Drifter gets life for backpackers’ hostel blaze

A drifter who started a blaze that ripped through an Australian backpackers’ hostel, killing 15 young holidaymakers, including a Limerick woman, was today sentenced to life imprisonment.

Robert Long, 38, was convicted on Friday of murdering two of the backpackers who perished in the inferno that engulfed the Palace Backpackers Hostel in Childers, a farming community 190 miles north of Brisbane, on June 23, 2000.

Presiding judge Justice Peter Dutney described the blaze as the worst case of arson in Queensland state history.

He said Long would have to serve a minimum of 20 years in prison without parole.

Long also was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment - to be served concurrently - for arson.

Long looked straight ahead and said nothing as sentence was passed at Brisbane Supreme Court.

He left the court to begin his sentence without looking back at his parents who sat behind him throughout the three-week trial.

The Irish woman who died in the fire was Julie O’Keefe, 24, from Limerick.

The Britons who also died were Mike Lewis, 25, from Bristol; Gary Sutton, 24, from Bath; Sarah Williams, 23, from Aberfan, South Wales; Natalie Morris, 28, from Cefn Coed, South Wales; and Melissa Smith, 26, from Thatcham, Berks, Claire Webb, 24, and Adam Rowland, 19, from England.