A TOP policeman set fire to his own car before claiming a love rival had a grudge against him, a jury heard.

Chief Superintendent Jim Trotman’s Citroën C4 Picasso was destroyed in a fire in Boars Hill, near Oxford, on October 20, 2009, in what prosecutors say was a deliberate attempt to implicate the husband of the woman he was having an affair with.

The 45-year-old officer – a former head of Oxford police who was married but separated from his wife at the time – denies arson, perverting the course of justice and two counts of fraudulently claiming insurance.

Opening the prosecution case at Swindon Crown Court yesterday, Fiona Elder said: “Mr Trotman was involved in an affair, a relationship, with a woman named Karin Gray.

“She was also married, to an Ian Gray, and they lived in Bedwells Heath, Old Boars Hill, Oxford.

“On the date of the arson, the prosecution say, Mr Trotman set fire to the car that was registered to him.

“On that evening he went to the home address of Karin Gray, his lover. Ian Gray was away on business.”

Miss Elder outlined timings she said would be crucial.

Trotman, from Abingdon, had parked near woodland in Jarn Way away from the Grays’ house.

The fire started at about 10.20pm.

In his initial statement, Trotman said he had parked up at about 9.45pm.

But Miss Elder said mobile phone records showed text messages between Trotman and Mrs Gray from 9.50pm and 10.33pm.

Analysis also showed Mr Trotman’s phone was travelling from Wallingford to Boars Hill between about 10pm and 10.25pm, jurors heard.

Asked about the text messages, Trotman said he and Mrs Gray would sometimes text each other when they were in her house “because it was a big house”.

Jurors heard Trotman arrived back at the burnt-out car at 11.30pm.

Trotman told police he might know someone with a grievance against him but did not want to reveal the identity in a statement, Miss Elder added.

But he is accused of telling firefighters “the fire might have been caused by his wife or the boyfriend who was a solicitor,” she said.

“The husband of the woman he was seeing at the time was in fact a solicitor... he must have been referring to him.”

Miss Elder added the day before the fire Trotman had been looking up Audi cars on the Internet. He bought an A4 Quattro convertible with his insurance money.

She also said Trotman told a colleague about threatening emails purporting to be from Mr Gray. Investigation found they were from a friend of Mrs Gray.

The trial continues.