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| Ex-railway worker guilty of arson | Ex-railway worker guilty of arson |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| A former rail worker has been found guilty of one count of arson over a spate of attacks which caused millions of pounds worth of damage to railways. | A former rail worker has been found guilty of one count of arson over a spate of attacks which caused millions of pounds worth of damage to railways. |
| Allan Nicol, 48, from Birmingham, admitted cutting cables and setting fire to signalling equipment in 12 attacks over 17 months in the Midlands. | |
| A jury found he could have put lives at risk when he set fire to a relay room in Staffordshire in 2005. | |
| The jury at Birmingham Crown Court is still deliberating on a second charge. | |
| Nichol denies the charge of reckless criminal damage. | |
| The prosecution claimed the fire in the relay room in Rugeley, which contained signalling equipment, could have caused an explosion. | |
| The court heard Nicol, from Yardley, was angry at the way the railways were run and at being made redundant. | |
| He was arrested after dropping a receipt for a snack at the scene of one fire in Rugeley, Staffordshire, which was started on 3 November 2005. | |
| The vandalism attacks took place in Staffordshire, Warwickshire, the West Midlands and Worcestershire during 2004 and 2005, and had a knock-on effect over a massive area of the rail network. |