Laurence Dollimore
HE has been wreaking havoc around the streets of Palma for well over a year.
Now, finally, the so-called bin man arsonist has finally been snared.
In an arrest that has shocked the island, a middle-aged father has been ordered to face trial over a stunning 36 different bin blazes around the capital and its nearby environs.
The Spanish father-of-one was picked up in Pere Garau, after his face appeared on a CCTV video starting a recent blaze.
The unnamed man, 58, was arrested red-handed by officers ‘with a lighter in each hand’ after allegedly causing more than €76,000 of fire damage over the last three months alone.
After police managed to ascertain that he had been close to three other incidents, centred around Calle Aragon, over recent months, they knew they had their man.
The man, who has psychiatric problems, admitted to being a serial arsonist.
Incredibly, he insisted he had started his reign of destruction after police fined him for letting his dog off the lead.
A judge ordered his immediate imprisonment with a bail of €100,000, over fears he would flee and reoffend.
A search of the house, where he lives alone, revealed a stash of six boxes of matches, three lighters and two packs of barbeque firelighters.
“We surprised the arsonist with both hands inside the container and a lighter ready to set fire to it,” said police inspectors Eduardo Perez.
“Once surprised, the defendant collapsed and voluntarily confessed.”
The suspect, who is a non-smoker, receives a state pension, and is the first of four arsonists arrested, to be granted bail.
Perez added: “We are completely sure that in Palma there are more arsonists and some imitators, but with this arrest we have managed to arrest one of the most important.”
His lawyer, Josep Perello was contacted by the Olive Press but did not respond.
