted by Solicitor General Frank Mulholland QC, she said there had been an incident in July last year when Jessica had fallen out with Blackburn and stayed at the family home.

Jessica was speaking to him on the telephone and she took it from her daughter.

She told the court, “He said he would burn the house down with petrol if he didn’t see Jessica again.”

In cross-examination, Mr Murray began, “If I said that was never said, you would disagree.”

Mrs McCagh replied, “Yes.”

Counsel observed she had only told police about this incident on November 2, this year.

She replied, “It just went out of my mind.”

She accepted there had been trouble last year and Blackburn had pleaded guilty in court to a “minor assault” on her husband, following an incident outside their home.

In earlier evidence Ricci Foreman (19) said he had been watching television and gone to bed some time in the early hours of the morning of April 25 when he heard a boom, followed three seconds later by an even louder boom and the sound of breaking glass.

He ran downstairs where the sound came from.

He told the court he was confronted by a jammed front door at Bloomfield Road, Arbroath, where Stewart Blackburn and Jessica McCagh lived.

“I pushed the door and it opened 20 or 30 centimetres and wouldn’t move more. I kicked it about four or five times—it was the kitchen bin behind the main door.”

Mr Mulholland asked if he could hear anything when he was kicking the door.

“Yes, Jessica McCagh screaming.”

He was asked if there was smoke once he got the door open. “I wasn’t aware of smoke until I got into the actual flat itself,” he said.

He estimated it took 20 seconds before he could get in, using his shoulder to force the door sufficiently open.

“As I fell in Stewart Blackburn ran past me. He ran out of the bedroom into the hall and past me.

“He was shouting, ‘Jessica’s dead, Jessica’s dead,’ and sprinting out the front door.”

Mr Foreman said Blackburn was wearing tracksuit bottoms and the back of the legs, from the calf upwards, were on fire as he ran past.

He said there were flames billowing out of the bedroom, out past the door and on to the ceiling.

He added, “I could still hear Jessica screaming from the bedroom. The whole house was orange from the colour of the flames.

“I was standing in the hallway as Jessica came out, her arms across her face, shouting, ‘Help me, Ricci, help me.’ She was covered from head to toe in flames.”

He described her coming towards him before slumping to the ground in the hallway, close to the front door.

He ran into the kitchen, scooping dishes into the sink, thinking it would fill quicker and overflow when he turned on the taps.

“I grabbed the fish tank from inside the kitchen and threw it over Jessica when she fell to the ground,” he said, adding that all that was in his mind at that time was water.

He said each time he filled the fish tank he poured the entire contents over Jessica but each time the fire restarted.

“After the fourth or fifth time I thought this isn’t working. Jessica crawled behind the front door, jamming the door closed.

“My thought was to get out and get Jessica out of the fire. I pulled the handle (of the front door) but the handle was red hot.”

Eventually he got the door slightly open, but Jessica was blocking the door.

Mr Foreman said, “I grabbed hold of Jessica’s legs. When I pulled her the skin came off.”

With the door open a little he shouted for help and a friend started pushing from the outside.

He grabbed Jessica’s legs again to pull and the police officer took over.

His next thought was to warn an upstairs neighbour about the fire and he made his way up through the smoke-filled close to their door.

He remembered banging on the door but then thought he had fainted and when he came to, he was inside the neighbour’s house.

The solicitor general asked if he was injured as a result of his attempts to help his friend.

He told the court, “I had burn marks on my arms and burns on my hands.

“My trackies melted and the bottoms of my feet were really swollen.”

He was asked if he had seen Blackburn outside and told the court the accused was in the back seat of a police car in handcuffs.

He recalled seeing Jessica being put in an ambulance.

Blackburn was put in an ambulance and he was told by a police officer to go in the same ambulance with him to Ninewells Hospital, Dundee.

Asked about the accused on the journey, he said, “He was upset. He was asking what had happened, saying the dogs were dead.

“I can’t remember the conversation; I can remember part of it.”

Paramedic Angela McKenzie said she was in the back of the ambulance taking Blackburn and Mr Foremen to Ninewells.

Blackburn was talking about the fire and said that he had a can of petrol from his motorbike in the bedroom.

“He said it was sitting on top of the bed without a lid on. At some point it fell on the bed and soaked the bed.

“He put it at the side of the bed on the floor. I think he said it fell over on the floor.

“He left the room. His girlfriend went to sleep on the bed.

“He came back, lit a cigarette and the room exploded,” she told the court.

Mr Mulholland asked, “Was his face blackened? Hair singed?” Each question was answered with, “No.”

The solicitor general continued, “Injuries to his face? Upper body? Hands? Arms?”

The witness replied, “Not that he complained of.”

She was asked, “Did you smell petrol?” Again the answer was, “No.”

Asked about Blackburn’s behaviour once they reached Ninewells, she said, “He was behaving erratically in A&E.

“If people were watching, he was writhing about. If not, he was OK.”

Paramedic John Salmond said his ambulance was the first to arrive.

Jessica McCagh was still conscious but so badly burned he did not want to touch her for fear of aggravating her injuries and making the pain worse.

His colleague fetched a trolley cot and they asked her if she could manage to sit on it and lift her legs, and when she did this they wheeled her to the ambulance.

He agreed with the solicitor general that Jessica’s face and head was extensively burned.

He told the court there was a strong smell of petrol and smoke in the back of the ambulance, and he could smell the fumes as Jessica was breathing.

After she was admitted and they got back to the ambulance, the smell was still strong.

The trial resumes on Monday.