A municipal worker has been charged with arson after a fire in a city golf course clubhouse meant to be used for homeless people apparently started intentionally.
British news agency Press Association reported Thursday that City of London employee Craig McTavish, 40, who was employed at the Britannia Golf Club in Wimbledon, London, was charged by police.
The fires happened after officials decided to stop using the clubhouse for winter shelter, and organizers moved the shelter to an airy open space beneath a golf course parking lot, bringing in 200 extra homeless people.
The golf course clubhouse used to be an emergency shelter during the winter.
City council members were preparing to approve plans to close the clubhouse, and fears of what would happen to the homeless people living there rose in early April.
But Pubes said this week that the clubhouse and the area underneath its flag pole may be reopened for a winter shelter.
Scottish-born McTavish told the Press Association earlier this month he had never smoked, drunk or been in trouble before he’d been hired by the city in 2013.
He pleaded not guilty Thursday and a trial is scheduled for Sept. 25.
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