NO WITNESSES were called for the defence and no mitigating evidence was entered in the trial of a Newport man accused of starting a fire in the bins at a block of flats in the city.

Mark Anthony Smirthwaite, 46, of Beaufort Road in Newport, is on trial after a fire was started in the Greenwood block of flats in the St Julians area of the city just after 10.30pm on April 23.

Smirthwaite is charged with arson with intent to endanger life and arson reckless as to whether life was endangered.

He denies the charges.

In the resumption of the trial this afternoon, David Pinnell, defending, announced they would not be calling any witnesses or presenting evidence.

Ahead of both the prosecution and the defence summing up, the judge instructed the jury that the defendant could not be found guilty of both charges as they were alternative charges.

Summing up their case, the prosecution said: "Some things are not in dispute. Prior to April 23, there have been a number of fires at the block of flats.

"This resulted in measures being put in place such as CCTV."

Principally, they argued, the rubbish chutes were locked so residents wishing to dispose of their rubbish would have to go down to the bin room on the ground floor.

"Carpenters were employed by Newport City Homes (NCH) to change the locks to the rubbish chutes," prosecution barrister Bryon Broadstock said.

"They did so the day before the fire.

"The police inspector who attended the fire on the day of the incident checked the chutes and they were all locked."

He argued that the only way someone could access the bins was to go into the bin room.

"The only person to go in, in the hour before the fire, was the defendant," he said.

"There is no CCTV in the room itself, but the circumstances give rise to the conclusion that it was the defendant who set the fire."

The fire, the prosecution argued, started in "the one place within the bin which someone attempting to do so would be able to reach".

"Had he given evidence," Mr Broadstock said, "I would have asked why he was in the bin room for 30 seconds, when dropping a bag of rubbish off takes far less time that than.

"Since this incident, there have been no further fires at the premises.

"If you set a fire in a block of flats, you know there is a very high likelihood that something terrible would happen."

Mr Pinnell, for the defence, argued: "This would seem to be a case about assumptions.

"The prosecution are inviting you [the jury] to jump to conclusions."

He pointed to what he argued was the “absence of evidence”.

He also noted that the defendant had answered “no I didn’t”, when asked during a police interview, if he set the fire.

"There isn’t a witness who says they saw him do it, no forensic, evidence and no CCTV which shows him do it," Mr Pinnell said.

"It’s his own premises, why would he want to put that in danger?" he asked.

"He knows the CCTV is there, why take such a risk? It doesn’t make sense."

After recounting a summary of the evidence heard yesterday, the judge stated that proceedings would resume at 10am tomorrow morning – with the jury likely to retire to consider their verdict shortly afterwards.