Anger as hostel managers pardoned

THE relatives of backpackers who died in an arson attack at an Australian hostel have hit out at the authorities for failing to prosecute its managers.

Julie O’Keefe, 24, from Limerick, died along with six Britons, four Australians, two Dutch, one Japanese and one South Korean when a fire tore through the overcrowded Palace Backpackers Hostel in Childers, Queensland State, on June 23, 2000.

Itinerant fruit picker Robert Paul Long was sentenced to life in prison in March 2002.