A MURDER BID and gun crime conspiracy trial heard how a Greenock woman's home was petrol bombed twice - with a man torching himself in one of the attacks.

Rosaleen Sutherland, 52, told how she was 'squealing' because of the smell of fuel at her Union Street home in the early hours of the morning.

Ms Sutherland said she had got up at around 4.10am on the morning of July 13 of 2020 to get a drink and saw her home on fire.

She told the High Court in Glasgow: "I turned the light off and two seconds later my windows were all lit up.

"My husband [Leonard Cole] was trying to put it out using the blinds."

The court heard how her home was firebombed for a second time on September 14 that year, in an attack which left Greenock man George Miller dead.

Asked by advocate depute Paul Keenan if she was aware that a man was 'dead or dying' in her back garden on September 14 2020, Ms Sutherland replies: "No, I didn't know."

Seven murder bid accused men - Robert Warnock, 26, Craig McFarlane, 26, Brendan O'Donnell, 24, Drew Darling, 28, Kieran McAnally, 26, Cain Carr, 21, and Lee Heron, 25 - are also charged with causing a man named as George Miller to go to the Union Street property, 'whereby he did pour petrol on the door and through the letterbox, ignite said petrol, set fire to the door and himself, in consequence of which he died'.

They are standing trial charged under the Explosive Substances Act 1883.

The court heard that Ms Sutherland's sons, Andrew Sutherland and Leonard Cole jnr, attacked Warnock's now deceased brother Reece, 18, in Port Glasgow in August of 2019.

Sutherland is serving a sentence after being convicted of attempting to murder Mr Warnock.

The court heard how police who had been called to Ms Sutherland's home visited local petrol stations in the town and obtained CCTV footage at BP on Inverkip Road of a taxi driver filling a container with petrol prior to the July 13 incident.

Sergeant Gordon Bell said he relayed the information to colleagues who subsequently stopped the taxi, with registration plate SP59 UXG, on Union Street after it was driven 'slowly' past Ms Sutherland's home.

Footage played in court shows the driver of the taxi, a Skoda, buying glass bottles of Irn Bru before returning to the car and placing the bottles in the front passenger footwell.

The taxi then drives off at 4.03am on the morning of July 13 2020 - 24 minutes before Sergeant Bell received a report of a petrol bombing at Ms Sutherland's Union Street home.

PC Ross McDonald told the court that the driver of the taxi identified himself as Drew Darling.

PC McDonald said: "He advised that he had picked up two males at West Station and said he could smell petrol when they got in the car...he said the males exited at the junction of Kelly Street and Union Street."

Asked by advocate depute Paul Keenan if Darling had mentioned anything about stopping at the BP station on Inverkip Road to fill a container with petrol, the officer replied: "No."

PC McDonald said he found matches in Darling's pocket.

The Crown says the accused men 'did discuss the acquisition of firearms and the shooting of Leonard Cole jnr, Kieran Murphy and others'.

Prosecutors say the alleged petrol bombing plotters engaged in criminal conduct to assault, endanger life, murder and to cause serious damage to the property of relatives and associates of Leonard Cole jnr and Andrew Sutherland.

They are said to have communicated by phone call, text and social media messages, targeted individuals and properties in the town, recruited and attempted to recruit others to join them and offered money and drugs to the deceased George Miller.

It is alleged that petrol bombs were thrown at houses on Union Street and Cumberland Road on July 13 and September 19 last year respectively.

The trial, before Lord Mulholland, is due to continue on Monday.