A SLOVAKIAN man accused of setting fire to a brothel, putting the lives of two women at risk, has told a jury he was not the man in the CCTV footage and would never do something like that.
Jan Koperdak was giving evidence yesterday on the fourth day of his trial at Derby Crown Court. The 45-year-old denies setting fire to the house in Portland Street, Normanton, by posting a lit piece of paper inside a bottle through the letterbox with the intent to endanger the lives of the two women who lived there. It is alleged that Koperdak, of Goodale Street, Derby, did this only hours after he was abusive to one of the women living in the house after she refused to have sex with him for £3 on August 18.
The arson attack was caught on CCTV as, by coincidence, police were carrying out covert surveillance at the time of the comings and goings at the brothel. The two women told the jury last week they recognised the man to be Koperdak.
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