Rozelle shop owner found guilty of murder after killing three in fire
The man accused of setting fire to his shop in Rozelle in a botched insurance scam has been found guilty of murder, after the blaze claimed three lives.
Adeel Ahmad Khan fronted court on Friday where the verdict was returned over the death of Chris Noble after five days of deliberations.
The court heard the 46-year-old placed as many as 10 containers of fuel around the shop connected by fuel-soaked cloth before setting fire to the store.
Mr Noble, 27, was a resident of a unit above the store and was killed in the fire along with neighbour Bianka O'Brien and her 11-month old baby, Jude.
The jury is still deliberating over another two counts of murder, which relates to deaths of Ms O'Brien and Jude.
The court heard Khan set the blaze in a plot to get out of the business and claim on his insurance policy, which he had been slowly increasing before the incident.
The convenience store exploded on the morning of September 4, 2014 waking Mr Noble upstairs.
From his room, Mr Noble yelled out to his flatmates Todd Fisher and Corey Cameron that he was coming out.
"F***, f***," Mr Noble screamed out to his flatmates while trying to escape.
However, it is believed the explosion blew out windows on both sides of the street, sent walls tumbling and shot debris across the road and jammed Mr Noble's door shut.
With metal bars on his windows, he had no way out.
Mr Noble realised he was trapped and sent his mother a text message at 4.08am saying "I love you" moments after the explosion.
In the next apartment, Ms O'Brien’s badly burned body was found lying across her baby, whom she was trying to protect from the flames.
Khan, 44, was in financial trouble, according to the prosecutor, and acted with reckless indifference to human life when he lit the fatal blaze.
"The accused was so intent on meeting his own needs that he (Khan) was prepared to put at serious risk the lives of any other people who happen to be in the vicinity,” Prosecutor Tedeschi said in court in May.
He was allegedly $373,000 in debt at the time, behind on his rent and at risk of having his power cut off.
The court heard Khan steadily increased the the amount for which the shop was insured from about $170,000 to about $225,000 in September 2014.
The store's electricity was switched off at 2:47am, an hour before the explosion, the court heard.
It is alleged the shopkeeper planned to light the fire from the inside and making a getaway but the blast was so massive he himself became trapped under a fridge.
More to come.