A man who died in a pre-dawn inferno in his Sydney flat knew he was trapped and in his final moments told his mother he loved her in a text message, a jury has been told.
Chris Noble, 27, was one of three people killed when an explosion and fire broke out in a convenience store below his flat in Rozelle in the early hours of September 4, 2014.
His next-door neighbour, Bianka O'Brien, 31, and her 11-month-old son Jude also lost their lives.
The NSW Supreme Court was told on Monday that shopkeeper Adeel Khan would have known people were probably sleeping above the shop when he set the fire using an elaborate system of petrol containers and wicks.
Khan is now on trial accused of their murders, along with charges relating to injuries suffered in the blaze by Mr Noble's flatmates and a dishonesty offence.
It is the Crown case Khan was under extreme financial pressure and set fire to his shop to secure an insurance payout and cut short his lease.
"The accused was so intent on meeting his own needs and his desire to free himself from the lease obligations and repay his debts, he was prepared to put at serious risk the lives of any other people who happened to be in the vicinity," Senior Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC said in his opening address.
Relatives of the victims wept in the public gallery as Mr Tedeschi described how Ms O'Brien's badly burned body had been found laying across her baby, whom she was trying to protect from the flames.
He said moments after the fire ignited, Mr Noble had yelled out to his flatmates Todd Fisher and Corey Cameron that he was coming out.
However, prosecutors believe the explosion in the shop below - which blew out windows on both sides of the street, sent walls tumbling and shot debris across the road - had jammed the door to Mr Noble's bedroom shut.
With metal bars on his windows, Mr Noble had no way out, Mr Tedeschi said.
"He obviously knew he was trapped and was going to die, because in the few seconds before he was killed ... he sent a text message to his mother saying, `I love you'," he said.
It is alleged Khan planned to light the fire from before making a getaway but the blast was so massive he himself became trapped.
When emergency services arrived, "all that you could see of the accused was his hand, one hand, poking up out of the rubble", Mr Tedeschi said.
At the time, Khan allegedly owed hundreds of thousands of dollars, was behind on his rent and faced having the power cut off.
He had steadily increased the amount for which the shop was insured from about $170,000 to about $225,000 in September 2014, the prosecutor said.
The trial resumes on Tuesday.
Share
