A BLACK basque and leather clothing was found in the burnt out car belonging to a police chief accused of a love triangle arson attack, a jury heard yesterday.

Chief Superintendent Jim Trotman had been visiting his mistress when his car was found ablaze.

The senior policeman blamed travellers or local arsonists for the blaze, but was arrested by colleagues who accused him of torching his own vehicle to frame the lawyer husband of the woman he was having an affair with.

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

Yesterday, scenes-of-crime detective Richard Whitehouse told the jury considering the case against the 45-year-old father-of-two, that he searched Trotman’s car after the suspicious blaze.

In the front seat passenger footwell Mr Whitehouse said he found a woman’s black basque and leather clothing which had either been a skirt or leather trousers.

When asked by defence QC John Beggs about what he had found in the car, Mr Whitehouse said: “I was unsure if it was part of a skirt or trousers, but there was a basque.

“I found a memory card and a case to a Wii. They were all in the front inside footwell.”

Later Mr Beggs went over the list of retrieved items with Mr Whitehouse.

He said: “In getting in the vehicle you found a digital camera, a memory card, the Wii case and the remains of what you recorded as a black basque and leather, or leather-look trousers.”

Mr Whitehouse responded: “Yes, they were wet and damaged by fire.”

Trotman is accused of torching his Citroen C4 Picasso, claiming for it on insurance and keeping quiet when the husband of his mistress was arrested for setting the car on fire.

The ex-Marine, who has been suspended from Thames Valley Police on full pay, told police investigating the car fire that a green petrol can had been in the car when he left it parked in a street a short distance from where his girlfriend, Karin Gray, lived in Boars Hill, Oxford, on the night of October 20, 2009.

However, the can was not seized by scenes-of-crime officers until November 2 after it was found in woodland close to the car.

Later forensic examinations revealed that petrol had been found in the back passenger area of the car – likely to be the area where the fire had started.

The trial at Swindon Crown Court continues.