A CCTV installer described the squalid state of a hotel before a mystery fire tragedy in which three people died during an interview with police. Jamie Grierson said the New County Hotel was infested with flies, had electric cables hanging loose, and had turned over one of its public rooms to homeless people.
Grierson admitted returning to the burnt out wreckage of the hotel in the wake of the fatal fire to remove a CCTV camera he had installed before the blaze. But he denies breaking into the hotel and stealing around 15 internal and external surveillance units installed prior to the triple tragedy in Perth on January 2, 2023.
During a police interview, Grierson said he had returned to retrieve some of the equipment he had installed because he had not been paid by the Dubai-based owner ‘Omar’.
In a video played at Perth Sheriff Court, he said: “I took a camera from outside the building, which was mine. It wasn’t theirs – they hadn’t paid for it. I made the owner aware that I was planning on taking my material back because he hadn’t paid me. He told me to do what I want and hung the phone up on me.”
Grierson told the officers that he had been asked to install 16 cameras, but had only done half when he became concerned about the safety and hygiene of the hotel building.
He told police: “I had been in a few rooms downstairs and it started to become apparent they weren’t the most hygienic. One area where we had to replace a few cameras was stacked full of rubbish bags and general junk everywhere.
“Flies were everywhere. I made a phone call to Omar and explained to him that due to the standard of the hotel we weren’t prepared to do any more work until it was cleaned and rectified. I pointed out a few defects to the hotel. Electric cables were hanging loose everywhere. We requested the caretaker to try and tidy up,”
He said the hotel’s night porter was a drug addict and the caretaker had a drink problem, while people “were coming back and forward at night-time.”
The police were told that Grierson was so concerned about the electrical safety of the hotel that he contacted an electrician friend to ask how often public buildings should be safety checked.
The trial heard he said: “We replaced eight cameras and we were to replace eight more, but couldn’t carry on any more because of the state of the building. There was a function room upstairs and homeless guys were staying there. The night porter made me aware of a lot of goings-on at that place that I didn’t want to be involved in.”
Grierson, 37, is accused of breaking into the New County Hotel and walking off with about 15 internal and external surveillance units which he had installed before the tragedy. On January 2, 2023, fire swept through the block and claimed the lives of sisters Donna Janse Van Rensburg, 44, and Sharon McLean, 47, from Aberdeen, and Edinburgh man Keith Russell, 38.
Grierson, who denies the charges, is accused of stealing cameras from the three-storey establishment just weeks later, on February 14 and 15, 2023. Witness Lia Payne, 48, had been in a relationship with Grierson around the time of the alleged thefts and confirmed he had been working there as a security camera installer.
“He was telling me about all the problems there,” she told the court. “He showed me photos of rats. It was a hell hole. He talked about junkies and prostitutes coming in through the back door.”
She said Grierson was not shocked when he heard about the fatal fire. “He wasn’t surprised because he had seen the state of the place. He was livid. He had expressed his concerns to the owner about the condition of the hotel numerous times but nothing was ever done. I only found out afterwards that he had gone and got the cameras. He sent me a text message to say he’d gone to the hotel and got them.”
Grierson, of Dundonald, Cardenden, denies stealing an external camera from the hotel on February 14, 2023. He further denies breaking into the building the following day and stealing a number of internal cameras. The trial before Sheriff Clair McLachlan continues.
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