A judge has put off passing sentence on a man who blew up his house in Melksham after the arsonist claimed he started the blaze by accident.

Murdo Caskie, who was heavily in debt, admitted starting the fire at his house in Cedar Close but later claimed it only happened when he switched a light on after dousing the property in petrol.

The 44-year-old, whose wife is a nurse, insists a spark must have caused the blast and he had covered the family home in petrol to cause damage and not start a blaze.

A judge will now hear evidence and rule on whether to believe him or the fire report in which is was alleged there were eight locations of fire.

Caskie was having a meal at a pub with wife Anne and teenage son Gary on Tuesday, November 11 last year when he nipped home.

While there he splashed the petrol around inside the house, on which the family had mortgages totalling £244,000.

As he went to leave he claimed he turned on a light accidentally causing the petrol fumes to ignite and the fire to start following an explosion.

He then drove back to the pub leaving home with the car headlights turned off in a bid to avoid being spotted by neighbours.

When the probation service was compiling a pre-sentence report he told them how the fire had started by accident.

He said he had decided to splash the petrol about to cause damage to items in the house like sofas and carpets.

The court heard that he also used rags soaked in the fuel which were later recovered by fire investigators.

Judge Mark Horton, sitting at Swindon Crown Court today, said the case would have to be put off for further expert analysis of the evidence.

He said it was important to find out whether the clothes he was wearing when arrested had been contaminated with smoke or petrol fumes or show that he had changed.

It would also be necessary to see whether the garments had been damaged after being in the blast and if officers who arrested him could smell petrol.

He said there would then be a hearing when all the evidence would be put before a judge, including Caskie telling what happened should he wish, and a ruling of fact being made.

Andrew Eddy, defending, said his client had used petrol to cause damage as it was the first thing that came to hand and would have used paint had he laid his hands on that first.

An earlier hearing was told he was currently living in accommodation provided by NHS Wiltshire as his wife is a nurse.

Caskie, formerly of Cedar Close, Melksham, but now living at The Lodge, Melksham Hospital, pleaded guilty to arson.

He was released on bail on condition he lives at the premises and reports to the police three times a week.