MELBOURNE - A former volunteer fireman accused of lighting a Black Saturday fire that claimed 10 lives told a number of lies to cover up his crime, prosecutors say.
Brendan James Sokaluk, 42, admitted to police he started the fire but said it happened accidentally when ash dropped out his car window, the Victorian Supreme Court heard yesterday.
The 36,000-hectare fire near Churchill in Victoria's east ``wrought vast destruction'', destroying 156 homes and claiming 10 lives.
Prosecutors allege Mr Sokaluk told different lies to different people about why he was in the Glendonald Road area on February 7, 2009 - the day of the fire.
Mr Sokaluk's Holden sedan broke down on the road near where the fire is said to have started.
He told one person he was on his way to a wedding, while he told others he was visiting a friend in the area.
Some days later Mr Sokaluk contacted Crime Stoppers to say he saw a Department of Sustainability and Environment fireman light the fire, the court heard.
But Mr Sokaluk's barrister Jane Dixon, SC, said her client, who has autism, was an easy person to blame for the fire, which may not have been deliberately lit.
Mr Sokaluk, who was a CFA volunteer from 1987 to 1988, has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of arson causing death.
The trial before Justice Paul Coghlan continues tomorrow.
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