A shopkeeper has been found guilty of murder after deliberately lighting a fire in his store in Sydney.  Adeel Khan, 46, had denied murdering Chris Noble, who lived above his Rozelle convenience store, after starting the fire in September 2014 in order to claim insurance and solve his financial problems.  But a jury at the New South Wales supreme court found him guilty on Friday of murdering the 27-year-old mechanic.  Khan, who has three children, stared ahead and showed no emotion when the guilty verdicts were handed down in Sydney.  The jurors also found him guilty of causing grievous bodily harm to Todd Fisher and wounding Corey Cameron, who were both injured in the fire, and dishonestly destroying property by means of fire with a view to gain.  The jury was unable to reach a verdict on whether Khan also murdered Noble’s next-door neighbour, Bianka O’Brien, and her baby boy Jude, who also died in the blaze. The jury will continue its deliberations on Tuesday.  Noble and the O’Briens lived above Khan’s store in Darling Street, and were killed when a large explosion and fire tore through the shop and reduced it to rubble.  Noble is thought to have become trapped in his room and texted his mother “I love you” in his final moments.  Khan was accused during the three-week trial of placing petrol-filled containers around his shop and lighting the fire in order to secure an insurance payout and to avoid lease obligations.  He denied this and testified that robbers had tied him up for hours, spilled fuel on the shop floor and left shortly before the blaze erupted.  Two nights before the fire Khan was filmed on CCTV buying 38 litres of fuel which he pumped into water containers.  Knocked unconscious and buried under rubble in the explosion, Khan told emergency workers who rescued him he was sorry. A face mask was found in his pocket.
Adeel Khan was accused of setting fire to his shop in order to claim insurance but it ended in the deaths of three people living above the store in Rozelle