Sydney shopkeeper Adeel Khan who deliberately set a deadly explosion inside his shop that killed three people has been jailed for 40 years.
46-year-old Adeel Khan showed no emotion inside the court as Justice Elizabeth Fullerton set a non parole period of 30 years for the death of three people who all perished in the explosion caused by the fire deliberately set by Khan.
In June, a Supreme Court jury found Khan guilty of murder of Chris Noble and manslaughter of Bianka O’Brien and her infant son Jude, who lived in separate units above his shop in Rozelle.
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 of over $400,000 and he wanted to get out of his lease.
Prosecutors also said he wanted to draw on an insurance policy.
Justice Fullerton said the gravity of the sentence had to be in recognition of the fact that there people have been killed, two other injured and property destroyed in a catastrophic fire he deliberately lit for personal financial motives.”
“That he did not anticipate the possibility, or even the certainly of an explosion from the quantity of petrol he dispersed simply beggars belief,” she said in her sentencing remarks.
“(I do not know if it is) Rank ignorance or rank arrogance or a blind determination to pursue his own selfish objectives at any costs, or a combination of all three.
“It constitutes a course of the gravest criminal conduct.”
Khan, who has been in custody for almost two years, will be eligible for release on parole in September 2044, the Daily Telegraph reported.
