A FORMER neighbour tried to murder a family in their beds by petrol-bombing their home.
Andrew Brown hurled a lit Molotov cocktail through a window of the house in Penicuik, Midlothian, early on 28 August last year.
But the attack was captured on CCTV footage because the family had fitted security cameras at their home afte
r previous incidents of vandalism.
A judge described the film evidence as "one of the most dramatic sequences" he had seen in many years in court.
The hooded attacker was seen appearing in the street outside the victims' home and launching the lit petrol bomb towards his target.
Brian Soave managed to extinguish the flames in the living room, after he and his family had been awakened by "a very loud bang".
Brown, 23, a garage assistant of Cranston Street, Penicuik, had denied attempting to murder Mr Soave, his wife Tracy and sons Brian and Mark by setting fire to their home in Fletcher Grove.
But a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh convicted him of the offence by a majority verdict.
Brown was also found guilty of committing an earlier breach of the peace in Fletcher Grove on 17 February last year by threatening to petrol-bomb Mark Soave's car.
Roger Craik, QC, deferred sentence on Brown for a background report and remanded him in custody.
The full article contains 233 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
