Son charged with murder over man's death in Sydney house fire
A 50-year-old man has been charged with murdering his 80-year-old father in a Sydney house fire yesterday morning.
Emergency services were called to Irrara Street in Croydon just after 4am on Wednesday, to find a house well alight.
Fire and Rescue crews extinguished the blaze and found the body of 80-year-old Ted Grantham, a local pastor, inside the ruined home.
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Ted Grantham (left) died in a house fire yesterday morning. Nine
Christopher Grantham was arrested yesterday. NSW Police
Later yesterday morning, police appealed for public help to find his son, 50-year-old Christopher Grantham, who also lived at the house.
Police were later told a man had allegedly threatened staff with a machete before taking cigarettes at a service station on Parramatta Road, Haberfield, at about 4.20am yesterday.
Grantham was arrested on a Central Coast-bound train at Woy Woy, north of Sydney, at about 7.40pm overnight.
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The blaze collapsed the house roof. 9News
Police allege they found a machete concealed in the man's pants.
Superintendent Christine McDonald said police had been informed the man was on the train and had officers waiting when it stopped at Woy Woy.
The 50-year-old was charged with offences including murder, domestic violence-related destruction of property with the intent to endanger life, and armed robbery.
He was refused bail and will appear in court today.
Police on the scene in Croydon yesterday. Kate Geraghty
McDonald said police believed accelerant had been used to start the fire, and that no other person had been involved.
However, she claimed Christopher Grantham had texted several people after the fire broke out, and that police were speaking to them.
Police are currently working through CCTV to determine Christopher Grantham's movements before the fire.
A third woman who lived with Ted and Christopher Grantham at the address left the home at 1am yesterday, several hours before the fire.
McDonald, who described the woman as "elderly", said she had been assisting police with inquiries, but that the reason the woman left the house is unknown.
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