A CONVICTED arsonist accused of starting a devastating barn fire has told a jury that he has no grudge against a farming family he is said to have threatened to "burn out".

Shaun Traves still denies being responsible for a blaze at the Spilman family's farm in Back Lane, Helperby, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, ten years ago.

Teesside Crown Court heard today that the poultry farmer has three other convictions for arson - two other offences in Helperby and one in nearby Raskelf.

Prosecutor Paul Newcombe put it to the 34-year-old during cross-examination: "You are a dangerous man who likes to go around setting fires when it pleases you, Traves, of Alne Road, Easingwold, replied: "No that's not true."

He pleaded guilty to setting fire to a bag which spread to a front door in March 2007 and a blaze which destroyed a fence and a hedge the following year.

A jury found him guilty of wrecking an allotment shed and contents in 2005, and a Dutch barn and its contents at the Spilmans farm in February 2008.

On September 4 last year, he is said to have been seen walking close to the barn on the same site as the first fire, moments before a blaze engulfed the 50m by 25m building.

The blaze nearly caused an environmental disaster a huge fuel tank ruptured and thousands of litres of diesel flowed through the village to within yards of the River Swale before being stopped.

The court heard £100,000 of hay and farm vehicles were destroyed, 15 concerned residents alerted firefighters, who arrived at the farm to find a fire so intense they could only contain the scene, before spending ten hours extinguishing the flames.

Mr Newcombe said hours earlier Traves had been described as being "wasted" in the Golden Lion pub, just 100 yards from the scene of the fire, and repeatedly approached farmer Tom Spilman and claimed he was not responsible for the fire in 2006.

Traves admitted drinking about 16 pints and being "paralytic drunk" and "unsteady on my feet" when he was questioned in the witness box by Mr Newcombe.

He denied having a split personality in drink or being a Jekyll and Hyde character, and told his barrister, Lorraine Harris, that the two fires he admitted were both pranks.

Traves could not explain what started the latest blaze, but Miss Harris said it could not be ruled out that it was a Chinese lantern or hay combusting.

"You just can't help yourself can you, and you will go on this way, won't you, unless you are stopped?" asked Mr Newcombe. Traves answered: "I have made two mistakes in my life and I have paid for them."

Mr Newcombe added: "Is the village plagued by Chinese lanterns floating overhead, or hay bales bursting into flames like something from The X-Files?" Traves replied: "I don't know."

The trial continues.