Craig Paul Carrington on trial in the District Court at Rockhampton, accused of arson and attempted fraud

The trial of a man accused of deliberately setting fire to his North Rockhampton house before allegedly making an insurance claim on the property has started in the District Court.

Craig Paul Carrington at Rockhampton Courthouse on September 26, 2022.

A man accused of deliberately setting fire to his North Rockhampton house was allegedly inside the property “minutes” before the blaze, a court has heard.

The trial of Craig Paul Carrington, 50, started in the District Court at Rockhampton on Monday, September 26.

Mr Carrington has pleaded not guilty to charges of arson and attempted fraud.

Crown Prosecutor Samantha O’Rourke told the jury on the first day of the trial that on August 8, 2020, a fire started in the kitchen of Mr Carrington’s house in Bedford Street, Berserker.

Ms O’Rourke said neighbours spotted smoke and flames coming out of the kitchen windows and the first Triple Zero call was made at 10.42am.

She said fire crews rushed to the scene and they arrived at 10.49am.

“They managed to get the fire under control a little after 11 that morning,” Ms O’Rourke said.

“The house still stood, but it sustained quite a bit of damage as a result of the fire.”

Ms O’Rourke said Mr Carrington bought the Bedford Street house in 2019.

“He didn’t live in it - he lived elsewhere - and so it stood empty of any occupants,” she said.

“He was still paying off the mortgage on the property.

“He had it insured for $150,000.

“And it was a house that he wanted demolished or removed - told people that’s what he wanted to do.”

Craig Paul Carrington at Rockhampton Courthouse on September 26, 2022.

Ms O’Rourke told the jury that Mr Carrington had been inside the Bedford Street house “minutes” before the fire and the Crown says he “deliberately set fire” to it.

“And then after doing so, he submitted a claim to try and get the insurance money on the property,” Ms O’Rourke said.

Ms O’Rourke said a friend of Mr Carrington’s had called him to tell him about the fire at 10.49am, and when Mr Carrington got that phone call he was in a shop “only 1.7km down the road from his house”.

“That’ll be an accepted fact in this trial,” Ms O’Rourke said.

Ms O’Rourke said police officers arrived at the Bedford Street house shortly after the fire crews.

“When they got there, the defendant wasn’t there but within minutes he arrived on the scene,” Ms O’Rourke said.

The Crown Prosecutor told the jury that two detectives spoke to Mr Carrington at the scene, and the jury would get to hear a number of recordings of those conversations.

“And it’s from those conversations that you’ll glean quite a bit,” Ms O’Rourke said.

“Most importantly, the very real opportunity he had to commit the crime because he tells police that he was at the house that day - tells them that he was there at about 10.25 that morning.

“Tells them that he actually went inside the house and that he had locked the door behind him.”

Ms O’Rourke said Mr Carrington was also interviewed later by an insurance investigator and he repeated that he was at the house that day, had been inside and that he had “left it locked behind him”.

Ms O’Rourke told the jury that during the trial, a fire investigator would tell them that she concluded the fire started in the kitchen.

“And you’ll hear her say that she favours that this, the fire, was from deliberate human intervention,” Ms O’Rourke said.

Ms O’Rourke said the jury would hear that on the day of the fire, police searched Mr Carrington’s car and found a lighter and mosquito coils inside it.

Ms O’Rourke said the jury would see photographs of “some matches inside the house” and photographs of “paint thinners that had been stacked up in the kitchen of an otherwise pretty empty house”.

The trial continues.