Prosecutors today built a compelling case against an itinerant fruit picker charged with starting a fire at an Australian hostel that killed 15 young travellers, including a girl from Limerick.

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.

The North’s Security Minister Adam Ingram has said that women and children could have been killed after a hostel was set on fire by teenagers on Belfast’s peaceline.

Unionist politicians were today urged to take action after homeless women and young children were forced to flee a hostel on Belfast’s peaceline.

Loyalists have been blamed for an apparent arson attack which forced 15 families to flee the Belfast hostel in which they were staying.

An arson attack has forced 15 homeless families to flee their Belfast hostel.