DETECTIVES probing a series of petrol bombings in Greenock pieced together the movements of a suspect car from CCTV footage — including video shot from a police station.

Images were captured of a Rover 45 from a variety of vantage points in the town — and in Glasgow — as part of the major Operation Tell investigation, the High Court heard yesterday.

Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) photos from the Asda supermarket in Govan were also used to identify the vehicle believed to have been used during an attack on the home of a six-year-old child in Larkfield, a jury was told.

The car was also filmed by a colour CCTV camera located at Govan police office, the court heard.

Detective Constable Stephen Solomon agreed with advocate depute Paul Kearney KC, prosecuting, that clips viewed in isolation would not positively identify the car but do so 'when taken as a whole'.

The court was told that the vehicle seen on each of the pieces of CCTV footage is the 'same vehicle'.

DNA from accused men Cain Carr and Kieran McAnally, as well as from a man named as Kyle McFarlane, was recovered from the interior of the Rover car.

Mobile phone numbers belonging to accused men Robert Warnock, 26, Cain Carr, 23, and Lee Heron, 25, were in contact with each other around the time of the petrol bombing of a house on Cumberland Road on September 19 of 2020.

A number belonging to Kyle McFarlane and one belonging to a phone recovered from the Rover 45 were in communication with Warnock's number as well, the court heard.

Accused man Craig McFarlane, 26, has a brother called Kyle McFarlane.

Inverclyde Council's Invervision cameras, as well as privately-operated CCTV from shops including Chow's Chinese takeaway and McColl's newsagents on Inverkip Road were used in compiling the video evidence.

Other footage came from cameras situated at Lady Alice Primary School, St Patrick's Primary School, River Clyde Homes cameras at Nile Street and Whinhill Court and the Affordable Luxuries shop on Regent Street.

The court heard that the Rover vehicle was being driven in the 'general direction' of Cumberland Road.

One clip showed what appeared to be the car's brake lights being activated as it neared the address on Cumberland Road which was petrol bombed.

DC Solomon, a member of the Serious and Organised Crime Team based at Paisley, arrested Craig McFarlane on suspicion of attempted murder on November 5, 2020 in relation to a petrol bomb attack on a flat on Union Street on July 13 that year.

He later arrested Cain Carr and cautioned and charged him with attempted murder in relation to the petrol bombing of the Cumberland Road house, and colleagues took a sample of Carr's DNA.

The court heard that data regarding the number of calls made among the accused men is not accurate.

Gary Allan KC, for Lee Heron, put it to Mr Middleton: "You have included calls in your report which may not have been made."

Mr Middleton replies: "The content is artificially higher, however, the pattern of travel is nonetheless accurate."

Robert Warnock, 26, is said to have conspired with Craig McFarlane, 26, Brendan O'Donnell, 24, Drew Darling, 28, Kieran McAnally, 26, Cain Carr, 23, and Lee Heron, 25, to murder Leonard Cole snr and Rosaleen Sutherland, as well as five other people — including a six-year-old girl — at addresses on Union Street and Cumberland Road.

The trial, before Lord Mulholland, continues.