Fruit picker had grudge against backpackers - court
A fruit picker who allegedly started a fire at a Australian hostel that killed 15 travellers, including an Irish girl, had ‘‘expressed antagonism to backpackers in general’’ before the blaze, a prosecutor said today.
In his opening address at Brisbane Supreme Court, David Meredith told jurors that Robert Long had deliberately caused the fire.
He said that Long, 38, knew that a fire at the wood-constructed hostel on June 23, 2000 would be damaging and likely to cause fatalities.
The devastating blaze consumed the Palace Backpackers Hostel in Childers, about 190 miles north of Brisbane, on June 23, 2000.
Long, a homeless fruit picker who had been living at the hostel for two months, denies two charges of murder and one of arson in the night-time blaze.
Mr Meredith said: ‘‘When he lit the fire he intended to kill a person or persons unknown. Long lit the fire that burned down the Palace hostel. That amounts to murder.
‘‘He had expressed antagonism before the fire to one person in particular, and had expressed antagonism to backpackers in general.’’
Mr Meredith said the prosecution would ‘‘not be playing up the horror of that night’’ in order to get a conviction.
‘‘Some witnesses you will see (in the coming weeks) may be angry, some may be emotional. We must remain dispassionate.’’
Survivors of the inferno will be giving evidence at the six-week trial in Brisbane, Queensland, and 11 Britons are among 169 witnesses expected to be called by the court.
To shorten the trial, prosecutors have charged Long only with the murders of 27-year-old twins Kelly and Stacey Slarke from Western Australia.
But they have reserved the right to bring additional charges in the other deaths if they fail to prove in this trial that the twins were murdered.
Julie O’Keefe, 24, from Limerick, died in the fire, as did seven Britons, three Australian backpackers, two from the Netherlands and one each from Japan and South Korea. Sixty-nine people survived.
Ms O'Keefe, a graduate of Waterford Institute of Technology, had been travelling around Australia for a year.
She was originally from Raheen in Limerick, but her family had moved to Bray, Co Wicklow.
The judge has warned jurors not to treat Long, an itinerant fruit picker, as a scapegoat.
To accommodate the large numbers of out-of-town witnesses, police have made block bookings at city hotels near the court.
Others will give testimony using video conferencing equipment linking the courtroom with Europe and elsewhere.
Carpenters have built extra benches in the courtroom, which is used mainly for ceremonial purposes and rarely for trials.
Childers, a farming community of 1,500 people, is popular with backpackers who pick fruit and vegetables to finance their travels.
The Palace Hostel was bulldozed last week and there are now plans for a €400,000 monument and tourist centre on the site.
