Almost two years after losing their son in a Sydney shop explosion, Liz and Ross Noble watched as the store owner was found responsible for the blast and convicted of murder.
Members of the Noble family shed tears when Adeel Ahmad Khan was found guilty of murdering 27-year-old Chris Noble by a NSW Supreme Court jury on Friday.
They have vowed to return to court next week to await verdicts on two further murder charges over the deaths of Chris Noble's neighbours, Bianka O'Brien, 31, and her baby son Jude.
Mr Noble lived in the unit above Khan's shop and died along with the O'Briens when an explosion and fire tore through the Rozelle convenience store in the early hours of September 4, 2014.
The jury was unable to agree whether Khan was also guilty of the murders of Mrs O'Brien and Jude and are set to continue deliberations next week.
The panel did agree, however, that Khan was guilty of deliberately destroying his shop for gain, and of causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Noble's flatmate Todd Fisher, and wounding another flatmate, Corey Cameron.
In doing so, the 12 jurors rejected his story that robbers had tied him up for hours, spilled fuel on the shop floor and left shortly before the blaze erupted.
The crown case was that Khan, a married father of three, placed petrol-filled containers around his shop and lit the fire in order to secure an insurance payout and to avoid lease obligations.
Key evidence at the trial was CCTV footage that showed Khan buying 38 litres of fuel and pumping it into containers two nights before the fire.
The shopkeeper was buried under debris in the explosion, which the court heard was so powerful it blew out windows on both sides of the street, sent walls tumbling and shot debris across the road.
He told emergency workers who rescued him he was sorry - an apology the prosecution said was evidence of his guilt, along with a face mask that was found in his pocket.
The jury is set to resume its deliberations on the two outstanding murder charges on Tuesday, after Monday's Queen's Birthday public holiday.
Justice Elizabeth Fullerton has told the panel if they were left in doubt as to whether the murder charges could be proven, they were obliged to consider the question of manslaughter.
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