 | 'Shamed Labour peer Mike Watson today lost his appeal over his sentence for fire-raising.' Evening Times, 24 th March 2006. |  |
| 'Shamed Labour peer Mike Watson today lost his appeal over his sentence for fire-raising.' Evening Times, 24 th March 2006. | |
SHAMED Labour peer Mike Watson today lost his appeal over his sentence for fire-raising.
Lord Watson was jailed for 16 months in September for starting a fire and endangering lives at a Edinburgh hotel.
The 56-year-old former Glasgow Cathcart MSP admitted setting a curtain ablaze on November 12, 2004, after a heavy drinking session at Prestonfield House Hotel.
A sheriff at Edinburgh Sheriff Court ruled jail was the only option since the politician posed a significant risk of re-offending.
Watson's lawyers launched an appeal against the sentence at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh, arguing it was too severe.
But after a hearing lasting just under an hour, Lady Cosgrove and Gordon Nicholson QC ruled the sentence was within the appropriate range available to the sheriff and that it should stand.
They added that the chances of Watson re-offending were related to his alcohol consumption and the matter would depend on how he addressed his alcoholism.
And they said that Watson's public position was no grounds for leniency.
In a statement refusing the appeal they said: "We accept the consequences of a prison sentence for a person prominent in public life are very significant, however this cannot be a justification for leniency. This appeal is accordingly refused."
During his trial last year a psychiatric report prepared for the court said the peer had developed a serious drink problem and that he was so drunk he could not remember the incident.
Watson, formerly of Fairfax Avenue, Glasgow, won a Westminster seat at a by-election in Glasgow's Cathcart in 1989.
The seat disappeared in a boundary change and Watson lost out to Mohammad Sarwar in a selection contest in 1997 and became Lord Watson of Invergowrie.
Even without an appeal, he could expect to be released from prison at the end of May.
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