A teenager who died in a fireball at her boyfriend's Angus home was "murdered pure and simple" in a crime of "extreme wickedness", Scotland's second most senior prosecutor told a jury on Tuesday.
Frank Mulholland QC, the solicitor-general, said Jessica McCagh, who was 17 when she died in April 2009, was a young girl "loved by her family, with her life stretching before her" who had been killed by her boyfriend, Stewart Blackburn by pouring petrol over her and setting her alight with a naked flame, resulting in her being literally burned to death.
Mr Mulholland was addressing the jury on the ninth day of a trial at the High Court in Livingston at which Blackburn, 18, denies murdering Jessica at his home in Arbroath but has admitted killing her by culpable homicide.
Mr Mulholland said: "The Crown case is that she was burned to death as a result of Stewart Blackburn throwing petrol over her in significant quantities of at least a litre, which he lit with a naked flame, engulfing her in flames, causing her horrific and inevitable death."
The solicitor-general said that evidence from Jessica's mother Marion McCagh, that Blackburn had threatened to burn down the family home with petrol nine months earlier after he and Jessica had fallen out, "demonstrated a capacity to use fire fuelled by petrol as a weapon if he did not see Jessica again".
He said that on the night of the incident in April 2009, Blackburn had been "a drunk and angry man".
Mr Mulholland said: "He told police in his third interview that when he was drunk he could get a bit violent, and so this prophecy came to pass - his drunkeness led to violence."
Mr Mulholland said that the evidence during the trial showed that en route between the party and his flat where Jessica died, he had punched her with "full force" on the side of the head, causing her to fall into a fence.
He told the jury: "Ladies and gentlemen, I would suggest this is quite simply the actions of a violent thug. He is very angry, in a foul temper, in a rage, and it is evident that Jessica paid the ultimate price for his foul temper - with her life."
Mr Mulholland said the "key issue" in the case was how Jessica came to burn to death, and said the Crown had proved beyond reasonable doubt that Blackburn had thrown petrol over her and set her on fire.
He said Jessica had come to be covered in petrol, not as a result of "some instinctive, instantaneous reaction" when Blackburn "slapped" a jerry can of petrol at her in temper, but as a result of deliberate act.
He said it was the unanimous opinion of the forensic scientists who had given evidence that the fire had been started by a naked flame.
Mr Mulholland said that to set someone on fire by placing a naked flame within a centimetre of petrol soaked clothing, as one of the scientists had suggested, was either a deliberate act or an act so reckless as to be murder.
He said: "What a terrifying end for such a young girl. What a terrible end for a young girl at the hands of her boyfriend who professed to love her.
"It was a crime of extreme wickedness. It is difficult to suggest a more cruel or sadistic treatment of another human being. It was a barbaric and cruel act against a defenceless young woman."
Neil Murray, QC, for Blackburn, said Blackburn had offered to plead guilty of culpable homicide.
He said: "The rationale behind it is that on the evidence this young lady's death flowed as a natural consequence of an improper act on the behalf of the accused, and that's culpable homicide. Whatever the Crown has proved, murder it is not.
"Stewart Blackburn was not murderous. Stupid? Yes. Lying? Yes. Murderous? No."
Blackburn denies murder, assault, and causing a breach of the peace by discharging the air rifle. A charge of possessing cannabis has now been dropped by the Crown.
Judge Lord Bracadale, told jurors he would send them out on Wednesday morning to consider their verdict.
He told them: "You should put out of your mind any sympathy you might have for any of the persons involved, and any views you might have about the lives of the young persons you might have heard about in the case."
He added: "In this case, there is really no issue that the accused was the person involved that night, but whether the Crown has proved the particular charge involved, namely the crime of murder."
The trial continues.
Last updated: 01 December 2009, 15:03
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