Adeel Khan guilty of murder over Rozelle shop explosion

A SHOP proprietor has been found guilty of deliberately setting his store alight and murdering the young man who lived upstairs.

A ROZELLE shop proprietor has been found guilty of deliberately setting the convenience store alight and murdering the young man who lived upstairs.

Adeel Ahmad Khan, 46, was today found guilty of the murder of Christopher Noble, as well as causing grievous bodily harm to his two flatmates Todd Fisher and Corey Cameron and destroying property.

But the jury of 12 is still deliberating on the murder charges stemming from the death of mother Bianka O’Brien and her infant son Jude, who were also killed when the inferno swept through their Darling Street apartments in the early hours of September 4, 2014.

Adeel Ahmad Khan is led out of a prison van . Picture: AAP

Khan pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court to all charges, and told the jury that three armed robbers broke into the store, tied him up and later set the fire.

But the Crown allege that Khan had deliberately started the blaze because he was facing debts of almost $400,000 and had unsuccessfully tried to sell the struggling business.

CCTV footage captured Khan buying almost 40 litres of petrol from a Croydon Park BP service station three days before the fire.

He told the jury in evidence that he left petrol containers in the store because of a “a strong smell” in the car, having wanted to keep almost 40 litres in spare fuel while he tested how long he could drive for once his fuel gauge started flashing.

Rozelle fire victim Chris Noble (right) with mother Liz.

CCTV footage of Adeel Ahmad Khan at a BP service station.

A virtual 3D recreation of the Rozelle explision site.

Under questioning from his barrister Luke Brasch, Khan outright denied being responsible for causing the deadly inferno.

“Did you light or somehow deliberately cause the explosion and subsequent fire to the store?” Mr Brasch asked.

“No, I did not,” Khan replied.

He told the court he was in the store after 11pm on September 3 when two of the men, later followed by a third, came into the store and bought cigarettes.

“I opened the cash register to get change, and then (one of them) told me he had a gun,” Khan told the jury.

“I was shocked, I told them not to do anything and I would co-operate. He asked me to turn off the lights.”

Victim... baby Jude

Victim... Bianka O'Brien.

Khan said that the men later forced him into the storeroom, and at times covered his eyes and left him unable to see.

“I could smell the strong smell of the petrol. I realised it was the petrol (he bought a few days earlier)...I was so scared. I thought they might want to kill me. He told me they are going to burn the store...I thought they were going to kill me. I started begging.”

The court heard from Khan that he managed to untie his hands and uncover his eyes, and attempt to make a run for the door.

“I was heading toward that door to get out of the situation...I don’t know where I was but I heard a blast....After some time I got conscious and I heard the voice of the fire brigade.”

He told the jury that he said “sorry, I’m so sorry” to the fire brigade because “I was feeling sorry about putting their lives in danger to save me, I was feeling sorry about the situation they were in to save my life.”

Senior Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC said in his closing submissions to the jury that “not even the dumbest robbers” would instigate a crime like that.