Sixth former Sam Tait signed a confession to police admitting that he set fire to his school. He has now retracted that statement and asserts that he was pressurised by police into admitting arson. The prosecution argue that Tait has a long record of disobedience and disaffection at school and his school file shows him as having been punished for starting a fire two years earlier. However he denies the offence and says he has an alibi that he had been in a lesson until moments before the fire.
