Sydney shopkeeper Adeel Khan has been found guilty of murdering a man who lived above his convenience store in 2014.
The jury accepted that 46-year-old Khan had killed Chris Noble, when he deliberately set fire to his Rozelle shop. The fire killed three people – Chris Noble, Bianka O’Brien and her infant son Jude, who lived in separate units above his Rozelle shop.
During the trial, Police told the court that more than 1,000 hours of CCTV footage from 75 nearby locations was examined as part of the investigation.
The footage did not tally with Khan’s story that armed men had attacked him that night at his shop.
Prosecutors said there were no such men and infact Khan himself had placed petrol-filled containers around his shop, before starting the fire that led to a massive explosion.
It is alleged that Khan had bought petrol days earlier. He had plotted to destroy his shop in a fire because he was in massive debt and he wanted to get out of his lease.
Prosecutors also said he wanted to draw on an insurance policy.
The massive explosion resulting from fire at his shop killed residents living above his convenience store.
Prosecutors alleged Khan knew Mr Noble and two other men were living in the unit directly above his shop and there were people living in the unit above the adjoining mobile phone store.
"He was prepared to accept the real risk of people dying as a result of him setting fire to his shop," crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC said.
While Mr Noble’s two other flatmates escaped the fire, Noble alongwith his two neighbours – a mother and a son duo died in the blast.
The jury is yet to reach a verdict on the deaths of a mother and her baby son who lived in a separate neighbouring unit.
