A man has appeared in court charged with murder following a fatal house fire in Sydney. An 80-year-old man was found dead after the blaze at Croydon in the city's inner west.
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00:00Police arrested 50-year-old Christopher Grantham in Woiwoi on the central coast overnight after the fatal house fire in Croydon yesterday morning, which left an 80-year-old man dead.
00:15Now, police at first thought that Mr Grantham was unaccounted for, but throughout the day yesterday, that quickly turned into an appeal for him to come forward to assist them in investigations into this fatal house fire.
00:28Police managed to track Mr Grantham along public transport up to the central coast and arrested him in Woiwoi.
00:36Police had been made aware that a man had gone into a petrol station in Haberfield just after emergency services had been called to that house fire in Croydon.
00:46He'd allegedly gone into that petrol station and threatened staff with a machete and then stolen a packet of cigarettes.
00:53Now, when police arrested Mr Grantham in Woiwoi overnight, they alleged that he also had a machete on him.
01:01He's now been charged with murder alongside another two offences.
01:06Now, this crime has really shocked the community of Croydon in Sydney's inner west, and police say that they've had a lot of people reaching out to them to express their shock about the death of the 80-year-old man.
01:19I have received so many messages from community members in relation to him.
01:24I am of the understanding that he was such a beautiful person, a great community man.
01:30He was part of a church.
01:32He played the piano.
01:33He was a teacher.
01:34There are far and wide consequences to this investigation.
01:38This is a tragic crime that will now play out in the courts.
01:42He's like, hey, yeah, it's like what I said before.
02:00I talked to the police and I'm talking about cheeses and the people of the parents.