A smouldering cigarette or match could not have caused a blaze that claimed the life of a father-of-five, a fire expert has claimed.

Rebecca Jewell was giving evidence at the trial of Barry Henderson, who denies murdering Gordon Graham and attempting to murder his wife Anne by setting fire to a property in Fraserburgh on May 3, 1998.

Ms Jewell said the fire started near a wheelie bin in a common close by the home.

A fire report published in June 1998 stated the cause of the fire was a smouldering cigarette that set fire to a mattress lying in a stairway.

However, in her report Ms Jewell said: "I am excluding smouldering as a cause."

Henderson is also accused of assaulting a woman in a nightclub in Fraserburgh and committing a breach of the peace at a nearby car park on May 3, 1998.

He also allegedly behaved in a threatening manner on a bus last November.

Henderson denies all the charges against him and has lodged special defences of alibi and incrimination.

The trial before Lord Ericht continues.