Hostel inferno: Police witness tells of 'confession'

A fruit picker accused of starting the hostel fire that killed 15 young backpackers confessed to the crime, claims an Australian police officer.

Members of a police Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) scrawled the confession on the back of a $10 note, one of the officers told Brisbane Magistrates Court.

Robert Paul Long allegedly said: "I am dying anyway, I started that fire," claimed an officer who was identified in court only as "SERT operative number two". He said he wrote the statement on the bill because he did not have a police notebook at the time.

Long's attorney had tried to have the arresting officers barred from giving the testimony anonymously. The state says members of the special unit cannot be identified for security reasons.

Long was shot in the shoulder by the SERT officer on the banks of the Burrum River, five days after fire ripped through the Palace Backpackers Hostel in nearby Childers last June.

He is charged with arson and with the murders of Australian twins, Kelly and Stacey Slarke. Julie O'Keefe, formerly from Limerick, also died in the blaze.

The 22-year-old twins were among six backpackers from Britain, four from Australia, two from the Netherlands and one each from Ireland, South Korea and Japan who died in the fire.

Long, 37, has not been required to enter a plea to the charges. He faces life imprisonment if convicted.

The police claims of a confession came on the last scheduled day of a two-week hearing of evidence. When he has heard the prosecution's case, Magistrate Michael Halliday will decide whether it is strong enough to go to trial.

No decision is expected today.