A SENIOR policeman and his lover sent a series of text messages to each other on the night he allegedly set his car on fire, a court heard.

Chief Superintendent Jim Trotman and his mistress Karin Gray also made a string of phone calls, the jury was told.

Trotman, who now lives in Abingdon, denies one count of arson, one count of perverting the course of justice and two counts of fraud.

Engineer Brian Fisher analysed records of phone conversations made between Mrs Gray’s phone, and both Trotman’s work and personal mobiles on the night of the fire.

Records showed that Mrs Gray began sending messages to Trotman while she was at her home in Boars Hill, and he was in Wallingford watching his daughter perform in a play.

The records showed that Trotman, below, had left the Wallingford area at 9.58pm and travelled towards Mrs Gray’s home, named Woodhouse.

Mr Fisher said the pair had continued to converse via text and mobile calls until 10.25pm when a call was made from Trotman to Mrs Gray from the same mobile phone reception area.

Mr Fisher said that as it was at the top of a hill, Mrs Gray’s home picked up a range of different signals stretching from Oxford, but when the call was made from Trotman both phones were in range of a signal at Boars Hill.

He said: “At 10.16pm, in my view, the mobile was not particularly close to the car fire site because it’s using a different sector of the cell site.

“But the next call at 10.25pm, nine minutes later, was on the next sector round on the cell site which is consistent with the mobile having moved and it is also consistent with it being at the car fire site, and Woodhouse, and in between as well. I can’t tell exactly where.”

The jury at Swindon Crown Court also heard how Trotman had visited a long list of car sale websites on October 19, 2009, the day before the fire broke out.

A police examination of his Internet browsing history dating back to June 2009 showed that he had only started searching for cars on that computer from October 19, although he continued to do so afterwards.

After his family Citroen Picasso C4 was destroyed Trotman purchased an Audi A4 soft top.

Prosecutors claim the father-of-two tried to blame the blaze on his lover’s husband, Ian Gray, a partner at city law firm Eversheds.

Det Sgt Duncan Winn, from the Thames Valley Police’s high-tech crime unit, searched Trotman’s computer records.

“I used analysis tools to break down the Internet use of that computer. I then used key words analysis and activity on October 19. I could find no similar browsing activity in the period before October 19, 2009.”

The trial continues.