Childers: Long 'had hatred of backpackers'
Robert Long, who was found guilty today of murder and arson by a jury in Brisbane, Australia, made little attempt to conceal his growing hatred of backpackers in the weeks leading up to the fire at a crowded Australian hostel that killed 15 young travellers.
Limerick woman Julie O'Keeffe was one of the 15 victims of the blaze started by Long in the Palace Hostel in Childers, Queensland.
The 38-year-old, described by police as a ‘‘drifter’’, became increasingly hostile towards the young fruit-pickers staying at the Palace Hostel in Childers, Queensland.
He threatened to kill one Indian man, with whom he shared a room, after accusing him of stealing his money and told a local resident that ‘‘if the locals didn’t start bashing some of these backpackers to drive them out of town’’, he would oblige.
At one point, he was even overheard saying words to the effect of: ‘‘I’m going to burn this place down’’ while talking to a guest in the reception area of the hostel.
Long, a slightly built, diminutive figure with a distinctive bushy beard, had gone to the country town of Childers for the same reason as the backpackers - to earn money picking fruit and vegetables in the fertile fields near the town.
He stayed at the hostel for three months, sleeping on the couch in the lounge, and left a week before the fire. Apparently, he owed the hostel rent.
But witnesses said they saw Mr Long at the hostel on the night of the fire pouring liquid into a rubbish bin in the television lounge - where the fire was believed to have started - with ‘‘a smile on his face’’.
After a five-day manhunt police tracked Long to bushland near Childers and a struggle ensued during which he was shot.
The trial heard how when Long thought the wound was fatal, he told them: ‘‘I’m dying anyway. I started that fire.’’
An officer scribbled the confession on a 10 Australian dollar note.
During the trial Long was painted as a troubled, attention-seeking man and prosecution lawyers produced two suicide notes allegedly penned by him.
In one, he wrote in red ink: ‘‘I’m going to take my own life due to the fact that I’ve got cancer of the lungs.’’
He left another, with the message ‘‘I want to die’’ scrawled in capital letters, on the counter of a pub he regularly frequented.
Long’s lawyers had argued he could not receive a fair trial in the provincial town of Bundaberg because, after he was arrested, one resident told local television Mr Long should be strung up from a telegraph pole and a fire lit beneath him.
He denied arson and two specimen counts of murder, but halfway through the trial he admitted parts of the prosecution’s case and said he was aware when he left Childers that the hostel had been destroyed by fire.
