Overview
- The attacks targeted Belle Cheveux in Leith on March 6 and DB Auto Services on Milton Street on March 16, prompting evacuations before firefighters contained the blazes.
- Forensic teams recovered Carlin’s DNA from the salon windowsill and from a white Ford EcoSport used in the garage attack that was stolen in January and later abandoned with false plates on Whitson Way.
- Investigators established that his mobile phone connected to local masts near the salon during the time of the first fire.
- Prosecutors treated both offences as aggravated by links to serious organised crime, noting the salon is part‑owned by the partner of a prominent figure reported in the press as linked to Mark Richardson.
- Carlin was arrested on April 7 under Police Scotland’s Operation Portaledge, appeared by video from HMP Saughton, and is due back at the High Court early next year for sentence before Lord Summers.